THE NATION: Steps Going Up

Since 1917, the U.S. has been more or less closely, more or less consciously involved with another vigorous, complex nation—Germany. Last week, when West Germany’s leader, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, took the momentous step of agreeing to full diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, Americans knew that the news was important to them. But there was a considerable difference of U.S. opinion as to whether the news was good or bad.

Some of the doubts focused on the fear that a Russian ambassador in the West German capital, Bonn, might seduce the Germans from their alliance with the West. This fear was hardly worth taking seriously; one of the most conspicuous facts of postwar Europe is the failure of the Communist Party—or any kind of pro-Soviet attitude—to find any acceptance in the free political marketplace of West Germany.

More plausible was another doubt that turned around Adenauer’s failure to get any definite commitment on the reunification of his country. But the possibilities there were strictly limited. The Russians could have agreed to reunification, provided that the Germans agreed to get out of NATO. This was the hidden bait in the Kremlin’s invitation to Adenauer. The Russians knew how powerful in German public opinion is the drive to reunite their country. Any German political leader less staunch than Der Alte might have been pressured into it. But Adenauer’s loyalty to the Western alliance is so crystal-clear that the Russians did not explicitly ask him to budge. Nor could any successor to Adenauer, less loyal, inherently, to the concept of Western unity, afford to disregard the strength that West Germany derives from the West. It is perhaps this infusion that enabled West Germany last week to negotiate with the Russians as between equals.

Reaffirming his country’s ties with the West, Adenauer agreed to establish diplomatic relations with Russia. Why not? From a U.S. viewpoint, only two points matter: 1) that Germany has not moved toward Communism or neutralism, 2) that any step toward the normalization of West Germany’s relations with its neighbor nations is a step away from the danger that another German trauma will disturb the peace of Europe.