U.S. Helped Europe Unite

Washington, D.C. On Friday, May 1, the leaders of 25 European nations inaugurated the enlarged European Union (E.U.) in the Irish capital of Dublin, with a flag-raising ceremony set to the strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the European anthem. On Saturday May 29, the National World War II Memorial will be dedicated here in Washington, D.C., on the Mall's central axis.

The two events, although 3,700 miles apart, are inseparably intertwined. The sacrifices of America's veterans of World War II, billions of American taxpayer dollars, and decades of patient efforts by American facilitators and mediators decisively contributed to Europe's rise from the ashes of its internecine wars. Although Americans do not sit in the European Union's governing councils, the United States, more than any European power, made today's European union and prosperity possible.

America's entry into the war in 1941 marked the beginning of the ultimate destruction of both the Nazi regime and the Japanese empire. On June 6, the veterans of D-Day 1944 and today's leaders of the anti-Axis allies will again gather in Normandy, France, this time to commemorate the battle's 60th anniversary.

There will, however, be one hitherto uninvited guest. As a gesture of closure and reconciliation, French President Jacques Chirac invited Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to represent the reconstituted German nation. To those who lived through the hell and hatred of World War II, the coming together of friends and foes at long last 60 years after D-Day seems like a miracle.

The European wars of the 20th century started 90 years ago, on July 28, 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. By 1917, it was the intervention of American forces that tipped the scale against the Central Powers, Germany and Austria, and ended the carnage. Instead of peace, however, the war-ending treaties that were dictated to the losers led to new heights of political and economic extremism: to wit the totalitarian systems of Soviet-style Communism in Russia, fascism in Italy and Spain, and Nazism in Germany.

Hitler allowed only six years of preparation for what turned out to be a six-year war of unparalleled destruction. Again, it was a massive U.S. intervention that proved decisive in destroying Hitler's war machine and ending the Nazis' stranglehold on Europe.

When the fighting ended, however, U.S. troops could not retreat from Europe in view of the growing expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. For 45 years Americans built and led the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance to protect liberated Europe from any further expansion of the Soviet empire. The Truman Doctrine offered military and economic aid to nations menaced by Communism, specifically Greece and Turkey. The Marshall Plan dispersed over $12 billion for European reconstruction.

It was U.S. Secretary Dean Acheson who in 1952 functioned as coach, referee, and cheerleader in the negotiations leading up to an initial rapprochement between France and Germany. As Acheson's book title describes it, America was "Present at the Creation" of the six-nation European Coal and Steel Community (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) that would expand into the European Community by 1967 and now, after the collapse of the Soviet empire, bring 25 nations into a confederation extending from the Atlantic to the western border of Russia.

With 450 million consumers producing 25 percent of the world's gross national product, the European Union now constitutes the world's largest market. Daily trade between the U.S. and the E.U. amounts to $1 billion. U.S. investments in the E.U. and E.U. investments in the U.S. combined amount to $1 trillion. Four million Europeans are working for American companies, and Europeans employ just as many Americans.

Europe now clearly can take care of all of its needs, including its own military protection. There is no enemy in sight against whom Europeans require American help. Maybe the time has come when we can close down our military bases all over the continent, bring our soldiers home where they belong, and save the hard-pressed American taxpayers billions of dollars.

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	05-16-04
U.S. Helped Europe Unite
*Washington, D.C.* On Friday, May 1, the leaders of 25 European nations inaugurated the enlarged European Union (E.U.) in the Irish capital of Dublin, with a flag-raising ceremony set to the strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the European anthem. On Saturday May 29, the National World War II Memorial will be dedicated here in Washington, D.C., on the Mall's central axis. The two events, although 3,700 miles apart, are inseparably intertwined. The sacrifices of America's veterans of World War II, billions of American taxpayer dollars, and decades of patient efforts by American facilitators and mediators decisively contributed to Europe's rise from the ashes of its internecine wars. Although Americans do not sit in the European Union's governing councils, the United States, more than any European power, made today's European union and prosperity possible. America's entry into the war in 1941 marked the beginning of the ultimate destruction of both the Nazi regime and the Japanese empire. On June 6, the veterans of D-Day 1944 and today's leaders of the anti-Axis allies will again gather in Normandy, France, this time to commemorate the battle's 60th anniversary. There will, however, be one hitherto uninvited guest. As a gesture of closure and reconciliation, French President Jacques Chirac invited Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to represent the reconstituted German nation. To those who lived through the hell and hatred of World War II, the coming together of friends and foes at long last 60 years after D-Day seems like a miracle. The European wars of the 20th century started 90 years ago, on July 28, 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. By 1917, it was the intervention of American forces that tipped the scale against the Central Powers, Germany and Austria, and ended the carnage. Instead of peace, however, the war-ending treaties that were dictated to the losers led to new heights of political and economic extremism: to wit the totalitarian systems of Soviet-style Communism in Russia, fascism in Italy and Spain, and Nazism in Germany. Hitler allowed only six years of preparation for what turned out to be a six-year war of unparalleled destruction. Again, it was a massive U.S. intervention that proved decisive in destroying Hitler's war machine and ending the Nazis' stranglehold on Europe. When the fighting ended, however, U.S. troops could not retreat from Europe in view of the growing expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. For 45 years Americans built and led the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance to protect liberated Europe from any further expansion of the Soviet empire. The Truman Doctrine offered military and economic aid to nations menaced by Communism, specifically Greece and Turkey. The Marshall Plan dispersed over $12 billion for European reconstruction. It was U.S. Secretary Dean Acheson who in 1952 functioned as coach, referee, and cheerleader in the negotiations leading up to an initial rapprochement between France and Germany. As Acheson's book title describes it, America was "Present at the Creation" of the six-nation European Coal and Steel Community (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) that would expand into the European Community by 1967 and now, after the collapse of the Soviet empire, bring 25 nations into a confederation extending from the Atlantic to the western border of Russia. With 450 million consumers producing 25 percent of the world's gross national product, the European Union now constitutes the world's largest market. Daily trade between the U.S. and the E.U. amounts to $1 billion. U.S. investments in the E.U. and E.U. investments in the U.S. combined amount to $1 trillion. Four million Europeans are working for American companies, and Europeans employ just as many Americans. Europe now clearly can take care of all of its needs, including its own military protection. There is no enemy in sight against whom Europeans require American help. Maybe the time has come when we can close down our military bases all over the continent, bring our soldiers home where they belong, and save the hard-pressed American taxpayers billions of dollars.

Wolf D. Fuhrig

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05-16-04

U.S. Helped Europe Unite