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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 9, 1984
PAGE 9
provides more than 90% of the ground forces, 80% of the main
battle tanks and combat aircraft and two-thirds of the ships in
NATO's European area. European defense ministers are planning an
autumn meeting--without � participation--to �ahead� what
they call the "Europeanization" of European security....
Divorce is not likely. The Europeans, for all their complaints,
still lack the will to reaI independence� the U.S. and unity
among themselves. But . the current is runnin a toward separation.
Western Europe seems increasingly determine not to be dragged
along by the wheels of Mr. Reagan's ideological crusades.
The consultation among European ministers, referred to in the above
article, will take place this autumn in Italy, under the aegis of the long
dormant Western European Union. Here, specifically, is what the French are
pushing for in the way of European defense measures--and rather startling
proposals for West Germany. From the "International Outlook" section of
the March 12, 1984 issue of BUSINESS WEEK, comes this article entitled
"Paris Drafts Bonn in its Campaign for a Stronger Europe":
France's Socialist government is trying to tie Bonn more closely
to France and the rest of Western Europe by reviving long-dormant
European cooperation on defense--and it is trying to do so out
side the U.S.-dominated NATO. Last year, Paris began regular
military talks with West Germany, covering everything from nu
clear doctrine to nuts-and-bolts cooperation in weapons develop
ment.
The French are also creating a Rapid Action Force that
could quickly come to West Germany's aid. And Paris is proposing
to upgrade the Western European Union (WEU), a defense organiza
tion that was originally set up, without U.S. participation, to
provide a political framework for German rearmament after World
War II.
President Francois Mitterrand's primary aim is not to bypass
NATO--in contrast to Charles de Gaulle, who pulled French armed
forces out of the NATO chain of command in protest against U.S.
"hegemony."
What motivates Mitterrand--and French political
leaders of all persuasions--is a gnawing fear that the West
Germans are sliding toward neutrality in their eagerness to
reunite the two Germanys. Such anxieties have been intensified
by the crisis in the European Community, which threatens to
loosen the network of economic and political links among Germany
and the EC's other nine members. "The French have to find a way
to relaunch the EC, and one option is to relaunch it in the
strategic area," says Pierre Lellouche, director of the European
security program at the French Institute of International
Relations....
France has signaled what amounts to a fundamental shift in
military doctrine by preparing to mobilize quickly to fight,
alongside other allies, deep inside German territory.
This
contrasts with France's military strategy, since the 1966 pullout
from NATO's integrated command, of keeping troops in Germany
close to the French border as a second-echelon NATO defense....
A more symbolic gesture toward closer military ties with West
Germany and the rest of Western Europe is the package of