Storm over the Alliance

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meeting that Schmidt was going to have with East German Communist Party Boss Erich Honecker to discuss expanded trade and access by West Germans to East Germany. Another benefit of détente that Bonn does not want to lose is the arrangement that during the past decade has permitted some 250,000 ethnic Germans, mainly in the U.S.S.R. and Poland, to be repatriated to West Germany.

But though the allies have reasons for being reluctant followers, the U.S. has good cause to call for their support. Many Americans expect it simply because of what the U.S. has done for its allies in the past. Says a U.S. ambassador with wide experience in Europe: "We've given our allies a lot and we really haven't asked for anything in return. Our allies have got completely unused to the idea that an alliance should be a two-way street."

The French dismiss such references to prior American help as irrelevant in today's world but the West Germans do recognize that gratitude ought to be a factor. Says Helmut Kohl, chairman of West Germany's Christian Democratic Union: "We have relied on the U.S. for our protection, including Berlin's. It is only right that we now stand with the U.S., for the entire West's sake."

The main argument that the U.S. should be supported by its allies is based not on sentiment, however, but on a fact as hard as steel: the U.S. still protects the free world. For this reason, the U.S. believes that any European hope of achieving a separate, regional détente with the Soviets is impossible. The allies can pursue their individual regional concerns solely because they are guarded by the massive nuclear deterrent posed by the American missile, submarine and bomber forces.

The U.S. military shield is not only nuclear. Some 39,000 troops are based in South Korea and an additional 44,000 in Japan. Their fundamental purpose: to maintain the military balance in East Asia that is a precondition for continued Japanese political stability and economic growth. On the European continent the U.S. deploys more than 200,000 troops. By comparison, Britain has 55,000 troops stationed outside of its territory, Belgium 25,000, The Netherlands 8,620 and France 34,000. Though West Germany has 495,000 men and women in uniform, none serve outside the Federal Republic.

The cost of the vast U.S. arsenal imposes a greater burden on Americans than on citizens of any other allied country. Last year U.S. defense spending amounted to $510 for each American, compared with $396 for West Germans, $349 for Frenchmen, $314 for Britons and $124 for Italians.

Three years ago, in response to the alarming buildup of Soviet conventional and nuclear arms in the past decade, NATO members pledged to increase their own military outlays annually "in the region of 3%," adjusted for inflation. Their record has been good. France, Britain and the U.S., among others, reached the goal last year, and are expected to do so this year. West Germany fell short in 1979 but will probably hit 3% in 1980. The Japanese have been increasing their military spending by about 8% annually for most of the past decade. They started, however, from a very low base and will put only .9% of their gross national product into arms this year, compared with the 3.4% spent by West Germany and the 5.2% paid out by the U.S. (The Soviet figure is estimated to be