Solidarity and the Price of Survival in 1776 & 1940

How America's Founders Chose Union Over the Vichy Option

In 1776 the Americans had to contemplate what it meant to be “united” States of America—that’s a deliberate lowercase “united.” What did it mean? The Declaration of Independence begins by titling itself the “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Elsewhere the document mentions “these States”, but also “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States” with “United” capitalized. The colonies were united in their opposition to the king of Great Britain but not united in what it meant to be both independent of the king but linked together. Previously their union was through the king, that fact was the core of the legal argument against Parliament and the foundation of the American case that Parliament was in violation of the British imperial constitution. Now what?

The Americans were not the last people to consider the utility of forming a political union to survive and win a war. In 1940 Winston Spencer Churchill was just as desperate.

On May 10, 1940, Churchill was made Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George VI, not elected, chosen by the king; and that same day Adolf Hitler invaded Western Europe. Sometimes history does look like destiny.

In June, Churchill realized that the best way to defeat Germany was to use the French and British overseas empires to regroup and buy time. Combined, their manpower and resources would have overwhelmed Germany. They needed France to stay in the fight. Especially the French Fleet needed to keep fighting so that Germany would have no chance at sea.

Although both countries had agreed that neither country would agree to a separate peace with Nazi Germany, by the second week of June it was clear that France was facing the total defeat of their European army. On 15 June the French Cabinet voted—against the wishes of Prime Minister Paul Reynaud—to ask Hitler for terms. Reynaud wanted to keep fighting, he knew the government could retreat to Algeria and use its powerful and undefeated navy to keep Germany from crossing the Mediterranean. It was then that Reynaud heard the proposal for union with the British:

June 16, 1940

At this most fateful moment in the history of the modern world the Governments of the United Kingdom and the French Republic make this declaration of indissoluble union and unyielding resolution in their common defence of justice and freedom, against subjection to a system which reduces mankind to a life of robots and slaves.

The two Governments declare that France and Great Britain shall no longer be two nations but one Franco-British Union. The constitution of the Union will provide for joint organs of defence, foreign, financial, and economic policies. Every citizen of France will enjoy immediately citizenship of Great Britain, every British subject will become a citizen of France.

Both countries will share responsibility for the repair of the devastation of war, wherever it occurs in their territories, and the resources of both shall be equally, and as one, applied to that purpose.

During the war there shall be a single war Cabinet, and all the forces of Britain and France, whether on land, sea, or in the air, will be placed under its direction. It will govern from wherever it best can. The two Parliaments will be formally associated.

The nations of the British Empire are already forming new armies. France will keep her available forces in the field, on the sea, and in the air.

The Union appeals to the United States to fortify the economic resources of the Allies and to bring her powerful material aid to the common cause.

The Union will concentrate its whole energy against the power of the enemy no matter where the battle may be. And thus we shall conquer. ¹ (emphasis added)

This was not just some scheme hatched by Churchill. In reality, the French administrative wizard Jean Monnet was the mastermind. Monnet was in London as the chairman of the Anglo-French Coordination Committee, setup to integrate the resources of France and Britain for the war effort. Monnet understood organizational communication and how to weld together resources and means to achieve practical political ends. He shared his plan with Churchill, the British cabinet and the newly promoted brigadier general Charles de Gaulle who was also in London. It was Charles de Gaulle who told Prime Minister Reynaud of the proposal. Reynaud and Churchill were agreed, no surrender and union. Instead, Reynaud faced a rebellion in his cabinet led by men like Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain. Marshal Pétain and cabinet members including Jean Ybarnégaray rejected the plan with Ybarnégaray saying that he preferred to be a “Nazi province” since he would apparently know what that meant and it was better than joining the British. That attitude and decision would shame them and the French state as Reynaud resigned in protest and Pétain took over, signed the armistice and became the leader of Vichy France. The Fighting Free French were rightly disgusted.

De Gaulle and Monnet would have a sequel, however. De Gaulle would found the current government of France, the Fifth Republic, and Monnet would become—as he was eulogized by The New York Times—”the spiritual father of the European Economic Community.” Western Europe, in particular France, had learned the lesson and Monnet’s vision would eventually become the European Union, but imagine how history would have been different if Britain and France unified in 1940 and defeated the Nazis? Perhaps faced with the clear threat from the West, the Nazis would not have turned East to invade the Soviet Union and initiate the Holocaust. Japan would not have invaded French Indochina and started down the path to Pearl Harbor.

In the 18th century, the Americans faced an easier task of creating a union because they were already countrymen. The vast majority of the free American population was British Americans and most of the other European peoples—like the Germans, New York Dutch, and French Huguenots—had assimilated into Englishness. America was born a nation, but the question of union was a wartime one, in 1777 Virginia—not Delaware—became the first state when it ratified the Articles of Confederation which formally created the “United States of America” in a “perpetual Union.” Article One named the country but Article Three clarified what was being done:

Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.

Fear and war made the union because the alternative was losing. After winning the War of Independence the Americans faced a choice of union or being vulnerable to imperial powers like Spain or forming a central authority with the powers of sovereignty. Once again, the alternative was unacceptable, so they wrote and ratified the Constitution of 1787. During the Civil War the United States was forced to remember its unfree population, the enslaved Africans, and also the free Africans who were denied equal citizenship. They were left out of the promises of 1776; but in 1862, the alternative was to lose the Union. The rest was history, and America went on to become the most successful republic of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Political Unions and grand alliances are serious things, and countries will make tough decisions when they find the alternative dishonorable and more than they can take. In 1776 King George III made remaining under his rule intolerable for the American Founding Fathers. The lesson is clear; it is unwise to throw away friendly relations with people three-thousand miles away who have depended on you and shed blood beside you on the battlefield. If threatened enough they may just decide to put aside their differences and form unions and alliances designed to wreck your grand strategies. King George and his North American commander Sir William Howe learned the hard way and offered the Continental Congress an armistice and peace talks after France joined the war on the side of the Americans in 1778. It was too late; the Americans were done talking. They had been betrayed by the king they trusted and there was no going back without a fight. The British never expected the Americans would rather fight alongside France, the ancient enemy, than remain under British rule.

Do not create enemies tomorrow where you have friends today because when the choice is submission to betrayal or a difficult survival with dignity, most will not choose to be Vichy.

Photo by Ryan Wallace on Unsplash

1. Take from the text circulated to Parliament by deputy leader of the War Cabinet and Leader of the Labour Party, Clement Attlee on October 16, 1940.