Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 4, 1983
PAGE 15
This kind of approach moves the issue away from a discussion of
what kind of mathematical formula is needed to govern reductions
and deployments, and into an area where a Western chief of state
is saying that there is � struggle going on for the future of
Europe, and that west Germany is the weak point.•.•
The reaction to Mr. Mitterrand's remarks in much of the French
and West German press was that he was endorsing Chancellor Helmut
Kohl, the Christian Democrat, over Hans-Jochen Vogel, the Social
Democrat, in West Germany's national elections on March 6. But
to many, the speech really reflected a deeper change in French
attitudes about west Germany, and France's willingness now to say
out loud what is often thought but sublimated in other allied
countries: that the question of maintaining west Germany's�
olvement in the West is now a serious one, and the� stake in
the outcome or-the missire-issue....
-- -- --
For the French government, events in West Germany over the last
two years have given support to those officials who see segments
of the west German political class dominated � a desire for
accommodation with the Soviet Union in order to move� in the long
term, toward German�unification•.::lBut] the French uneasiness
is not JUSt directed at the German left. A diplomat here, com
menting privately on the visit to Bonn last week of Foreign
Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union, found it extra
ordinary that the Christian Democratic-led coalition was not more
aggressive
in
pointing out what he saw as
the
lack of
novelty and
contradictions of Mr. Gromyko's presentation. "They reacted as
if they were in a trance," he said •..•
If West Germany refuses to deploy the Pershing 2 and cruise
missIIes, then, the Frenchreason, 1.t�ll be hard
to'refute the
ar
1
ument of those Americans who believe tnat Europe � not
de end itself, and is not worth defending.
Following thTs
analysis, if th;--unTted�tates diminishes its commitment to
Europe, the significance of an independent French nuclear force
and a French global political role would come close to disappear
ing.
Thus the French have two fears, a short-term one and one of a longer range.
1) A Europe at the mercy of Soviet might, decoupled from America, and 2) a
reunified Germany also under Soviet influence.
The key to German
reunification lies in Moscow's hands. What if the Soviets should ever
offer reunification in exchange for German neutrality? Fear number one is
a grave one to Paris, fear number two is a nightmarish prospect. In the
February 2, 1983 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, European analyst Mario Rossi
wrote more about France's concern.
France, a neutral country in all but name, has discovered a mon
ster that must be destroyed by all means if Europe is to be saved
--neutralism...•Mr. Mitterrand could speak with authority
because between France's implicit neutralism, based on the threat
of nuclear retaliation should French territory be attacked, and
the neutralism threatening West Germany, there
is a substantial
difference. The French brand is based on a will to fight in its
defense� the German variety isarenuncffifonoTtne use ofror"ce
under a11--arcumstances.
- -- -- -