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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 29, 1981
PAGE 5
resolution that calls for U.S. medium-range nuclear weapons in Western
Europe, starting in 1983, and a simultaneous U.S.-Soviet effort to limit
the basing of nuclear weapons on the continent.
The Chancellor desperately needed a good showing in Washington, for he is
in deepening trouble on his home front.
On the eve of his departure for the U.S., Schmidt threatened to resign his
post in the face of mounting criticism generated by the youthful left wing
of his Social Democratic Party. The SPD leftists want Schmidt to go back on
the 1979 NATO decision to base new medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
About 200 of the Pershing II and Cruise missiles are to be stationed on
German soil by 1983.
At the very least, Schmidt needs a solid U.S. commitment to start talks with
Moscow soon over the entire "Euromissile" issue. On their side of the Iron
Curtain, the Soviets have positioned a growing arsenal of city-flattening
SS-20's. Washington, however, has not committed itself to a firm time
table, only a promise to explore the possibility of arms talks by the end of
the year.
Neutralism and Anti-Americanism
The SPD's strident left wing, however, is not likely to be satisfied with
any missiles-coupled-with-arms talks compromise. Many just don't want the
weapons, period. The fact is that a spirit of neutralism and pacifism is
spreading among West Germany's younger population.
These moods are increasingly being coupled with growing anti-Americanism.
Signs such as "Amis raus"--Americans get out--are appearing with greater
frequency.
U.S. military installations have been the target of three
bombings in recent months.
Schmidt is trying to counter the rising sentiment. He told an SPD party
convention in Bavaria before he departed on his American trip: "You have to
stop letting yourself be fooled into believing the Americans are our
enemies and the Russians our friends."
Anti-American resentments, however, go deeper than just the NATO missile
controversy or even complaints about American "imperialism" in El Salvador.
At issue is the entire scope of the post-war German-American relationship.
Writing in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine zeitung, Annemarie Renger,
deputy speaker of the Bundestag and a member of Schmidt's party, says this:
"Gone are the days when Kennedy's or Johnson's concept of a Great Society
served as a model for a social-liberal reform policy. At least for the
kernel of the surprisingly influential alternative ( such as the young
protesters who won over 7% of the vote in West Berlin on May 10), the United
States, meanwhile, has become synonymous for the things one rejects:
It
stands for a ruthless growth society that sacrifices basic values to
materialism, for the technological world civilization which levels tradi
tional cultures everywhere.
"German intellectuals oerceive American consumerism as a new fascism which
softly and without phyiical force destroys all communications media."