Shifting Perceptions of Friends

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But over the past 1 5 years we have always stuck to the alliance's double-track philosophy, namely by maintaining a sufficient capability and will to defend ourselves while being open for negotiations and agreement. It was not just West Germany that negotiated with the Soviets. It was first Nixon. If you analyze the Reagan Administration's strategy in depth, you will find that it follows that double-track philosophy as much as we do. I would like, by the way, to remind you that just 40 kilometers from here, great masses of Soviet tanks are combat ready. Much more than any American living in South Carolina or Georgia or Texas or California, we here in Hamburg or in West Germany in general are aware of that.

Q. How do you explain the growing momentum of the peace movement in West Germany?

A. It's not only a movement in the Federal Republic. It started in the '60s in the U.S. Martin Luther King's widow was one of the symbolic figures of the West German peace movement last year. Of course, if you do away with the draft, your peace movement declines in volume. In a country where you have the draft, as in West Germany, as in Holland, as in other Continental countries, you have a greater potential for resistance. So you have taken the easy way out.

You also have Senators criticizing the President's strategy. I wouldn't call people like Fritz Mondale or Edward Kennedy anti-American. I would like Americans to understand that people who are demonstrating for peace in my country are not necessarily anti-American either. Having said all this, I am not totally happy with these demonstrations, because they appear to be one-sided. No big mass demonstrations for the maintenance of peace can ever occur in the Eastern, Communist-governed part of Germany, nor can they happen in Poland or in other places in Eastern Europe.

Q. Some U.S. Senators might be led by public opinion in America to vote for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Western Europe.

A. Extreme solutions are not appropriate. The situation vis-à-vis the military and political power of the Soviet Union requires reason, not emotion. In such a precarious situation, what you need is reason and decisiveness and continuity in order to be predictable to your adversary. This is an essential philosophy of mine.

Q. One hears West Germans say that one factor in these changing relations is that the Federal Republic has grown up.

A. No, I don't think so. We grew up a little earlier than 1982. On the other hand, we will never be in a situation like other states in the Western Alliance. We are amputated. The German nation is divided into two parts. And the old capital is a sort of political and strategic island in a Red sea. Communications between 17 million I [East] Germans, about as many people as are living in New York State, and the 61 million of us living in West Germany are hampered. Since the wall was erected across Berlin 21 years ago, we have been able to regain some communication. We are still deeply dissatisfied with it. But it is more than nothing. We don't want to sacrifice it. It is much more important for the 17 million Germans living on the other side than for us.

Q. Is there a greater desire now for reunification?