Auschwitz and Vietnam

Transatlantic Relations at a Time When ‘More Flags’ Meant ‘No European Flags’: the United States’ War in South-East Asia and its European Allies, 1964–8

“…Similarly, in the Federal Republic of Germany, to which the United States was increasingly turning for help to finance its efforts in South-East Asia, the experience of Nazism and the strictures of the constitution made the West Germans unwilling to embark on foreign adventures. 37 As European attitudes hardened, the European NATO allies now evinced frustration with the disregard the United States had shown up to now, for their advice over Vietnam. The result was that the 'more flags' initiative and Vietnam now also became entangled with the Allies' continuing dissatisfaction over the 'consultation deficit' embedded within the NATO decision-making process.…”