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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, September 18, 1979
Page 12
Kissinger's message, reported Morton Kondracke in the New Republic, "was
such a shock that it became the center of conference debate." Don Cook,
writing in the Los Angeles Times added:
"It is a rather sobering begin
ning to NATO's next 30 years to have one of America's most spectacular
secretaries of state now saying that all the assurances he had given the
alliance in the past were eyewash."
"The Window"
Kissinger, elaborating on some of his points, said in conversation that he
thinks there is a period of about three years (others call it the "l,000-
day period") in which the United States and its allies can turn the
situation from growing vulnerability back to reasonable security. Unless
this occurs the United States and its allies will enter the so-called
"window of peril" period (or Moscow's "open window of military opportu
nity")--roughly the time between 1981 and 1986, when the new MX missile
system is expected to come on stream. During this "time of unusual peril"
(to use the terminology of columnist Ernest Conine) the Soviets could
either invade the west, or more likely, translate their military superior
ity into one of nuclear blackmail, or at the very least, heavy political
leverage against Western Europe (the so-called "finlandization" syndrome).
French Ask Germans to Upgrade Their Nuclear Force
Mr. Kissinger has finally spoken the unspeakable words--that Europe is in
a far more vulnerable position than anyone dared realize. Yet, the French,
for one, have suspected this "ugly fact" for a long time.
And now the French--unofficially--have called for closer military coopera
tion in the nuclear field with the West Germans. The first Frenchmen to
broach the idea, in mid-August, were Gaullists--despite the Gaullists'
expressed fears that the West Germans would sell out NATO in return for
any Soviet hint at possible German reunification.
The two Gaullists, retired general Georges Buis and politician Alexandre
Sanguinetti, floated their idea in the unlikely pages of the leftist Nouvel
Observateur.
(London's Daily Telegraph called it a "spectacular trial
baloon.") They argued that France now needs West Germany's money to stay
in nuclear competition with the super powers.
The Gaullists' opener was accompanied by a new book by three young French
officers called "Euroshima," urging France to share its nuclear power with
other Europeans instead of continuing to go it alone. The three--including
two officers on active duty--hardly speak for the French Government. Yet
readers were quick to note that under French regulations they could not
have published their treatise without the approval of �heir superiors.
"So far, the West Germans aren't nibbling," reports the Christian Science
Monitor.
Initial German comment has warned of an adverse Soviet reaction
to any West German access to nuclear weapons that isn't harnassed to the
Americans. Several newspapers reminded the French of West Germany's vol
untary treaty renunciation of nuclear weapons of its own. The conservative
Die Welt editorialized that "such wild utopian ideas...should be filed in
the folder Lmarke-9_7 'curiosities.'"