Euro-federalists financed by US
spy chiefs
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By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that
the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and
Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and
directed the European federalist movement.
The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that
America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push
Britain into a European state. One memorandum, dated July 26,
1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully
fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J
Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic
Services, precursor of the CIA.
The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at
Georgetown University in Washington. They include files
released by the US National Archives. Washington's main tool
for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee
for a United Europe, created in 1948. The chairman was
Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then.
The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the
Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA's first
director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved
in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE
financed the European Movement, the most important federalist
organisation in the post-war years. In 1958, for example, it
provided 53.5 per cent of the movement's funds.
The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European
Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington.
The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments
into a special account. When the head of the European
Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree
of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was
quickly reprimanded.
The leaders of the European Movement - Retinger, the visionary
Robert Schuman and the former Belgian prime minister
Paul-Henri Spaak - were all treated as hired hands by their
American sponsors. The US role was handled as a covert
operation. ACUE's funding came from the Ford and Rockefeller
foundations as well as business groups with close ties to the US
government.
The head of the Ford Foundation, ex-OSS officer Paul
Hoffman, doubled as head of ACUE in the late Fifties. The State
Department also played a role. A memo from the European
section, dated June 11, 1965, advises the vice-president of the
European Economic Community, Robert Marjolin, to pursue
monetary union by stealth.
It recommends suppressing debate until the point at which
"adoption of such proposals would become virtually
inescapable".
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