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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 2, 1983
PAGE 11
an independent status in the very heart of Europe, returning to its his
toric Central European position.
An independent, even reunited, Germany possibly cooperating with Moscow
sends shivers down the backs of French officials. For years the French have
had the best of both worlds. Politically they have been a part of NATO.
But in the 1960s, Charles de Gaulle withdrew France's military contrib
ution. He instead built up an independent nuclear force (never can tell
what those Germans might do).
This has worked fine--as long as West
Germany, situated between France and the Soviet bloc, remained firmly in
NATO'S embrace. Even though Chancellor Kohl has said repeatedly that West
Germany remains anchored to the West and will not be "a wanderer between
both worlds," Paris is not so sure. It's a new and chancy ball game.
Here then are some background reports to this very important "new era"
dawning in Europe. First is the account from the October 26, 1983 INTER
NATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE:
BONN--••.Fundamental changes are· under way in the political
makeup of the country [West Germany], which by its geographic
position is the front line--or the bridge, as West German
politicians prefer to put it--between the West and East blocs.
Diplomats from Western countries agree that the West German
national consensus on Western military strategy and on West
Germany's role in the alliance is breaking down, probably ir
revocably so••.•
Increasingly, West Germans point out that they have a greater
concentration of nuclear weapons on their soil than any other
country. They add that these weapons are under U.S. control and
that they have no power over how the weapons will be used. It was
Franz Josef Strauss, the conservative premier of Bavaria and
staunch defender of NATO, who shocked Bonn a few weeks ago with a
sudden. suggestion that the West Germans should be given the
"second key" to the nuclear weapons in their country•...
The Central theme di.Hing the [ October ] peace marches was that
West Germany would be the first country to be destroyed in a
nuclear war. "The Thirty Years' War killed half of all Germans,
so will the first thirty seconds of the next war," read one sign
at the rally in Bonn on Saturday.
The Pershing !Is have caused many people in Germany, especially the young
and college educated to question the post-war role of their country in the
Western Alliance. Here is a report by M�chael Binyon in the October 19
TIMES of London:
The missile debate••.has coincided with a revival of German feel
ing, a belief, especially on the left and among the young, that
it is time for the country to assert itself more, stand up to the
Arnericans and follow policies it believes to be in its own
interests even if Reagan's Washington does not. This feeling,
crudely dubbed as left-wing nationalism though far removed from
the old ideas of German nationalisrn, now has a dynamic of its
own. It is beginning to sweep up in its wake people and politi
cians who have long subscribed to the Adenauer view of. the