An interesting article indeed.... Keep in mind though that, at the time, we were deep in the thick of the Cold War and Europe per se didn't mean anything --you were either dealing with Western Europe or Eastern Europe.
Furthermore, in the aftermath of WWII, Communist parties were very popular throughout Western Europe --hence the so-called strategy of tension implemented by the CIA and its European liege outfits. I think that the building of a unified European community was viewed as a valuable ideological challenger to the Communist Utopia. Americans, together with Europe's clerico-fascists and other right-wing lobbies (e.g. Gladio) devised the European thrust as a grandiose raison d'être held out to the peoples of Europe.
Up to 1989, such a common endeavour worked all right: the EEC thrived and expanded on an anti-Soviet/Communist basis, as the junior partner of that great Western Alliance.... So, subservient issues such as libertarian economics, America's cultural hegemon (Hollywood, etc.), multiracialism, corporate governance à la Yankee, unfettered immigration and other sensitive topics had to be left on the "back burner" because on each of the aforenamed issues there was a deep mismatch between the US worldview and (Western) Europe's. Hence, the best strategy for the western mouthpieces was to make Europe ape Uncle Sam so as to take a united stand against Uncle Joe (ie USSR). And accordingly, Europe's been showed off as a paragon of democracy, a liberal, equal-opportunity society, a meritocratic labor market, and an altogether early-adopter-minded business activity. And the snag is, Europe is none of that --hence the current backlash....
Gus. |
