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carried along by events largely beyond its control and suffered further when forced to abandon Norway to Sweden, by the Treaties of Vienna (1815). Again in 1864, the expected French aid against Prussia and Austria-Hungary was not forthcoming. But the evolution of cultural and political life in Denmark, as elsewhere in Europe, continued to be markedly influenced by currents from France. Indeed, the Danish parliamentary system derives in part from French political theory and experience. Post-World War II relations have been marred by an annoyance with the "anachronistic" nationalism exhibited by the Gaullist Fifth Republic. Professed Danish idealism to the contrary notwithstanding, such annoyance becomes most pronounced when parochial economic interests are affected, as in the 1963 French veto of the UK bid for Common Market accession, and subsequent French opposition to favored treatment for Danish goods within the old EEC. Persistent efforts by France to reduce US influence in Europe were at first resented, but with the deteriorating Danish-US relations resulting from the prolonged US involvement in Vietnam, came ultimately to be regarded with ambivalence.
Elsewhere in Western Europe the Danish Government regards with disfavor those countries dominated by authoritarian regimes - Spain, Portugal, and most recently, Greece. In Danish eyes, Spain would not be a worthy member of NATO, an antipathy dating back to the Spanish Civil War and the Fascist orientation of Francisco Franco, Spain's Chief of State. Portugal has been denounced for practicing a despotic colonialism in Africa. Following the Greek military coup in early 1967, Denmark felt constrained to make a statement in the North Atlantic Council highly critical of its NATO ally. The Danes have taken a special interest in Greek developments because of the marriage of their royal Princess Anne-Marie to deposed King Constantine.
c. Communist nations
Denmark's relations with Communist nations have been characterized since the mid-1960s by a growing belief in the possibility of rapprochement. The détentiste advances, in the wake of West Germany's Ostpolitik, yielded first cultural exchanges and very limited trade, and then reciprocal political visits at the highest level between Copenhagen and Moscow and most of the East European capitals. The warm official pronouncements accompanying some of these visits, notably the exchanges with the Soviet Union in the 1970s, stood in sharp contrast with the seemingly deteriorating relations with the United States. Thoughtful Danish and US observers noted that the USSR had become relatively exempt from the acerbic criticism directed at "powerful nations that impose their will on smaller states." The United States has been excoriated because of the Vietnamese involvement. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was censured only sporadically, despite its oppressed minorities and the "dependent" nations within its orbit. Two recent instances of short-lived official and media hostility were the condemnation accompanying the blatant Soviet suppression in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and, closer to home, Moscow's high-handed veto in 1970 of an integrated Nordic customs and economic union (NORDEK) through pressure on tethered Finland. In the latter instance the Soviets were obviously fearful that Finland with its ingrained pro-Western leanings, would be unable to withstand the increased exposure to the Nordic and Western democracies. The Danes rationalize their seeming double standards with judging the two superpowers by insisting that an exemplary standard of behavior should be expected of the most influential democracy in the world. In the early 1970s, notwithstanding Denmark's near total identity of interests with the West - the USSR and Eastern Europe account for less than 5% of Danish trade - Danish observers and politicians, including Social Democratic Prime Minister Jorgensen, seemed inclined to pursue every little sign indicating USSR interest in detente. The People's Republic of China has become even less critically viewed than the USSR. Notwithstanding the total control over the populace exerted by Peking and the known suppressions of freedoms - presumably anathema to the spiritually free Danes - no official and little popular censure is directed toward the Mao dictatorship. It has rather become somewhat romanticized, along with the ancient Chinese civilization in the train of the US-initiated Sino-American rapprochement.
The Danes maintain that a solution of the major international issues - peace in Southeast Asia, disarmament, and the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons - requires the cooperation of Communist China. It is Copenhagen's policy to deal with the government in effective control of a country, and thus Denmark, having recognized Communist China in 1950, has official relations with the Peking government on the embassy level. Danish Governments also have asserted that only Peking can properly represent the nearly 900 million mainland Chinese in the United Nations. Denmark consistently voted for admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. In July 1973 Copenhagen established reciprocal de jury recognition with Pyongyang.
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