Abstract
France is one of the founding members of the Atlantic Alliance, whose creation is materialized in the signing in Washington, April 4, 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Defence (NATO) that it instituted. The alliance thus formed is to ensure American military protection to the countries of Western Europe and prevent the invasion of it by the Soviet Union and its allies.
The France played an active role even in the early development of the Alliance, its constituent territory for fifteen years the hub of the organization, as evidenced by the installation of the heart of the device, the Supreme Allied Command Europe (SHAPE), at Rocquencourt, and the political headquarters of the Organization in Paris. Moreover, France argued in negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty, an organization for integrated defense in time of peace (Article 5 of the Treaty finally kept the formula of a commitment in response to aggression) before making proposals in the sense of a European military integration through the Pleven Plan EDR, going well beyond the requirements of integration made by the United States.
The attitude of France initially active with respect to the alliance, however, must be interpreted as seeking to implement its own ambitions: to ensure its global role and assert its leadership in Europe, European security before his eyes also based on a continental European hub which would have provided leadership.
