The US was a dominant actor in the European integration game in the 1950s, although not normally a formal participant at the negotiation table. The Americans promoted integration based on Franco-German reconciliation and sought to prevent the emergence of nationally controlled nuclear weapons in Germany and France and developments toward an independent European ´Third Force´. Based on material from American, British, French and German archives the book covers the negotiations about the European Defence Community, the Western European Union and Euratom/the Common Market.