The soviet factor in Franco-German relations, 1958-69

Abstract

The Paris-Bonn-Moscow triangle had already a long history by the time French president Charles de Gaulle and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Elysée Treaty on January 22, 1963. Since the end of the nineteenth century, there was a tradition of bilateral alliances being formed against the third player. This included, on the one hand, the Franco-Russian alliance of 1893 and the Franco-Soviet pact of 1935 and, on the other hand, the Rapallo Treaty of 1922 and of course the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939.1.