World: Sighted Sub

In the face of U.S., British and much domestic opposition, Charles de Gaulle has persisted in forging an independent nuclear force for France. The U.S. just as stubbornly has opposed “the proliferation of national nuclear weapons,” even refused some French requests for non-nuclear items that might be used in the delivery of nuclear weapons, e.g., navigational systems for aircraft. Last week De Gaulle achieved something of a breakthrough when Washington announced that it would sell France a nuclear submarine of the Nautilus type.

What caused the U.S. turnabout? Well, went the Washington line, it is not really a turnabout. President Eisenhower first promised the sub to the French four years ago (the offer ran into congressional opposition). Furthermore, the sale price of $63 million will help in a small way to stem the gold flow from the U.S., and Nautilus subs are, in any event, merely powered by nuclear engines and not rocket-bearing, as is the Polaris. Still, the sale suggested that the U.S. is beginning to come round to De Gaulle’s view that France must be a nuclear power and as such must have a stronger hand in NATO, along with nuclear U.S. and Britain.

Undeniably, the Washington decision strengthens De Gaulle’s hand in the forthcoming referendum and elections. To political opponents who have criticized him for putting NATO in disarray, De Gaulle can now answer that if the U.S. were really quarreling with France, it would not be selling her a nuclear-powered sub. To Frenchmen and other Europeans who have opposed de Gaulle’s independent nuclear force, he can cite the Nautilus sale as proof that even the U.S. accepts France as a nuclear power.

But the U.S. Congress may still torpedo the sub sale. The Joint Atomic Energy Committee of the House and Senate has been dead set against sharing nuclear know-how with France. Democratic Committee Chairman Chet Holifield last week declared he was against transferring classified information “to nations whose political structure is unstable and whose security capability is questionable.”