Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 On Whose Shoulders? German Rearmament and the Cold War Burden
- 2 The British “New Look” and Anglo-German Relations
- 3 Adenauer and “Perfidious Albion”: Troop Reductions, Support Costs, and the Integration of Europe, 1957-1959
- 4 The Radford Plan: America and Its Troops in Germany, 1955-1958
- 5 The Political Economy of U.S. Troop Stationing in Europe
- 6 Offset and Monetary Policy During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1962
- 7 The Bargain Slowly Unravels: Offset, Troop Reductions, and the Balance of Payments, 1962-1965
- 8 The Culmination of the Burden-Sharing Conflict: Chancellor Erhard’s Visit to Washington in September 1966
- 9 The Trilateral Negotiations of 1966-1967
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Adenauer and “Perfidious Albion”: Troop Reductions, Support Costs, and the Integration of Europe, 1957-1959
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 On Whose Shoulders? German Rearmament and the Cold War Burden
- 2 The British “New Look” and Anglo-German Relations
- 3 Adenauer and “Perfidious Albion”: Troop Reductions, Support Costs, and the Integration of Europe, 1957-1959
- 4 The Radford Plan: America and Its Troops in Germany, 1955-1958
- 5 The Political Economy of U.S. Troop Stationing in Europe
- 6 Offset and Monetary Policy During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1962
- 7 The Bargain Slowly Unravels: Offset, Troop Reductions, and the Balance of Payments, 1962-1965
- 8 The Culmination of the Burden-Sharing Conflict: Chancellor Erhard’s Visit to Washington in September 1966
- 9 The Trilateral Negotiations of 1966-1967
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
anglo german discord
In May 1959 the British ambassador to NATO, Frank Roberts, reported a quip by Konrad Adenauer he had picked up from his German colleague, Herbert Blankenhorn. Allegedly, Adenauer remarked that he now had two main enemies: England and his own Foreign Office. Whatever the source of this quote, it was typical of the state of affairs between Britain and West Germany in 1959. It seemed as if the conflicts of the previous years and all the fundamental differences in policy matters suddenly converged, culminating in a tense meeting between Harold Macmillan and Adenauer at the end of the year. Numerous disagreements, whether they were about East-West relations, disarmament, the Free Trade Area (FTA), or support costs, were inextricably linked and reinforced each other to produce a postwar low in Anglo-German relations.
After the war the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic seemed to develop much more auspiciously than Franco-German relations. However, Bonn and London never achieved the degree of collaboration that characterized the dealings between Bonn and Paris. This proved to be particularly harmful to Britain's attempts between 1957 and 1963 to work toward a form of European integration consistent with its basic foreign policy objectives. British politicians were slow to acknowledge that London's European policy had become dependent on German support.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Money and SecurityTroops, Monetary Policy, and West Germany's Relations with the United States and Britain, 1950–1971, pp. 69 - 86Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002