West Germany: The New Nationalism

Until recently, West Germany was largely content to let the U.S. and other NATO allies call the tune on East-West policy. Of late a militant, assertive new spirit has risen east of the Rhine. It is, in a sense, a new nationalism— not the unsavory kind associated with jackboots and lebensraum but a more civilized version reflecting the muscle and emotion of a strong, reborn nation.

The new nationalism is based in part on a nagging suspicion that West Germany will be the loser in a cold-war settlement between the U.S. and Moscow; the fear is of a...