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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 9, 1983
surface of the West German debate over deployment of U.S.
Pershing II missiles...is the more basic issue of German national
identity.
The missile emplacement•..has deepened West Germans' sense of
frustration over the East-West hostility that keeps the two
Germanys apart. That, in turn, has stirred resentment, mainly
against the U.s., over West Germany's lack of sovereignty in
forei 9 n policy, stemming from its dependence for military
security£!:! the U.S. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), turned
out of office in November, 1982, is seizing on the issue of re
unification to refurbish its image and define a new mission for
itself now that economic recession has crimped the welfare state
it built during 13 years in power•..•
So politically potent is the issue of German unity that the
ruling Christian Democratic Union {CDU) and its coalition
partner, the Free Democratic Party, cannot afford to let the SPD
monopolize it. Chancellor Helmut Kohl told Soviet Leader Yuri V.
Andropov, during a visit to Moscow last July, that West Germans
wiJ.1 never relinquish the goal of reunion with East Germany. And
Franz Josef Strauss, the hard-line anti-Communist who heads the
CDU's Bavarian affiliate, arranged a $397 million, government
guaranteed bank loan in September to help bail out East Germany's
debt-ridden economy. Such gestures may become even more impor
tant politically to Kohl.
The September 16 WALL STREET JOURNAL gave some background to the billion
mark loan given to East Germany by the conservative Bonn government:
Franz Josef Strauss, the right-wing Bavarian premier whom
Communists love to hate, was put in the unlikely position last
month of carrying secret documents from East Germany to West
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The Bavarian had just finished
his visit to East German leader Erich Honecker, who a few days
earlier had accepted a controversial billion-mark loan Mr.
Strauss organized for cash-strapped East Germany. Mr. Strauss
self-consciously shook Mr. Honecker's hand for surprised photo
graphers and left, having tucked away the documents••••
The first document, of about 3-1/2 pages, lists seven East German
intentions for future cooperation with Bonn. It includes plans
to continue selling political prisoners to Bonn (now more than
1,000 a year) [and] intentions to "lose" fewer parcels sent from
West to East•••• [ About 1,000 to 1,500 political prisoners are
sold annually, at 40,000 to 100,000 marks ($15,000 to $37,000)
each, a West German official says.] The second, more politically
explosive, document is a copy of a note Mr. Honecker sent to
police officials after three deaths this summer of West Germans
on the East German border. Two died while in East German custody
at border stations. The note instructed border police to be more
"careful" and "polite" in the future••••
The documents, the contents of which senior West German officials
have confirmed, are especially revealing now, as they illustrate
East German plans to maintain or perhaps even expand German coop-