The Crisis of the Western Alliance

The Western alliance has ceased to be an instrument for policies to be pursued in common by its members. A tour dhorizon of the world scene presents a shocking picture of disintegration. There is not a single of the outstanding issues of world politics on which all members of the alliance see eye to eye. The United States stands alone in its policies vis-a-vis China, South Vietnam, and Cuba. The United States stands also alone in its policies concerning trade with the Communist nations. Great Britain, on the one hand, and West Germany and France, on the other, have taken contradictory positions with regard to Berlin. As concerns the German question as a whole and the overall relations between the West and the Soviet Union, irreconcilable divergencies of interest and policies have made abstention from initiative and a passive commitment to the status quo the order of the day. Greece and Turkey have been on the brink of war over Cyprus. In Africa, the allies go their separate ways Portugal, in particular, stands virtually alone. The policies of the United States and France toward the United Nations are diametrically opposed. A similar cleavage separates France from the United States and Great Britain in the field of disarmament. As concerns military strategy and the policies implementing it, the United States is at loggerheads with its major European allies on two basic. questions the role of conventional forces and the disposition of nuclear weapons.