Of all the members of the German political class, I was one of the first to start contacts with the communist leadership in the middle '60s in what came to be known as détente. There may not have been clear-cut concepts underlying the Ostpolitik that followed, except that my friends and I were convinced that it was necessary for the Germans as a nation to build up friendly, neighborly relations with, most specifically, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.

In the '70s Brezhnev was at the peak of his political clout and, though he didn't show this publicly, obviously feared another war. My conversations with him made it clear that Brezhnev's views were not shared by others. Once, after Andrei Gromyko had harangued for many minutes, I said half jokingly to Brezhnev, "See, that's the Russian way." Brezhnev replied, "Gromyko isn't Russian; he's Belorussian." At that point Gromyko stiffened and said, "The Belorussians are the best Russians." Everybody laughed; but there was something to that.