A Letter from Paris: The Decline of Europe?

“England,” said a European statesman, “offered a Europe of computers; Couve de Murville chose a Europe of sugar beets.” Beyond the political considerations that led General de Gaulle to veto England’s entry into the Common Market, there was, indeed, the choice between computers and beetroots. The General chose beetroots.

Some people now are worried about England’s future. But if the French believe they will not have to pay a price for the Gaullist policy of false grandeur, they are mistaken; the French may have to pay more dearly than anyone else. The day after the Brussels veto, M. Pierre Uri wrote in Le Monde: “As in the reign of Louis XIV and Napoleon, France may well come out diminish...