Washington never made any particular secret of its jaundiced view of Brexit as suggested succinctly by President Obama when he warned that Great Britain, if she voted to leave the European Union, would need to go to “the back of the queue” of countries wishing to cut trading deals with the United States.  J’ai tiré sur le fil du mensonge et tout est venu (I Drew on the Thread of the Lie and Everything Followed), a book by Philippe de Villiers just published in France where it seems to be causing a minor sensation, provides the background helpful in understanding the American reaction.  Villiers, who has served as a member of the European Parliament, is a novelist and a founder of Puy du Fou, a popular French theme park.  His new book, the result of careful research, presents some very interesting findings regarding the so-called Founding Fathers of Europe: Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Walter Hallstein.

Herr Doktor Hallstein, a German jurist, was also the first president of the European Economic Community—that is, of the present-day European Commission.  His background, in outline, was not a secret, but Villiers has been able to show that after the war he was able substantially to minimize his relationship with National Socialism.  Hans Frank founded the National-Socialist Jurists in 1928, which affiliated itself with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.  He also created the Academy of German Law, and during the war became governor-general of Poland (in Le Figaro’s description, her executioner).  The aim of the Academy was to fashion a postwar legal structure for Europe by combining Fascist with National Socialist jurisprudence.  It held its first meeting in Rome on June 21, 1938; a gathering at which Walter Hallstein was present with a small delegation of jurists.  In 1939 he described the creation of the Great German Reich as an historical event of the largest importance.  His job at that time was to create the legal bases for the unification of “the New Europe” after Germany had conquered the Continent.  Hans was eventually sentenced at Nuremberg to be hanged for crimes against humanity.  During the war, Hallstein instructed military officers on the subject of “the law and the uniform.”

Robert Schuman became President of the European Movement (founded in 1948) at The Hague in 1955, the same year that Jean Monnet founded the Action Committee for the United States of Europe; while Henri Frenay, a former member of the French Resistance, ran the Union of European Federalists.  Unbeknownst to everyone else they obtained their financing from the United States.  Monnet arranged for his good friend Shep Stone, formerly of wartime intelligence and director of International Affairs at the Ford Foundation, to have himself accredited by the State Department to make disbursements to these European-minded friends.  John McCloy, then president of Ford, was also close to Monnet.  As a result, in 1957, 1960, 1963, and 1964, Monnet received three payments of $150,000 each and one of $600,000.  This last allowed him to lobby for the neutralization of the Élysée Treaty between De Gaulle and Adenauer, thus establishing the basis for effective political cooperation between France and Germany.  Schuman later thanked William Foster, president of the American Committee on United Europe (created at the suggestion of union-minded European politicians); General Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services and founder of the CIA; and Paul Hoffman (formerly the administrator of the Marshall Plan, director of the European Cooperation Administration, and past president of Ford and of the American Committee) for their generous financial cooperation in getting the project for a united Europe off the ground.

As Le Figaro noted, the Americans wanted the political unification of Europe, and the Europeans were willing to beg money for it.  The paper notes also that these financial contributions were not gratuitous: Washington applied conditions to them.  Among these perhaps were the secrets of state that Monnet was willing to share out from Brussels to his and his colleagues’ friends and benefactors across the Atlantic.

Small wonder that an enthusiasm for Brexit is one of the many enthusiasms that Donald Trump does not share with the government in Washington over which he ostensibly presides.