University of Virginia Library

Rise of the Hegemonies

And in important ways the fundamental
international political facts of 1948 were also
those of 1968, that is, the political collapse of
Europe and the rise of the two hegemonies. If
Russia and the United States no longer loom
over a ravaged and divided Europe, Europe is
divided all the same. However "muted" or
"cooperative" bipolarity may be, Europe is still
dominated by it. However much political influence
and economic power the states of
Europe may have achieved, a resolution to what
de Gaulle labels the "scandal of Yalta" lies in
1968 as in 1948 in the hands of Soviet Russia
and the United States.

Europe's most articulate spokesman hence
defines in similar terms in 1968 as he did in
1948 the misfortune of Europe, of which
Czechoslovakia is one of the most potent
symbols. In his press conference of Sept. 9,
President de Gaulle commented: "The division
into blocs . . . that was imposed on Europe
while it was torn is a misfortune from which
follows either misfortunes. Indeed, that division
constitutes, for the peoples of our continent, a
permanent encroachment on their right to
independence, at a time when each one of them
is capable, par excellence, of conducting its
own affairs. Moreover, to distribute the nation
of Europe into two camps, dominated by two
rivals, is to prevent them from normally establishing
between them the economic, cultural
and human relations that are consistent with
their nature and tendencies of a thousand years,
while in our times, when everything depends on
modern development, it is detente, entente and
cooperation that their mutual interests requires.