It is true, as so often reported, that public opinion in western Europe was anti-Goldwater. In Spain and West Germany an occasional pro-Goldwater comment broke surface, but even there the anti-Goldwater tide was running; elsewhere it was overwhelming. Not only leftists were against Goldwater—and they of course were, to the man. Most conservative Europeans, also, were antiGoldwater, including many hard anti-Communists and even laissez-faire “liberals” (European style) whom one might have expected to welcome Goldwater as comrade. I read before the election, and heard while in Europe just after it, about the usual garage mechanics, farmers and taxi-drivers who were allegedly for Goldwater; but whether they existed there is no way of knowing, and in any case these often-cited authorities have no significant role in forming public opinion.
Why this nearly universal negation? In what they wrote or said about their attitude, Europeans usually gave one or more of three reasons, the first two familiar on the home front.
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