220. Telegram From the Embassy in France to the Department of State1
7885. During my call at the Elysee today I asked De Gaulle if there was anything he could tell me as to his view of France’s relationship to the Alliance and NATO in the coming years. He said he envisaged France’s relations with NATO becoming “more and more difficult” as time passed. He said the organization of the Alliance had been set up to deal with the threat of war but it was not to be expected that this semi-state of mobilization could be carried on when the threat of war was visibly diminishing. However, he said that France would remain in the Alliance since the danger had not been totally eliminated, and there was also he added the question of Germany: it was preferable to have Germany inside a Western Alliance. In his view however he felt that NATO as an organization would be progressively weakened as time passed and as the danger receded. He repeated when I raised again the question that France had no intention of withdrawing as matters now stood in the world.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 4 NATO. Secret; Exdis. Repeated to London and Bonn.↩