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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 2, 1983
When I look ahead, I see little reason for optimism.••• The
United States has lost its military superiority.
The Soviet
Union is accumulating arms, first to intimidate but also to
intervene if the occasion presents itself.
In Europe, West
Germany--which today more than ever is the keystone of the
Atlantic alliance--seems shaken••••
The pacifism of millions of West Germans limits their govern
ment's ability to make decisions:
Is it a legitimate fear of
horrible weapons or a rejection of the partition that the German
people accept less and less willingly? Whether he is socialist
or conservative, the chancellor in Bonn looks toward both the
Eastern menace andthe Western Protector. In which dTrectTon
will he finally
.s.9?
--
French worries about a "wandering Germany" enticed by the Soviet Union is
causing some leading personalities in Paris to broach a subject heretofore
taboo: German participation in the nuclear defense of Europe in order to
keep her tied to the West and give her more of a sense of control of her own
destiny. Here is another report from the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE'
November 2, 1983, written by John Vinocur of the NEW YORK TIMES:
Seen in the most schematic terms, France does not want a West
Germany whose guiding passion would be resolution of the Gerrrian
national question� accommodation with the Soviet Union. In the
same way, France feels its own security would be in danger if
West Germany deserted its traditional foreign policy guidelines
of security within the Atlantic alliance and West European
integration....
Sensing that a significant part of the West German political
leadership has moved in a direction France cannot ignore, both
French Socialists and the conservative opposition parties have
been hunting for ways of anchoring West Germany to the Atlantic
defense community. The French believe that more European defense
cooperation would be effective in giving West Germany a sense of
control over its own affairs, but they are confronted by the
reality of having little to offer in terms of real security or
widened perspectives.
The difficulty of the task was emphasized during a trip to West
Germany by Jacques Chirac, the mayor of Paris and leader of the
Gaullists. In talking about� European nuclear force, Mr. Chirac
said, "You can't think of it without Germany participating in it
directly at� level of responsibility, and you can't think that
it's the French and the British who are going to assure nuclear
deterrence in Europe." Although he later said he was quoted out
of context, it sounded as if Mr. Chirac were advocating� nuclear
role of some sort for West Germany, until now� virtual taboo.
In the publication FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENSE REVIEW, French analyst Jean
Francois Revel said, in an interview:
I think that Germany is now trying to sleepwalk into a state of
subjugation and that France, in spite of its more aggressive