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lor Helmut Schmidt told inter–
viewers on a recent trip to Wash–
ington that t he United S ta tes
must remember that Germany is
sti ll divided; that the Soviet!i can
t urn up the heat on isolated West
Berl ín at a ny time. " 1 can't for–
get," he said, "that the Warsaw
Pact troops are only 30 mi les
from my own home in Ham–
burg."
Mr. Schmidt also told inter–
viewers from
The Wa/1 Street
Journal
that West Germany im–
ports 97 percent of its oil and gas,
sorne of it from the Soviet Union.
" Jt is not too easy for us to tell
them we don' t need it any more.
We need it. ... We have to ex–
port in order to be able to import.
We expor t about 30 percent of
our GN P. Your exports a re about
7
pcrccnt. We clearly see that
sa nctions vis-a-v is the Soviet
Union-or South Africa- are a
sword with two edges."
No More Zigzag
What a ngers Mr. Schmidt, Prcsi–
dent Giscard a nd other Eu ropean
leaders is the hot-and-cold incon–
sistency a nd unpredictability–
"le zigzag" the French call it-of
U.S. foreign poJjcy.
Presently, Amer ica's a ll ies are
being told to follow a hardline
toward Moscow on the Afghanis–
tan a nd Olympic Games issues.
But who knows what tomor row
may br ing? Will Eu ropeans be
left clinging to a n a n ti-Sovie t
limb again in the near futu re,
with the White House ready to
saw it off in the interest o f
renewed détente? T he Europeans
have been burned too often.
Little wonder that the Ger–
mans want to, in the words of a
West German diplomat, "protect
themselves as much as possible
agai nst the effect of these Carter
fiascoes."
Despite inner frustration a nd
anger, Chancellor Schmidt re–
mains cautious in . his remarks
about Washington and the Atlan–
tic All iance. Not so h is close
fr iend, President Giscard who,
not long ago
in
a televised inter–
view, talked g lowingly of the
40
"reappearance of Eu rope as a
new center of influence and deci–
sion in the world."
West ern Alliance at Stake
T he I ra n ia n and Afgha nis ta n
crises have shaken European con–
fide nce in Amer ican leadership
more than anything since, or pos–
sibly even includ ing, the U.S .
defeat in Vietnam. This fact was
brought out vividly in a n art icle
entitled "Germany in a Semi–
Gaullist Europe" in the latest
(Spring, 1980) issue of
Foreign
Affairs,
the prestigious quarterly
of curren t events.
T he Western Al liance, reports
author Fritz Stern, is unprece,
dented in modero history.
lt
has
~~
America is perceived in
Europe not as a power
that has temporarily
slipped but as one which
may now be a
crippled giant.
' '
survived three decades-a long
time for a peacetime pact. T he
alliance renects a fundamental
real ity o f world po li t ics: the
Soviet U nion presents a da nger to
Western Europe which only the
United S tates can successfully
deter.
T his fact has been the very
heart of the a ll iance, whatever
the strains and compet ing inter–
ests within it. "But the funda–
mental pillar of t hat postwar
order, weakened for over a de–
cade, was vis i bly shaken b y
1979," said Stern, i.e. "the belief
in American power, American
resolution and American capa bil–
ity."
In absolute terms, Mr. S tern
notes, America today is stronger
militarily than ever before. Even
in relative terms, it has parity
a nd the potential for more. But
the perception of total American
s t rength has changed radically.
T he Europeans, he continues,
are fa r from dis interested observ–
ers of America's for t unes. "They
resent thei r dependence on the
Un ite d States fo r securi ty.
... T he unease a bout one's own
ineffectua li ty or lack of a utono–
my grows worse as one has
doubts a bout the strength and
wi ll of one's protector."
A Cr ippled Giant
For the Eu ropeans, the overthrow
of the shah, coming as it did on
the heels of Soviet-Cuban action
in Africa, d rama tized Amer ica's .
enfeebleme nt. The E uropea ns
quickly perceived the sha h's fall,
said Mr. Stern, "as , a política!
disaster of the first magnitude.
... lf
the shah wi th h is immense
strategic a nd economic assets
could so easily be washed away,
would other friends or allies of
the United States fare better?"
M r. S tern points out European
concern over America's economic
misma nagemen t too, how Wash–
ington has Aooded the world with
deprec iati n g d o ll ars: "The
United S tates, once the pillar of
postwar economic order, is now
viewed as its disrupter, pursuing
policies inimical to itself and to
its a ll ies."
Amer ica, he said, is perceived
in Europe not as a power that has
temporari ly slipped but as one
which may now be a "crippled
gia nt, a n imper ial power wit h
structura l Aaws tha t make con–
sistent policy d ifficult."
Europeans see, fa r more than
Americans themselves can see,
serious weaknesses in .U.S. socie–
ty, among them, Stern notes, "ra–
cial conAict, economic malfunc–
t ioning, criminal ity and d rug ad–
dict ion- perhaps signs of a pro–
found disabi lity that could weak–
en American Jeadersh ip for years
to come."
Leaders in Engla nd , too, are
a la rmed at the specter of Ameri–
can weakness. The Honourable
Eldon Griffiths, a Bri t ish Mem–
ber of Parl iament told an au–
d ience in Los Angeles, Califor–
nia, recently, that from his per-
The
PLAIN TRUTH