As you know, during World War II, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany occupied Paris, took over all of France, and established the Vichy government in order to manage this process more clearly and confuse the French.
Henri Philippe Pétain, the glorious Marshal of the famous Battle of Verdun in World War I, also became the head of the Vichy government. Pétain, who was a national hero in the previous war, would complete the end of World War II as a traitor according to many French people. In the meantime, as soon as France was occupied, the Americans recognized the Vichy government and even sent an ambassador. However, Winston Churchill brought French General Charles de Gaulle, who was determined to resist, to England and started the Free France movement as a resistance.
After North Africa was captured by the Allies with Operation Torch, the center of the French resistance movement moved to Africa, and then, with the defeat of the Nazis, Charles de Gaulle took office as Prime Minister of the Fourth Republic. There are many things that can be said about De Gaulle, but since today's topic will be shaped by European security, I would like to touch only on the security side of the matter.
America and England were the ones who saved the French from the German occupation. However, as soon as the war ended, Charles de Gaulle was very clearly aware of one thing; if France did not immediately raise its military capacity to a higher level, the USA would continue to protect it against Russia, while France would be doomed to remain under the shadow of the United States. Therefore, as soon as the Fifth Republic was established and France became the absolute ruler, Charles de Gaulle took both the nuclear capacity and the general content of the army to a different point.
In order to establish a European defense force independent of America and England, while the pains of the war were still fresh, he developed relations with the German Prime Minister Konrad Adenauer, who had occupied his country. He initiated the establishment of the European Economic Community and vetoed England's entry into this community twice. Because there is a fact that de Gaulle saw England as America's "Trojan Horse" in economic and military terms. For all these reasons, establishing an absolute European military power without the US and England was de Gaulle’s biggest dream. Until the day he died, de Gaulle did his best to raise his country’s military capacity to the highest level. Criticized on many issues and met with reservations for years about these policies, de Gaulle and his ideas are back on the agenda in Europe today, and Europeans need those ideas 55 years later.
Of course, Europe’s determination of a defense strategy within NATO and largely supported by the US has made a great contribution to the development of European economies and to the current level of European prosperity. However, nothing will be the same after this. Even if Trump’s presidency ends and a president like Roosevelt, Truman, or Eisenhower replaces him, the Pandora’s box will be opened and Europeans will never trust America as much again in terms of security.
The main issue here is that it is economically quite possible for Europe to establish a common military capacity and a common defense strategy. Europeans have both the money and the infrastructure to do this. However, two important issues make us think that Europe is on the verge of this breakthrough. The first of these is that even if they make the best technological weapons, the number of soldiers is not a power that can be easily created when compared to the European population. The second is that the budget that will be allocated to the defense industry and new security policies means a step back from the social and economic policies that have revived Europe for so many years. In other words, when we calculate that the money spent so far has gone to the welfare of the people and industrial investments, it is certain that the budget that will go to defense from now on will drag the people of Europe back from their former welfare.
Europe can create a large defense industry with the infrastructure it has, and it can allocate a budget for this with its economy, but are the people of Europe and the European states ready to give up their individual welfare and the order they are accustomed to? This is exactly the main question.
