WEST GERMANY: Rearming, Under Difficulties

Konrad Adenauer returned from his seven weeks’ vacation with an air of renewed energy and purpose. He had been badly shaken by the U.S.’s “Radford plan” to reduce U.S. military manpower, announced just when he was exhorting the Germans to rebuild their own army. But last week der Alte seemed once more the leader sure of what he must do. The Chancellor summoned the Cabinet, ordered his ministers to stop squabbling and get rearmament moving. He lectured a caucus of Christian Democratic Deputies, pointing out that the Suez crisis “illustrates the need for conventional arms and forces” even in the age of the hydrogen bomb. The U.S. had, he declared, “adopted a certain turning-away-from-Europe policy” which made the construction of a new army all the more imperative. “We cannot stand by with our hands in our pockets waiting for others to protect us,” said der Alte sternly.

Defense officials worked mightily to comply with der Alte’s exhortations. They assured Adenauer that his goal of 96,000 men in uniform by the end of the year would be met. There were 55,570 men already under arms, and recruits were pouring in at the rate of 4,500 a week. As fast as the Germans could accept them, U.S. tanks, self-propelled guns, 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, heavy machine guns and electronic equipment were rolling into German camps, part of a total $1 billion worth which the U.S. is giving the Germans to equip six of their scheduled twelve divisions.

West Germany was rearming in a mood of sullen reluctance. All over Germany, civilians were reacting to anything military with bitter hostility. Restaurants and bars posted signs: “Men in uniform not wanted.” Readers canceled subscriptions to newspapers and magazines which carried recruiting appeals. At dances, girls refused to dance with soldiers; it was demeaning, one girl explained. Every day, there were new incidents in which civilians had assaulted and roughed up some hapless recruit. Soldiers were jeered in the streets, had insignia ripped off their uniforms. In a Hamburg restaurant, a brawl started when civilian customers yelled at three soldiers: “Why don’t you get a decent job and stop living on our taxes?” One German unit reported that seven out of every ten of its men had been either insulted or attacked physically.

The situation has become so bad that one Christian Democratic Deputy has proposed “measures to defend our soldiers against attack by the population.” Munich’s Suddeutsche Zeitung editorialized wryly: “The Bundeswehr is being established for the protection of the state. Is the state now supposed to protect its soldiers against citizens?”