OPPORTUNITY IN GERMANY
Lloyd, William B.
Opportunity in Germany By WILLIAM BROSS LLOYD Bonn ATRIP through Germany while public opinion was still reacting to Gen. Eisenhower's relaxation of pressure for rearmament, and to the nearly...
...But now that Russia is apparently prepared to accept some such solution, the war hawks chorus that it must be purely a Communist propaganda trick...
...Germans are not ready to return to Goering's "Guns instead of butter" slogan...
...The following points need to be considered in relation to popular reactions in Germany: One—The cost of Germany's past adventures with militarism has been constantly emphasized by Allied experts in "re-education...
...The Chinese word for crisis is a combination of the words for danger and opportunity, and this expresses the situation in Germany...
...The Germans have not forgotten the fact that when James F. Byrnes was Secretary of State he suggested that Germany be kept disarmed and neutralized under guarantee by the Four Powers...
...The question is not whether there will be German unity, but merely what kind of unity, achieved by what means...
...America, which fought Hessian mercenaries to gain its independence, is now accused of attempting to use Germans as "cannon fodder...
...While the release of Krupp may serve as an American rap on the knuckles for those German politicians who are still dragging their heels on the question of rearmament, it demonstrably hurt the American cause with the general public...
...There is a great eagerness in Washington to conscript Americans for military support of the United Nations, and a lot of talk about creation of a permanent UN military force, but meanwhile the Western foreign offices have done nothing effective to give the UN its own independent voice through expansion of the UN broadcasting system...
...Millions of Germans receive striking anti-war lessons every day as they pass bombed-out buildings on their way to and from work...
...Far from it...
...Four—Rearmament talk started long before any real move to give Germany either internal unity or equality with other nations...
...The plain fact is, of course, that the German people are not going to accept the division of their country in the long run...
...At that time, immediately after World War II, this suggestion was received as something perfectly logical and possible...
...Does this mean that Germany has become a nation of pacifists, and that all we need do is to neutralize the country under a Four-Power guarantee in order to render the peace of Europe secure...
...Under the heading of opportunity, why has there not been more consideration in the United States of giving the United Nations a definite role in the rehabilitation and unification of Germany...
...Two—The ruins are still there to show for it...
...But take the other side of the picture...
...If it hopes to make any appeal besides that of military force, the West must show leadership toward German unity, rather than dragging its feet and falling back on scare tactics...
...Taxi-drivers, businessmen, and others not only opposed it, but felt it would be impossible to put over...
...This program can provide not only an answer to the Soviet proposals for Germany, but can also hold out real promise of a long-range solution for the rest of the world...
...Germany might be compared to a charity patient in the hospital of democratic world organization...
...Rearmament after abortive dismantling doesn't make sense...
...Such a step need not await a neutral or UN military force...
...They are going to work toward unity over the bodies of their own and Russian and American war dead, or through the processes of consent and negotiation...
...Watching the parades and uninhibited night life that accompanied the three-day Rosenmontag which puts Germans into the proper mood to submit to Lent's austerities, this correspondent was inclined to consider present-day Germans reckless and callous compared with America's stern concentration on civil defense and war preparations...
...Three—Dismantling of arms plants was recently still in progress...
...Eisenhower's relaxation of pressure for rearmament, and to the nearly simultaneous American release of the armaments magnate Alfried Krupp von Bohlen, shows the danger of generalizations about any nation or people...
...Fear of Russia is not so great a few kilometers from the line of Russian occupation in Germany as it is in New York City...
...During a week of travel in Germany, I heard only a few politicians endorse German rearmament...
...Why not seize the opportunity to experiment with the stabilization of public opinion through a limited number of UN radio outlets, thus preventing aggression beTore it starts...
...An American occupation official, embittered by the outward levity of the Germans in the face of the threat from the East, remarked on the anti-rearmament tenor of parade placards in all major cities: "It's just a bargaining maneuver to get equal privileges quicker...
...At Hattingen and at Dortmund equipment has been removed by Allied command, thus adding to the already considerable number of German unemployed...
...The UN medium-wave broadcasting stations in each zone of Germany could make dispassionate, relatively impartial news easily accessible to the broad masses of the people, thus laying a solid foundation for negotiations to make of Germany the democratic, independent and law-abiding member of the UN which she must some day become...
...The West German constitution already provides for transfer of sovereignty to international organizations...
...But what vision is there in the Allied camp for the opportunities of the situation...
...Minds cannot be turned on and off like water faucets, in spite of all the advances of psychological science...
Vol. 15 • April 1951 • No. 4
