An American View of European Union*

Arthur N. Holcombe

American Political Science Review, 1953, vol. 47, issue 2, 417-430

Abstract: The official American policy regarding a United Europe has developed rapidly since the end of World War II and has already gone far toward committing the United States to the establishment of a European Union of some kind. The first important overt act in this development was the declaration of policy in the Economic Cooperation Act of 1948. One purpose of this legislation, Congress declared, was “to encourage these countries [that is, European participants in the Marshall Plan] through a joint organization to exert sustained common efforts as set forth in the report of the Committee on European Economic Cooperation, signed at Paris on September 22, 1947.” With this encouragement the Organization for European Economic Cooperation was soon effected. The next step was to extend the area of American interest from the economic to the military field. One of the purposes of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 was “to achieve international peace and security through the United Nations so that armed force shall not be used except in the common interest.” This legislation led eventually to the effort to organize a European Defense Community capable of playing an important role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A further step was the Mutual Security Act of 1951, which declared American policy to be “to further encourage the economic unification and the political federation of Europe.” Thus the American government finally became involved in the projected establishment of a constitution for a United States of Europe.

Date: 1953
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