Jean Monnet - World War II

World War II

In December 1939, Monnet was sent to London to oversee the collectivization of British and French war production capacities. Monnet's influence inspired Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill to accept a plan for a union of France and the United Kingdom to rival the Pact of Steel alliance between Germany and Italy.

In August 1940, Monnet was sent to the United States by the British Government as a member of the British Supply Council, in order to negotiate the purchase of war supplies. Soon after his arrival in Washington, D.C., he became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Convinced that America could serve as "the great arsenal of democracy," he persuaded the president to launch a massive arms production program to supply the Allies with military material. Shortly thereafter, in 1941, Roosevelt, with Churchill's agreement, launched the Victory Program, which represented the entry of the United States into the war effort. After the war, British economist, John Maynard Keynes, was to say that through his co-ordinating, Monnet had probably shortened World War II by one year.

In 1943, Monnet became a member of the National Liberation Committee, the would-be French government in exile in Algiers. During a meeting on 5 August 1943, Monnet declared to the Committee:

"There will be no peace in Europe, if the states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty... The countries of Europe are too small to guarantee their peoples the necessary prosperity and social development. The European states must constitute themselves into a federation..."