Harold Wilson and European Integration: Britain's Second Application to Join the EEC

by Daddow,Oliver J.

• ISBN13: 9780714682075
• ISBN10: 0714682071
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-09-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Harold Wilson's direction of the second British application to join the EEC is ripe for reinterpretation. During the period of Wilson's first Labour administrations, October 1964-April 1966 and April 1966-June 1970, executive policy-making in Britain became legendary for its supposed opaqueness and intrigue. They are remebered not least for the volume of scandal and in-fighting among a talented but reckless group of ministers, numbering among them a "Machiavellian" Prime Minister in Wilson, a "drunken neurotic" in George Brown, and the highly influential and vocal diarists Tony Benn, Barbara Castle and Richard Crossman. On top of all this, the 1960s saw a plethora of domestic and foreign-policy crises. There remains a fundmental question to be answered: why did Wilson, faced with massive political problems following the April 1966 election, apply to join the EEC while de Gaulle remained dominant in Paris and there was no sign that his position on British "readiness" to enter Europe had changed? This hasvexed historians of the Wilson years. Some have attempted to explain the bid in terms of the premier's Machiavellian cunning. Others have explained the application in the context of Wilson's obsessions with domestic popularity. Yet more put the bid down to a desperate attempt to stave off potential leadership contests from "Europeans" in the cabinet. With new and revealing material now available in the Public Record Office and abroad, this volume reconsiders Wilson's motivations, contextualizing them in light of evidence on foreign policy-making contained in the offical record.

Author Biography

Oliver J. Daddow is a Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King's College London, at the Joint Services Command and Staff College

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	vii
Foreword by Baroness Williams of Crosby	x
Acknowledgements	xiv
List of Abbreviations	xv
Introduction: The Historiography of Wilson's Attempt to Take Britain into the EEC	1	(38)
Oliver J. Daddow
PART I: THE DOMESTIC CONTEXT
The Labour Party, Public Opinion and the `Second Try' in 1967	39	(17)
Anne Deighton
The Conservatives and the Wilson Application	56	(19)
Philip Lynch
Gone Native: The Foreign Office and Harold Wilson's Policy Towards the EEC, 1964-67	75	(20)
Helen Parr
Technological Cooperation in Wilson's Strategy for EEC Entry	95	(20)
John W. Young
The Confederation of British Industry and European Integration in the 1960s	115	(20)
Neil Rollings
PART II: THE EXTERNAL CONTEXT
A Short-Term Defeat: The Community Institutions and the Second British Application to Join the EEC	135	(16)
N. Piers Ludlow
John Bull v. Marianne, Round Two: Anglo-French Relations and Britain's Second EEC Membership Bid	151	(21)
Anthony Adamthwaite
Dealing with de Gaulle: Anglo-American Relations, NATO and the Second Application	172	(16)
James Ellison
From Imperial Power to Regional Powers: Commonwealth Crises and the Second Application	188	(23)
Philip Alexander
`We Too Mean Business': Germany and the Second British Application to the EEC, 1966-67	211	(16)
Katharina Bohmer
Ireland and Britain's Second Application to Join the EEC	227	(16)
Jane Toomey
Conclusion: The Ironies of `Successful Failure'	243	(10)
Peter Catterall
Appendix I: Labour Cabinet Members, October 1964--June 1970	253	(4)
Appendix II: Chronology of European Integration and the British Approach, 1964-70	257	(6)
Bibliography	263	(20)
Index	283