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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 17, 1984
PAGE 15
Would a reunited, neutralist Germany be a useful buffer between
superpowers--or a way for the Russians to get the Americans out
of Europe? Would it revive the nationalist spirit that led to
two world wars? Bonn's leaders are deluding themselves•..• Re
unified, Germany would be stripped of its Western protection. It
would be at the mercy of the superpower that is unafraid to im
pose its will.
To balance the views of Mr. Safire, Josef Joffe, writing in the August 16
LOS ANGELES TIMES, downplays any possible conspiracy between the two
Germanys. Yet one is reminded of the age-old piece of advice: "Never say
never." In this case, never say that reunification is "impossible" or that
the Ber1in Wall--which recently "celebrated" its 23rd anniversary--won' t
come tumbling down some day. Unless stopped, this is the end product of the
momentum which has been set in motion.
Nevertheless, this is what Mr. Joffe, a former editor of the West German
weekly DIE ZEIT, had to say in an article titled "East Germany Is Edgy, but
Won't Stray Too Far."
Lase year the United States worried about "its" Germans: now it
is the Soviets' turn to worry about theirs.... Yet this new
Gemutlichkeit does not add up to a silent conspiracy against the
European status quo. Twenty-three years ago this week the erec
tion of the Berlin Wall destroyed the last illusions about reuni
fication, leaving sober realism to prevail. Since then the two
Germanys have embarked on a competitive/cooperative coexistence
that takes due note of the realities of power in Europe. These
realities were nicely put by the editor of HORIZONT when he told
a visiting West German colleague the other day, "Nobody wants re
unification--neither your nor our own allies."
The West Germans paid their dues when they joined the boycott of
the Olympic Games in 1980 and when they took the missiles in
1983. Erich Honecker has been even more careful not to provoke
Big Brother.
When the Pershings went into West Germany last
year, he dutifully accepted a new generation of shorter-range
Soviet missiles on East German soil.
During the Warsaw Pact
economic summit in May, Honecker promised to sacrifice hard-cur
rency earnings by bartering more goods to the Soviet Union. An
Olympic superpower, East Germany lost a treasure trove in gold
medals when it refused to show up in Los Angeles.
If that is insubordination, who needs loyalty? Nor do the So
viets have to fear their seemingly wayward allies: Both Chernenko
and Honecker know that East Germany is the most crucial brace of
the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe. Precisely because the So
viets will not hesitate to use force to maintain their bastion
between the Elbe and the Oder, Honecker and his comrades will
always act with the kind of circumspection that makes violence
unnecessary. The process of detente in Europe will never go far
enough for fear of its going too far.
The "two Germanys" story is building up so rapidly and we have. so mar:iy
articles flooding in on it that we'll probably present more next time or 1n
the near future.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau