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Edward Heath In January 1963 we had three weeks to complete the negotiations. At the end of the first week, I had lunch in Paris with Couve de Murville. He said everything was straight ahead. Later I saw [U.S. Under Secretary of State] George Ball, who had come over from Washington to meet with the French and use any influence he had, if necessary. I told him about our optimistic meeting, and he said he had heard exactly the same thing. The following Monday I was in Brussels for more negotiations. Just before lunch, one of the civil servants came in and said De Gaulle had held this press conference at which he announced that he was vetoing our application. We were all astonished. The Germans said Adenauer was going to meet De Gaulle before the end of the week. We said, "Get Adenauer to press De Gaulle to reverse his decision." But I very much doubt that Adenauer did, even though he told his people he did. He didn't want to spoil a perfectly good meeting with De Gaulle in which they were celebrating the relationship between their two countries.
People in Britain were very upset at the idea of being vetoed by General De Gaulle. If we had become members then, we would have been able to take part in all the developments that followed. PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISTIAN VIOVIARD-FRANK SPOONER/GAMMA LIAISON |
