1973년 3월 3일 닉슨 대통령이 재무장관 및 연준의장과 나눈 대화에서 닉슨 대통령이 유럽은 앞으로 10, 15, 20년 안에 통합되어도 국내 여론이 (유럽 바깥에서의) 군사력 사용을 절대로 허용하지 않을 것이라서 강대국이 될 수 없다고 말했네요. 

Nixon: The only purpose of this, unless it's going to—let, let me—let me be—let me just fold in the political thing. We're getting into Europe now; we'll be in it very heavily over the next few months about NATO and MBFR, and all—the European Security Conference. We're in a watershed period with regard to our relations to Europe. Now, the problem with Europe is that Europe today—and we've got to look at their psychology; leave out the economics—the Europeans are terribly frustrated, because the Germans can't have an international policy; they can only look outward because they have no power. The French are parochial; after they were kicked out of Algeria and Vietnam, they have nothing. The British take the world view only because they're British and have always thought big, and not just about Europe; they have thought internationally rather than in European terms. But here, but here they are, all of them now forced in a very—a lurch to the Left, also, in all of these countries. The Germans are already socialists, or at least have a soclalist-leaning government. The French may damn well get one this weekend.8 The Italians, of course, are being hit by the socialists. The British would be if they had an election today, but fortunately, their Labour government, the socialists, are so goddamn divided, and Heath is a decent fellow that he stands on.

All right, looking at the mess that's in Europe, and it is a mess in my opinion, politically they're concerned about our deal in a month with Russia, which we're going to have when I—we're gonna have another meeting with the Russians later this year. The—I'm trying to put the political factors into context here. You have to realize that when the European leaders—oh, like Heath—comes here, he loves to talk about, "Oh, how was your trip to China?" He likes to talk about the Russian arms, what we're going to do about [unclear] of course he does. And what's going to happen in the Mideast, and what can we do. But he knows, as he talks to me, that what the British do doesn't make a damn bit of a difference in the world anymore. It's too bad, but it's true. What they do in Europe might, but not in the world. And he knows, too, that even if Europe united—which is, of course, a likelihood 10, 15, 20 years from now—more politically than it is today, that they aren't going to be a major factor, because they're never going to have the domestic opinion to have the punch-crunch power in a military sense that will make them a major factor. They know that what really matters is what—today is what the U.S. talks as says to Russia, and 10 years from now what we may say to China, so forth and so on.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v31/d16