American Committee on United Europe
 American Committee on United Europe    | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1948 |
| Founder | •  Bill Donovan•  Allen Dulles |
| Extinction | 1960 |
| Sponsor of | European Movement, European Youth Campaign, Council of Europe, 1948 Hague Congress |
| Sponsored by | Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation |
| Membership | • Walter Bedell Smith •  Tom Braden• George Marshall •  Lucius D. Clay•  Paul Hoffman•  J. William Fulbright• William C. Bullitt •  Herbert Hoover•  Hale Boggs•  Clare Boothe Luce• James Farley • Robert Moses • Alice Roosevelt Longworth • Harry D. Gideonse • Norman Thomas • Burton K. Wheeler • Harry Woodburn Chase •  Christian Herter• Robert Ignatius Gannon • Robert L. LaFollette • John W. Davis • George N. Schuster • Clayton Fritchey |
| CIA front organization. Proves European unity movement was a heavily US-driven project. | |
The American Committee on United Europe (ACUE) was an American organization which sought to counter the "Communist threat" in Europe by promoting European political integration.
Its first chairman was ex-wartime OSS head, William Joseph Donovan.[1], who acted as a civil lawyer, and his deputy was CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles. It was funded by the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and pro-government business groups. At the end of the 1950s, the former OSS officer and managing director of the Ford Foundation, Paul Hoffman, was also the head of the ACUE. The advisory board was later joined by the first CIA director, Walter Bedell Smith.[2]
Contents
Structure
The structure of the organization was outlined in early summer of 1948 by Bill Donovan and Allen Dulles, who were by then also reviewing the organization of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[3].
On April 23, 1948, a first meeting was held at the New York University Faculty Club with the aim of creating a special committee to support a "free and united Europe". It had been called together by Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi. One of the authors of a resolution of the US Congress on the principles of a European federation, J. William Fulbright, acted as president. The U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union 1933-36, William C. Bullitt, acted as vice-president of the ongoing conference.
From the meeting, support for the European Conference on Federation began, which was first held in The Hague on May 7, 1948 under the chairmanship of Winston Churchill and was attended by members of parliament from the 16 countries receiving the Marshall Plan. They worked on a draft constitution for the United States of Europe and founded the Council of Europe.[4]
A memorandum, later declassified, bearing Donovan's signature and dated dated July 26, 1950 gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. The vice chairman of ACUE was Allen Dulles and the board of ACUE included Walter Bedell Smith.[5] ACUE was an important early funder of both the European Movement and the European Youth Campaign. The ACUE itself received funding from the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.[1][6]
Targets
In 1948, the main handicap of the European Movement was a lack of funds. The U.S. policy was to promote a United States of Europe, and to this end the committee was used to discreetly funnel CIA funds - by the mid 50's ACUE was receiving roughly $1,000,000 USD per year - to European pro-federalists supporting such organizations as the Council of Europe, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the proposed European Defence Community.[7]
Until the 1960s, the ACUE was an important funder of the European Movement, (50%) of the Union of European Federalists and especially its European Youth Campaign (100%). This made it possible to influence the leaders of the "European Movement" Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak and Józef Retinger. When Retinger tried to increase the share of European own funds – perhaps in order to become more independent of American directives – he met with resistance on the American side. A memorandum signed by Donovan on 26. July 1950 contains instructions for a campaign to create a European Parliament. The ACUE pushed for the integration of the United Kingdom into the EEC.
A note from the European ACUE section dated 11 June 1965 for EEC Vice-President Robert Marjolin aimed to advance monetary union covertly. It recommended the suppression of the debate on it to the point where the "adoption of such proposals would become practically inevitable".[8]
In 1952, Jean Monnet wrote to Donovan: "Your continuous support, now more crucial than ever, will greatly help us for the full realization of our plans". Jean Monnet chaired the Action Committee for the United States of Europe. He preferred small meetings and serious publications to large gatherings and polemics. His strategy was not completely welcomed by the American Committee, which complained that it specifically targeted socialist elements to the detriment of industrialists and the right. Although Jean Monnet's activities were mentioned in the reports on the actions supported by the American Committee, the documentation on the links between Monnet and the Committee is limited. Monet was cautious because he feared the potential political damage that revelations about American financing could have.[9]
Deactivation
In 1960, the American Committee voted its own closing. Although the process of European integration was not over, the leaders of the Committee believed that it has been launched and is moving in the right direction. In addition, the European economy was improving, and the European federalist movements couldn now finance themselves. The President of the Committee sends a letter to Robert Schuman, then president of the European Movement, to inform him that the role of the Committee has been fulfilled: "[...] the European Community, with its institutions, the Court and the parliamentary assembly constitute a reality ". Finally, at the request of Robert Schuman, who was president of the European Movement between 1955 and 1961, and Jean Monnet, the Committee was deactivated rather than dissolved. Monnet and Schuman wished that the support of the Committee could resume if necessary although this was not the case.[10]
Known members
11 of the 23 of the members already have pages here:
| Member | Description |
|---|---|
| Hale Boggs | A US House Majority Leader who strongly dissented from the official narrative of the JFK Assassination. His small plane disappeared without trace in Alaska, together with Nick Begich and two other men. |
| Thomas W. Braden | OSS, Georgetown Set, CIA |
| Lucius Clay | |
| John W. Davis | |
| J. William Fulbright | The longest serving chairman in the history of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. |
| Christian Herter | United States Secretary of State. Double Bilderberger |
| Paul Hoffman | Five time early Bilderberger, UNDP administrator |
| Herbert Hoover | US President 1929-1933 |
| Clare Boothe Luce | |
| George Marshall | |
| Walter Bedell Smith |
Sponsors
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Ford Foundation | In addition to its own billionaire agenda, also known to have been $$$ middleman for covert CIA funding. |
| Rockefeller Foundation |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:How CIA Money Took the Teeth Out of Socialism | book extract | May 1988 | Richard Fletcher (Author) |
References
- ↑ a b http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1356047/Euro-federalists-financed-by-US-spy-chiefs.html
- ↑ http://www.voltairenet.org/article14369.html
- ↑ Aldrich, Richard - OSS, CIA and European Unity: The American Committee on United Europe 1948-60. Diplomacy & Statecraft. 1st March 1997
- ↑ Extension of Remarks of Hon. Hale Boggs of Louisiana in the House of Representatives Tuesday, April 27, Appendix to the Congressional Record 1948 pp A2534-5
- ↑ http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/2010/03/1950-cias-european-union-torturing.html
- ↑ Original board members listed in New York Herald Tribune of April 24, 1948
- ↑ Giles Scott-Smith, Hans Krabbendam, The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe, 1945-1960 p.46, Roosevelt Study Center.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060324182451/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2000/09/19/wspy19.xml
- ↑ Richard J. Aldrich, « OSS, CIA and European Unity: The American Committee on United Europe, 1948-60 », Diplomacy and Statecraft, vol. 8, no 1, mars 1997, p. 184-227
- ↑ Christophe Deloire et Christophe Dubois, Circus Politicus, Paris, Albin Michel, coll. «Essais Doc.», 2012, 461 p
External links
- Archival sources on the American Committee for a United Europe can be consulted at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence
