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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 10, 1981
PAGE 9
If France is a dilemma to Washington, West Germany today represents a
foreboding of the eventual breakup of the entire Western Alliance struc
ture. Almost like wildfire, a pacifist movement is surging in West Germany
led by the Protestant (Lutheran) clergy, and subscribed to by vast numbers
of West German youths.
Recently, in Hamburg, a biennial congress of the West German Protestant
Church drew 120,000 mostly young participants. The big focus was on dis
armament and putting pressure on Bonn's leaders to scrap the 1979 NATO
decision to upgrade NATO nuclear forces. The motto was "Be not afraid."
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt took the conference so seriously that he decided
to attend, along with Defense Minister Hans Apel, to defend the govern
ment's decision to station the new generation weapons on West German soil.
He warned the pacifists, to no apparent avail, not to assume that God was on
their side. He passionately disputed the pacifists' view, reported the
Times of London, "that the government should follow Christ's teaching--such
as 'turn the other cheek'--on its defense policy."
The "Peace Movement" in West Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium is, quite
naturally, being supported by vast amounts of Soviet propaganda.
Nearly �verywhere Mr. Reagan looks in Europe, he sees disturbing signals.
Sweden is about to turn Socialist again after a brief, unsuccessful try at
relative conservatism.
NATO member Norway has a new Labor government
flirting with neutralism. Because of these tendencies, the Soviets are
once again floating the idea of a "non-nuclear zone" for Northern Europe-
complete with a "guarantee" that Soviet nuclear weapons would not be used
against the Nordic countries.
Thus, as we reported last time, the Soviets, while struggling with Poland
in Eastern Europe, are making great strides toward neutralizing ("Fin
landizing
11)
Western Europe. Where will this all lead?
In a remarkable article entitled, "Showdown Time for Schmidt" in the June
10, 1981, issue of The Nation, author Norman Birnbaum writes: "The entire
question of Federal Germany's role in the alliance has now been raised in
more acute form than at any time since the German debate on rearmament
thirty years ago. One German option might be a revival of the old idea of
the European defense community. The United States would dislike it, since
it would emphasize European autonomy. The Soviet Union would dislike it
because of that and the implied inclusion of the Federal Republic in a
European nuclear force.... There is, however, another possibility--much
more remote.
"In a last-minute attempt to avert German rearmament in 1952, Stalin pro
posed--in effect--the reunification of Germany in return for its military
neutralization. The Soviet leadership is averse to risk-taking. Still,
suppose that within the next decade it concludes that it must break out of
its trap. A failing economy, staggering burdens of arms procurement, the
spread of domestic dissent to the ethnic republics and the working class,
Polish conditions everywhere in the empire•.•may combine to induce a new
willingness to incur risks. We usually assume that the Soviet leadership
might risk war. What if it risks a political campaign to undo the Atlantic
alliance?••.A serious Soviet offer to the Federal Republic might have a
serious hearing--from right as well as left."