Richard M. Nixon and European Integration

This book re-examines the Nixon administrations attitude and approach to the European integration project. The formulation of US policy towards European integration in the Nixon presidential years (1969-1974) was conditioned by the perceived relative decline of the United States, Western European emergence and competition, the feared Communist expansionism, and US national interests. Against that backdrop, the Nixon administration saw the need to re-evaluate its policy on Western Europe and the integration process on this continent. Underpinning this study is the extensive use of newly-released archival materials from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, the Library of Congress, and the State Department. Furthermore, the work is based on the public papers in the American Presidency Project and the materials on the topic of European integration and unification in the Archive of European Integration. Finally, the study has extensively used newspaper archives as well as thedeclassified online documents, memoirs and diaries of former US officials. Mining these sources made it possible to shed new light on the complexity and dynamism of the Nixon administrations policy towards European integration.

Joseph M. Siracusa is Professor of Human Security and International Diplomacy at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia.

Hang Nguyen Thuy is Visiting Scholar at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and Senior Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Vietnam.

1. Introduction.- 2. U.S. and European Integration Prior to 1968: An Overview.- 3. Foreign Policy Making and U.S. Vision of European Integration in Nixon-Era.- 4. The Nixon Administration, the New Age and European Integration.- 5. The Nixon Administrations Initiatives on Europe and European Integration Process.- 6. U.S.-EC Relations, 1969-1974: Cooperation and Confrontation.- 7. U.S. Policy toward European Integration, 1969 - 1974: Continuing Patterns.