The EU: Made in America

FROM THEEUEU Big Mac to the nuclear bomb, the list of 20th-century America’s achievements is long. In a remarkable period of invention, America bestowed human flight, superglue, rock and roll, the Saturn V rocket, Pop Tarts and the internet upon humanity. One American innovation from this era receives much less attention: the European Union.The is an American creation, as much as a European one. In the middle of the 20th century, there were more European federalists in Washington than in Brussels. Senators bashed out resolutions declaring: “Congress favours the creation of a United States of Europe.” The Marshall Plan, a torrent of post-war funding for the crippled continent, came on the condition that European countries meld themselves together. George Kennan, an American diplomat, summed up American policy: “We hoped to force the Europeans to think like Europeans, and not like nationalists.” Forget Jean Monnet. When it comes to naming founding fathers for the , the list should start with President Harry Truman.