U.S. Test in Germany

...And while the Social Democrats and their rivals are in reality equally to blame for the education crisis, the reaction will turn primarily against the spd, since anger over excessive student power tends to drive people toward the Right...

...Third, the American troops enable nato to maintain its present strength without an increase in German forces—which even if otherwise practicable, would arouse fear and suspicion among some segments of other European nations...

...Anyone desiring to understand the present European situation must realize that psychological factors possess a weight of their own...

...The Eastern strategy aims at longe-range effects...

...Neither of the two major parties foresaw the extensive teacher shortage that has become so evident, or the inadequacy of space and teaching staffs in the universities...

...But the situation within the fdp, whose 30 votes round out the coalition's majority, is far less under control...

...It is arguable—although it takes a strong measure of optimism to believe it—that neither Moscow nor Washington will ever again approach the brink of a new world war, that all policies based on deterrence are a fictitious game, and that it would be best for everybody to recognize this...

...Nor does it appear likely that the Brandt government will be able to divert the public's attention to advances on the domestic scene...

...For the Brandt government, there is a fifth aspect to the presence of U.S...

...The presence of American forces in Europe, most of them stationed in West Germany, has four essential purposes...

...But an important aggravating factor, one that prevented attempts at even a gradual approach, was the rigid attitude of the German Federal Republic (gfr) where relations with Communist Europe, and especially East Germany, were concerned...

...The greatest stumbling block on this road has always been the German question, that bitter heritage from World War II, and it could not be removed by mere wisdom and good intentions on the part of the West alone...

...The Vietnam war has overstrained the willingness of the American people to shoulder worldwide responsibilities...

...Since President Nixon himself, if not all of his advisers, has expressed sympathy and support for Brandt, American disapprobation does not at present appear to threaten the West German Chancellor's position...

...Nor is Soviet intrusion into West German affairs inconceivable...

...A far more immediate hazard is the fragile character of his domestic support...

...Further, it would probably induce the Allies to fall back on the Gaullist idea of eliminating American influence from European strategy planning—while continuing to count on being bailed out by U.S...

...Indeed, preservation of the Brandt government is in the interest of peace...

...dampening measures have failed to curb it, and the intensification of these strictures may well precipitate a new recession...

...obviously as a prelude to complete withdrawal...

...In fact, the first attempts at such charges, based on the conten-tilon that the U.S...

...in the short run, therefore, it does not have much to offer to the voter...

...To be sure, it made no sense when the ardent supporters of the Vietnam conflict tried to drown out warnings against overinvolvement in Southeast Asia by shouting "appeasement" and "Munich...

...As expected, Brandt did not encounter any serious difficulties at the Social Democratic conference in Saarbrucken last month, a rather vocal Leftist minority notwithstanding...

...Nevertheless, the altered German stance has freed Washington from the dilemma of either jeopardizing its relations with the gfr?the strongest of its Continental European allies—or continuing on a course that has proved a prime example of sterility...

...Second, by giving substantial strength to the conventional nato forces, the U. S. contingent, it is felt, makes it possible to delay the use of strategic nuclear weapons...

...If there is any substance to these reports, one hopes the objections referred only to form and other externals, not to the direction of the new policy...

...nuclear power in an ultimate crisis...

...As Brandt and his Foreign Minister, Walter Scheel, have repeatedly warned, no quick results can be expected...

...It would be a tragedy indeed if American policy-makers, instead of treating Bonn's shift as a boon, allowed secondary considerations to prevent them from giving Brandt's moves their full approval...

...troops from Europe would, as a first consequence, ruin the West German effort to secure an opening to the East...

...Following the electoral success last September of the Social Democratic party (spd) and the coming to power of Willy Brandt, negotiations were initiated to explore the possibilities of a rapprochement between the Federal Republic and the Eastern European states...

...and his supporters that the U. S. troop strength in Europe be drastically reduced...

...The fourth role of the U. S. forces here was graphically demonstrated on June 17, 1954, when Soviet tanks crushed a revolt against the Ulbricht regime...

...It is thus a tragic irony that some Americans who see their nation's primary concern as the reduction of international tension are now advocating a policy that would surely jeopardize the Chancellor's position...

...Far more dangerous than the frowns of Washington officials who do not quite approve Brandt's Eastern strategy is the demand by Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D.-Mont...

...Yet none of the possible disadvantages of Brandt's approach is very important, either from the American or German point of view, when measured against the significance of removing a dead weight from Western diplomacy...

...indeed at times they have only a tenuous connection with material conditions...

...But that is not reason enough to forget the historical lesson that infinite blood and treasure could have been saved by an early decision not to let Hitler overrun Europe...

...Some analysts, though, reported misgivings and raised eyebrows in Washington, owing to fears that Bonn might push its efforts for a rapprochement with the East too fast and too far...

...The threat to the Free Democrats' internal cohesion, and hence to the coalition, would hardly exist were it not for the fact that the government's foreign policy, for all its merits, has produced little in the way of visible success...

...Academic authorities have been forced to limit access to higher education even for qualified students—a step that has aroused great indignation...

...All the official pronouncements accompanying Brandt's mid-winter visit to the United States spoke of complete unity between the American and West German governments...

...Somewhat more convincingly, it could be argued that by trying three avenues simultaneously (talks Carl Landauer, Professor of Economics at the Berkeley campus of the University of California, is the author of the recently published Germany: Illusions and Dilemmas...

...Finally, there are those observers who see a danger of wires getting crossed between the current German efforts and the resumed Four Power talks on Berlin...

...On the other hand, a case can certainly be made for the utility of probing several spots at the same time...

...test in Germanyby carl landauer Hamburg Ever since the latter part of the Eisenhower era, every American administration has tried to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union...

...What is decisive, however, is not the actual but the potential military pressure, the play on fears for which the history of the last 40 years supplies so many important and frightening examples...

...In terms of negotiating technique, there might have been an advantage to designating the United States the sole spokesman for the West...

...The danger for peace of such a policy needs no elaboration...

...Yet whatever the present coalition's failures and mistakes in matters of education, and perhaps economics, when judged by a historical yardstick, they are outweighed by the credit it deserves for achieving a breakthrough in foreign policy...

...For under the 1954 treaties admitting West Germany into the Western European Union and nato, Washington is obliged to seek Bonn's consent before taking any significant step in these areas...

...Any desertion by even a small part of the fdp representation in the Bundestag would clearly reduce the coalition majority to the point where innovating action is virtually impossible...

...In addition, the Social Democrats are no less responsible than the Christian Democrats for the calamitous state of West German education...

...Any substantial withdrawal of U.S...

...Yet despite all the avowals of caution, the very zeal with which it has been pursued created an optimistic mood among West Germans...

...It was clear from the beginning that the U.S...

...Where the Brandt government is concerned, it would be easy to accuse the Chancellor and his partners of having inspired mistrust in Washington with their Eastern strategy, or at the very least of having lacked persuasive force in presenting the case for continuing America's military presence in Germany...

...The article in question declares it the right of the World War II victors to take measures against "any state which during the Second World War has been an enemy of any signatory of the present Charter," if these actions are "directed against renewal of aggressive policy . . . ." It is, of course, by no means a foregone conclusion that an evacuation of American troops from West Germany would be followed in short order by a Soviet invasion...

...Had the West German soldiers been left to confront East German and Russian troops alone, the high emotional pitch might have led to armed clashes of far-reaching consequences...

...It is a credit to Brandt's energy that an alliance operating on so small a margin has been so much more vigorous than most, or perhaps all, of its predecessors...

...An attacker can demoralize a crowd even with an empty gun, so long as it is not known whether it is loaded, and a policeman may restore courage by showing up with his weapon, even if he is determined not to shoot...

...Professor Karl Schiller's economic policy earned him great laurels when he was Minister of Economics in the Kiesinger coalition, because it led the country out of the 1966-67 recession...

...One faction questions the fruitfulness of the "opening to the East...

...If results fail to materialize soon, a feeling of frustration is sure to set in...

...withdrawal is already unavoidable, are discernible in the conservative Springer press...

...Any West German government losing this protection would incur a political liability it could hardly overcome...

...Still, in a parliamentary democracy there is no adequate substitute for a legislative majority...

...Similarly, the withdrawal of American troops from Europe would give the Allies, the Germans especially, the feeling that their most important protection was being removed...

...Although it is hard to judge the exact strength of this group, the Free Democrats' defeat in the recent state elections in Schleswig-Holstein is apt to supply the dissenters with new ammunition, for they can now argue that the fdp voters apparently disapprove of the coalition policy...

...In 1968, apparently as a tactical maneuver, Moscow claimed that Article 57 of the United Nations Charter gave it the authority to interfere in the Federal Republic to suppress "revanchist" tendencies...

...And it would be wrong to suppose a crisis of this kind cannot occur again...

...in Moscow and Warsaw, and the meetings with East Germany that began March 19 in Erfurt and were followed up May 21 in Kassel), Bonn has shown too much eagerness, and may have created the harmful impression of wanting to drive a wedge into the Eastern bloc...

...First, it serves to assure the Allies that the Soviet Union cannot invade Western Europe without encountering American soldiers and making the United States a belligerent from the start...

...troops in West Germany: If the Soviets had any reason to doubt that armed intervention in the Federal Republic, or drastic action against West Berlin, would involve them in an armed conflict with the United States, Brandt would lose most of his bargaining position in the Eastern negotiations and the apprehension generated by his foreign policy failure would cost him his domestic support...

...And the opposition?the combined Christian Democratic Union (cdu) and Christian Socialist Union (csu)—is acting on the principle that "the business of the opposition is to oppose," without much regard for what is destroyed in the process...

...The coalition with the Free Democratic party (fdp), on which Brandt's government is based, has a majority of only 12 votes in the Bundestag...

...Now, for the first time, Bonn is itself moving away from the fiction that by refusing to recognize the division of Europe and the two Germanies it can change these realities...

...This will almost certainly lead to a backlash in public opinion...

...Now Schiller is caught in much the same dilemma as President Nixon: Inflation is rising...

...experience in Southeast Asia would cause a revival of isolationism in one form or another, and the extent to which the sentiment now exists is no greater than had to be expected...

...Yet assuming this is the case, in the coming decades everyone will not sit down and lay his cards on the table...

...Both the Brandt and Kiesinger governments went overboard in trying to tranquilize the rebellious students through new university laws giving the youngsters more power than they can reasonably exercise...

...What is surprising, though, is the degree to which outstanding political leaders insist on ignoring the elementary truth that a policy of refusing all commitments does not work any better for peace than one of taking on all commitments without regard to costs, risks or chances of success...