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PAGE 14
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 17, 1985
provides its members a responsive or very rewarding political in
strument. Because America is the superpower, and the guarantor
of West Germany, Germans have given relations with Washington
priority over those with Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Rome and
London. When Americans disappoint them, as in the Bitburg case,
the shock is the greater for the investment that has been made in
the American tie.
Something constructive could result if Germans were influenced to
take a more detached view of their strategic dependence on Wash
ington, and were more seriously to consider the possibilities for
improving security cooperation with the principal West European
allies•••• Indeed, Americans as well as Germans need better to
understand that it is a basic interest of the United States as
well as of Western Europe, that Europe steadily improve its
ability to assure its own security--that the "European pillar" of
the Western alliance be as solid as possible, capable of standing
alone if necessary. That way lies a trans-Atlantic relationship
of confidence and mutual respect, which would have no need for
gratuitous displays of the kind seen, and suffered, at Bitburg.
It's amazing that nearly all analysts have traditionally believed that a
"more independent Europe" would continue to be a lock-step ally of the
United States. Why should this be? Already, the changed relationship be
tween West Germany and its American "role model" is evident, though not
always on the surface. Younger Germans, especially those politically left
of center, reflect this change most. To continue with the TIMES' Tyler Mar
shall (May 9):
Increasingly it is integrated Europe rather than the United
States that furnishes the model for West GermanS:--And most im
portant, Germans want to be seen and respected as equals in a re
lationship that has been dominated by the United States.
Karsten Voigt, 44, a Social Democratic member of Parliament and
his party's spokesman on_ security matters, said not long ago:
"We used to do what the
u.s.
wanted. There is now a whole list of
differences, and the list is going to grow longer, not
shorter..•. The basic democratic values we borrowed from you are
now part of our own identity. We now share common values but have
differing interests."•••
Another Social Democratic· member of Parliament, Guenter Verheu
gen, commented: "We don't want to break our economic and cultural
links, but we believe � need political emancipation from the
U.S. The roTe of the U.S. as our mentor is no longer acceptea:-1"
In light of the attraction of the United Europe idea, it is interesting to
note that President Reagan made stirring appeals for a United Europe--and a
reunited Germany within the context of a United Europe--on two occasions
during his trip. The first was when he addressed several thousand enthusi
astic young Germans at Hambach Castle, considered to be one of the foun
tainheads of German democracy in the 1830s. The President's address was
interrupted 40 times
!2Y
applause. He told the cheering students: