Atomic Arms Fight Divides Germans
ALLEMANN, R.
Popular protest follows Bundestag approval Atomic Arms Fight Divides Germans By F. R. AUemann Bonn After more than a year of hesitation, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer employed the...
...Their solution to the problem of atomic arms is simply: "No, no, never...
...The belief that German renunciation of atomic weapons would inevitably be the beginning of the end of NATO underlies the whole Government position in the present Great Debate...
...In such negotiations, the NATO powers could work toward a reduction of conventional forces on both sides of the Iron Curtain in addition to renunciation of atomic weapons, with a view to achieving a military equilibrium between East and West within the framework of a regional "zone of relaxed tension...
...He would regard the plan as a basis for discussion if it were linked, first, with restrictions on conventional weapons within the atom-free zone and, second, with the question of German reunification...
...if the latter was unavoidable, it should be urged upon Germany by the Western powers...
...Even among those who generally follow Adenauer's lead in foreign affairs, there was much criticism of the Chancellor's decision to jump the gun...
...If the vote showed an overwhelming majority against nuclear armament, it would be most painful for Adenauer...
...That these objections had some basis was shown by the reaction of the British press...
...The foreign-policy gains which Chancellor Adenauer hopes to derive from his premature forcing of the atomic-arms issue are being won at the price of an unprecedented hardening of domestic political positions...
...They feel that the Social Democrats' absolute veto on atomic arms (to which the Free Democrats have subscribed at least until such time as Germany is reunified) would deprive the West of bargaining power at the conference table...
...This kind of unqualified No is unacceptable even to those in the Government who are seeking to develop a more flexible negotiations program than Adenauer's...
...withdrawal=Bolsheviza-tion of the Continent...
...It is precisely this sort of regional understanding, however* which authoritative Bonn circles today regard as the chief danger...
...Adenauer and his aides continue to insist that there is only one way out of present international tension: controlled worldwide disarmament, plus solution of the political problems which are causing tension—above all...
...West Germany, it was said in Bundestag corridors, should under no circumstances take the initiative in pressing for atomic armament...
...On the last day of the Bundestag debate, he made a widely noted speech containing several unorthodox foreign-policy ideas...
...In fact, it was because Adenauer expected it that he pressed for a decision in the Bundestag...
...g., in an economic or political European community) . Gerstenmaier's ideas mark the first time that a leading member of Adenauer's party has differed on essential points with the official Bonn viewpoint...
...The struggle between the two camps is already being fought with methods which will sorely test the young German democracy...
...Under other circumstances, his speech would have created a sensation, for he had presented nothing less than a program for a nonpartisan foreign policy...
...While Adenauer was vacationing on the Riviera in February, these tendencies began to penetrate the ranks of his own Christian Democratic Union...
...Democrats, he sets very definite limits: Under such a settlement, he would permit no infringement of Germany's freedom to determine her own political and economic forms or of her right to participate in non-military international groupings (e...
...But his initiative came several months too late...
...This was shown when the aversion to rearmament, which was originally as strong as the current feeling about nuclear armament, gradually melted away as the years passed...
...He is not frightened by the thought that the Great Powers might first have to agree among themselves on the future political and economic status of a reunified Germany...
...The experience with military conscription was similar...
...In any event, the Opposition seems to possess a highly effective political weapon in the atomic-arms issue and will put it to the greatest possible use...
...The NATO Council has not yet made a final decision to provide even the Allied armies with tactical nuclear weapons...
...Adenauer, with his plan for atomic arming of West Germany, had already stolen Gerstenmaier's thunder...
...Among the rank-and-file, moreover, a campaign has developed for a political general strike against atomic armament...
...But the Social Democrats and Free Democrats feel that it could provide a basis for East-West negotiations...
...Popular protest follows Bundestag approval Atomic Arms Fight Divides Germans By F. R. AUemann Bonn After more than a year of hesitation, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer employed the recent major foreign-policy debate in the Bundestag to obtain a provisional vote in favor of equipping German armed forces with atomic weapons...
...At the same time, unlike some Social...
...Since the West German Constitution makes no provision for refer endums, the Social Democrats have introduced a bill in the Bundestag which provides for a purely consultative vote—one which would not bind the Government but would give the public an opportunity to express its opinion...
...Adenauer believes that, in the year-and-a-half to two years which are bound to elapse before the atomic decision takes effect, the present protest movement will also spend itself...
...Like the Social Democrats and Free Democrats, Gerstenmaier feels that a "constructive elaboration" of the Rapacki Plan might be feasible...
...Gerstenmaier's speech, intended to create a wider area of agreement in the foreign-policy field, was foredoomed by Adenauer's determination to push through his atomic-arms policy...
...Bonn officials regard disengagement talk as extremely dangerous...
...Although the Opposition's stand is not very convincing to diplomats, it does correspond to the popular mood at the moment...
...Germans generally reconcile themselves quickly to accomplished facts...
...But that means a further sharpening of political differences in West Germany...
...Under U. S. law, the warheads are to remain in American hands...
...The decision to accept atomic weapons, which the entire Opposition rejects and is fighting bitterly, has thus virtually eliminated any possibility not only of regional disengagement but of a nonpartisan foreign policy...
...The German Trade Union Federation is wary of this, for its leaders know that the political strike is a two-edged weapon...
...Never since the founding of the West German state have the Government and the Opposition been divided by such an unbridgeable gulf as today...
...Harold Macmillan's Government feels, to be sure, that the Germans must be given nuclear weapons in the interests of Western defense...
...He was concerned with something else: with removing any doubts about West Germany's attitude toward the much-discussed "disengagement" proposals, and with dealing a death blow to the Rapacki Plan for Central European denuclearization by a swift coup in the Bundestag...
...Among them is Dr...
...The trade unions have been making representations to Chancellor Adenauer and the leaders of the various parties...
...dis-engagement=neutralization of Germany...
...withdrawal from Europe...
...Adenauer obviously considered these psychological factors of secondary importance...
...There is no question that atomic armament is as unpopular as it possibly can be...
...He was alarmed at the possible effect in the United States of the trial balloons which several CDU leaders had sent up in his absence...
...They have been increasingly disturbed by the response aroused even in West Germany by the proposals of George F. Kennan, Hugh Gaitskell and others for "disengaging the military blocs" on the European Continent...
...What could possibly induce the Russians to make concessions if they were handed permanent atomic disarmament of Germany without being asked for a quid pro quo...
...Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss emphasized during the debate that he had no objection to that...
...But it is understandable that this step could hardly be popular among peoples whose memories of World War II are still very much alive...
...For it is a mortal political sin in Adenauer's eyes to arouse even the slightest doubts in Washington about German firmness and solidarity...
...The Social Democrats, with the help of the Free Democrats, may well be able, however, to stage referendums in several of the West German states...
...If NATO deems it strategically necessary, the Germans will be given tactical weapons that can be fired with either conventional explosives or nuclear warheads...
...Hence, agitation has tended to concentrate on the idea of a referendum...
...Public-opinion polls have shown some 80 per cent of those questioned in favor of keeping Germany free of atomic weapons...
...in fact, the Bonn regime wanted it that way, since it had no intention of ever using these ultra-modern weapons except by decision of NATO...
...He even envisages the possibility that the "protective shield" of NATO might then he replaced by other guarantees (along the lines of a European security system...
...an agreement on German reunification...
...neutralization of Germany= breakup of NATO...
...breakup of NATO=U.S...
...Even prominent oppositionists concede that this Polish proposal cannot be accepted by the West in its present form...
...This has already led to sporadic work stoppages in individual factories...
...Needless to say, this chain of causation vastly oversimplifies a highly complex and many-sided situation—and some politicians in the CDU are quite aware of this...
...Having lost the parliamentary battle (not a single CDU deputy broke ranks in the decisive vote), the Opposition has carried the struggle outside Parliament...
...Why did Adenauer choose this particular time to force a decision which he had hitherto carefully avoided...
...The first 24 Matador missiles for training purposes have already been ordered...
...This position can be summed up in a simple formula: "Rapacki Plan = disengagement...
...The Social Democrats had forfeited any chance of exploiting Gerstenmaier's proposals by taking a rigid position in the debate on atomic strategy...
...At stake here was not merely the Rapacki Plan...
...Eugen Gersten-maier, President of the Bundestag and unquestionably one of the most fertile minds in the Government party...
...Yet, North Rhine-Westphalia happens to be one area where the project faces serious legal obstacles...
...further equipment of this type may follow within IB to 24 months...
...This maneuver would have a real psychological effect if carried out on a large scale—for example, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which contains the industrial Ruhr area and more than a quarter of the West German population...
...The Government, of course, has no intention of handing this sort of propaganda weapon to its opponents...
...at first, conscription had more opponents than advocates, but today, less than two years after its introduction, it has already ceased to be a political issue...
...This resistance did not surprise the Government...
...Social Democratic leader Erich Ollenhauer reiterated emphatically, two days after the end of the Bundestag debate, that his party would oppose equipping German units with nuclear weapons even if the major powers' disarmaments negotiations collapsed and the Russians rejected all constructive Western counter-proposals to the Rapacki Plan...
...that decision will not be made until May at the earliest...
...Even on the methods of achieving German unity, Gerstenmaier has his own ideas, which differ substantially from Adenauer's...
...The new nonpartisan committee "Against Atomic Death" plans to arouse the people with a series of big demonstrations...
Vol. 41 • April 1958 • No. 16
