CRISIS: THE LOSS OF EUROPE

by Charles A. Cerami ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 29, 1974

This analysis of American relations with the European Economic Community by the Foreign Affairs Editor of the Kiplinger Publications is an example of the conservative niggardliness, hubris and myopia that made this country great but guilty. The last decade's undivided attention to containing communism in Vietnam, Cerami contends, led to the ""loss"" of our alliance with Europe -- not only the largest trading bloc in the world but also our military buffer from the ""menace"" of Russia. Ungrateful, those Europeans -- especially since the Common Market itself is the ""brainchild"" of an internal memorandum prepared in the U.S. foreign aid agency, in 1949. Now, as if the lopsidedness of our balance of payments weren't bad enough, our paranoid policy makers must contend with the threat of the emergence of a United States of Europe as a separate superpower, or with the possibility of an out-and-out trade war with the EEC. Cerami calls for the ""enlightened self-interest"" of cooperation between Atlantic nations to control trade patterns -- in particular, to keep those upstart Arabs in line. All emerging nations must learn the limits of growth, he suggests, and labor must desist from the ""pernicious"" demand for full employment. The world's resources cannot provide a high living standard for everyone, realistically speaking; and politically speaking, ""power to dictate supply and price policies will revert to the modern world and especially to the USA."" We have the weapons, warns Cerami. Above all, we have Henry K., who, according to one high-placed source, ""holds the future of European unity in the palm of his hand."" Cerami's balance-of-power scheme for retrieving our top-dog ascendancy is shrewd and ugly -- but no more so than any of Washington's other recent calculated risks.

Pub Date: Jan. 29, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION