Among the Jean Monnet archives held by the Foundation in Lausanne is the AMK/32/4 file entitled “Le financement du Centre de documentation. Contributions de la Ford Foundation” (“Financing of the Documentation Centre. Contributions from the Ford Foundation.“). Consultation of the archival documents in this file shows that there was Ford Foundation funding for the Documentation Centre of the United States of Europe Action Committee created and chaired by Jean Monnet, but not for the Action Committee itself funded by membership fees. This funding to the Documentation Centre was never secret and was of a technical nature, intended to support research work without political compensation. The other recipients of similar support from the Ford Foundation, mentioned in the archives, are mainly leading academic institutions or research centres in Europe. It is necessary to demystify the conspiracy thesis that Jean Monnet was working in the service of the Americans. Historical research has shown the importance of Jean Monnet’s American networks. The latter’s action has always been to make united Europe the equal partner of the USA. the Foundation’s archives have been open to research since the early 1980s. No source related to the issue of American financing has ever been classified.
Anyone interested can contact Mathias Walter, head of archives at the Foundation (email: mathias.walter@nullfjme.unil.ch; tel: +41 21 692 20 97).