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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 27, 1984
PAGE 9
publication Tuesday. Indeed, the basic element of Todenhoefer's
thesis, combining French, British and European-based American
nuclear forces, would appear to run counter to the NATO negotia
ting position at the Geneva arms talks. U.S. negotiators have
consistently refused to accede to Soviet demands that the British
and French missiles be included in the u.s.-soviet intermediate
nuclear force talks.•..
Todenhoefer's ideas constitute the latest in a series of state
ments from West German politicians that reflect disquiet over
proposals for future NATO defense policy and the absenceof
movement toward reducing overall East-West political tensions.
On March 30, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher issued a 10-
page position paper calling for immediate resumption of U.s.
Soviet dialogue as well as a strengthening of the European side
of the Atlantic Alliance.
Last week, West German government
officials, including Defense Minister Manfred Woerner, sharply
criticized Reagan Administration plans to develop an anti
strategic missile defense system in space, saying that it could
diminish the United States' interest in defending Western Europe
and add a new dimension to the arms race.
One of the leading American experts on Germany is Gordon A. Craig, the J.E.
Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities at Stanford University. He is the
author of the book THE GERMANS. I had the pleasure of hearing Prof. Craig
speak in San Francisco last year. He autographed my copy of his book; I
took
his
photograph, sent
it
to him and we
have
maintained
a
low-level
correspondence since that time. In the April 10 LOS ANGELES TIMES, Prof.
Craig wrote an article entitled
n
Germans: A New Search for Identity.n Here
are excerpts:
It is probably true that the Germans, a people fragmented for
long stretches of their history, have always brooded over the
question of their identity more than other peoples have. But
this has rarely been as true as it is today. The question asked
long ago by Schiller--"Where is Germany? I don't know where to
find it!"--is no less perplexing than it was in his time.
To what does the � atriotic German owe his loyalty these days? To
the Federar-Repub ic, which in its own""'constitution is described
as a transitory creation? To the ideal of European unity, once
evoked by Konrad Adenauer but now sadly faded? To Willy Brandt's
emotionally unsatisfying construction
n
one Nation, Two States
n
?
Or to the idea of a Germany reunited at any cost?
There was a time--during the heady excitement of the economic
miracle, for example, and again during the first hopeful phase of
detente--when this question had little urgency.
This is no
longer true. With the emergence of serious economic strains and
the marked deterioration of relations between the superpowers,
Germans have become less sure of themselves and more aware of
their vufn'e'rability. This has made them both more introspective
and more self-assertive. This cannot help but affect German
American relations•.•.
This is seen in the welling up of interest among intellectuals,
Greens and the left wing of the Social Democratic Party in the