Why Are the Europeans Angry?

Old ties to the Arabs and new fears of retaliation trouble the allies

The first mass demonstrations against the U.S. since the pacifist wave of 1983 erupted last week around U.S. military bases and in major West European cities from Milan to Madrid. Thousands marched through streets, calling President Reagan a murderer and demanding that their country withdraw from NATO. The protesters mirrored the official positions of most European governments. When the U.S. planes went into Libya, only the British government of Margaret Thatcher actively supported Reagan. The Mitterrand-Chirac administration in France, like Felipe González Márquez's government in Spain, refused to let U.S. aircraft overfly the two countries. The Italian government of Bettino Craxi...

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