When you talk about National Governments willing to create that Euro, I believe it is better to talk about forward looking European politicians willing to create that Euro. Not to challenge the US dollar as many in the US thought, but to give a push to European integration as a means to avoid any future wars in Europe.

Well, they achieved the European integration to a much larger extent than without a common currency, but missed out on the details and indeed important details.

If the British would have taken part, things would have been much easier, because the British have boycotted the process from the beginning and played an important role in undermining the currency. Next, there is the barrier of a difference in legislation and language and to overcome that you need a lot of time. Finally, the time they thought they had was not given by the development of Huge Capital Pools (read Anglo-Saxon capital pools) starting to raid the planet in recent years.