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Europe
Says
''40Years
Is
Long Enough!''
by
Gene H. Hogberg
Europe has been largely at peace for 40 years. But
that peace has been achieved
only at tremendous cost: the political division of the Continent.
M
AY
8, 1945: the end
of the Second World
War in Europe and
the finish to the Nazi dream
to unite Europe
by
force of
arms and usher in a false
millennium-a "Thousand–
y
ear Reich."
Looking back to that fateful
day, it is extremely doubtful
whether any leader of the victo–
rious Allied powers would have
foreseen events 40 years later.
Who would have dared speculate
that 300,000 American troops
would still be stationed on the Con–
tinent, faci ng east. That elements
of the British and French forces
wouJd still be camped in parts of
Germany. And that the Soviet
army, facing west, would still be
forward-based throughout nearly
aU the once proud and independent
nations of Eastern Europe.
After four decades, one of his–
tory's most heavily defended bor–
ders continues to cleave the Ger–
man nation. The world's largest
June
1985
arsenal of short- and medium-range
nuclear weapons extends this bor–
der through the heart of Europe.
Will the nations of Europe
remain disunited, locked into
mutually hostile spheres of interest
40 years from now, in 2025?
Absolutely not!
A growing number of Europeans
question as never before the very
foundation of postwar European
society and strive for a way out of
the division dilemma.
Peace-at a Price
The growing dissatisfaction with
the status quo, bowever, cannot
hide the fact that, for 40 years,
Europe has presented almost a soli–
tary islaod of peace in a world
wracked with more than 100 local
wars.
World Wars l and II, it must be
remembered, both arose out of con–
flicts within the European state sys–
tem. Ever since May 8, 1945, two
superpowers, one non-European, the
other part Asían, have served as the
main weights in the European bal–
ance-of-power structure. Western
Europe has been under the influence
and military protection of the
United States, while the nations of
the East have languished under the
preponderant weight of the Soviet
Union, forming part of the latter's
"security buffer."
Money-minded Americans are
tiring of the continued presence of
their military forces in a prosper–
ous, long-since economically recov–
ered Western Europe. The new
generation, however, overlooks
what a leading West German jour–
nalist, Josef Joffe, calls "the central
role America has played in pacify–
ing a state system that aJmost con–
sumed itself in two world wars."
Mr. Joffe, now a senior associate
of the Carnegie Endowment for
lnternational Peace in Washington,
D.C. , adds that the postwar West
European order has "endured
beyond expectations because it suc–
ceeded in solving two existential
problems at once. It managed to
envelop the potential of Germany,
Europe's past claimant to hegemony;
and it managed to contain the might
of the new contender, tbe Soviet
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