Pierre Gerbet, Emeritus University Professor at the Paris Institute for Political Studies, outlines the origins and commercial implications of the ‘Atlantic Partnership’ which the US President, John F. Kennedy, proposed to the Six in 1962.

On 4 July 1962, US Independence Day, the US President, John F. Kennedy, gives an address in Philadelphia in which he calls for the transatlantic link between the United States and a free and democratic Europe to be strengthened.

On 16 July 1962, the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera leads with the determination of the US President, John F. Kennedy, to establish a partnership between the United States and the Six, with particular regard to the issue of nuclear deterrence.

‘General Lemnitzer’s Ideal.’ In April 1963, the cartoonist, Behrendt, illustrates the American idea of having a Multilateral Force at the heart of the North American Treaty Organisation (NATO).

On 17 September 1963, in Strasbourg, the President of the European Commission, Walter Hallstein, gives an address to the European Parliament in which he sets out the conditions for a solid partnership between the United States and the European Economic Community (EEC).

On 6 December 1969, during the celebrations in Brussels to mark the 25th anniversary of the Belgian-American Association, the US Secretary of State, William Rogers, reviews the foreign policy options open to the United States, given the new climate of international détente in Europe.

In 1970, the US President, Richard Nixon, meets the President of the European Commission, Jean Rey, in Brussels. This meeting marks the start of the European Community’s external political cooperation.

On 18 March 1974, the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung analyses the economic and political tensions between the United States and the European Economic Community and considers the threat to withdraw US military forces from Europe.

On 30 January 1962, the Department for Economic Cooperation at the French Foreign Ministry considers the impact and the progress of present and future tariff negotiations between the EEC and the United States.

‘The President wants every European to have a US chicken in the oven on Sundays!’ In 1963, the German cartoonist, Sauer, illustrates the ‘chicken war’ between the United States and the European Economic Community (EEC) over US poultry exports to the EEC.

On 12 April 1962, the US President, John F. Kennedy, and the President of the European Commission, Walter Hallstein, meet in Washington. Following this meeting, they issue a joint communiqué.

Table listing the operations of American companies in Europe between 1958 and 1966.

Table showing the evolution in trade between the European Economic Community and the United States between 1958 and 1971.