The United States, Western Europe, and Out‐of‐Area Disputes, 1945–1975
The United States, Western Europe, and Out‐of‐Area Disputes, 1945–1975
The US and the Western European countries certainly had their differences over various European questions, but all debate took place against the background of a Soviet threat that disturbed the entire ‘free world’ and a NATO framework that had been established to deal with this threat. However, disagreements over out‐of‐area disputes (i.e. disputes outside the area covered by core Article 5 of the NATO treaty) between the US and many Western European countries were even more frequent and the common framework much weaker. At the beginning of the post‐war period, the US definitely saw itself as an anti‐colonial power, and its strong anti‐colonial views spurred progress towards independence not only for India and other British colonial territories, but also for those of other European colonies. The different sections of this chapter look at the changing nature of America's colonial policy, particularly in the face of prospects that communists might take control of a former European territory, and at its increasing role in other out‐of‐area questions, over the period 1945–1975. The areas discussed are East Asia (French Indo‐china, China, and the Korean and Vietnamese wars), the Middle East, and Southern Africa and Cuba. In addition a whole separate section is devoted to the Vietnam conflict, and another to the various disputes that led the Nixon administration to pronounce 1973 the ‘Year of Europe’ in an effort to bring the US and Western Europe close after a period of dispute that had involved, in particular, American support to Israel.
Keywords: America's colonial policy, American–Western European relations, anti‐colonialism, china, conflict, Cuba, disputes, East Asia, European colonies, French Indo‐china, Israel, Korea, Korean War, Middle East, NATO, out‐of‐area disputes, Southern Africa, US, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Western Europe, Year of Europe 1973
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