Ev'ry heart beats true for the red, gold, and black - German reunification

National Review, March 19, 1990

THE POPULARITY that German reunification enjoys between the Rhine and the Oder is, to put it mildly, not universally shared. Poland's Solidarity Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki went so far as to hope that Soviet troops would stay in his country until the Polish--German border was guaranteed. Richard Helms, reflecting foreign-policy-establishment opinion in this country, called reunification a "runaway freight train that nobody--East or West --seems able to contain." Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze warned of "sinister shadows" of the past, which A. M. Rosenthal--normally no fan of Communist bureaucrats--called "a brave suggestion."

The first thing to note about all of this is that the nation which put itself in the hands of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler has earned the fear of its neighbors, however mischievous many of the current fear-mongers may be. The second thing to note is that all the fear in the world won't keep the two Germanies from coming together. East Germany has psychologically ceased to exist. Helmut Kohl, Willy Brandt, and other West German pols campaign there as if they were in Hanover or Munich. German reunification is happening, and only those who support it can hope to have a say in its eventual shape.

But the new Germany, and the new Europe in which it will inevitably bulk large, must be structured in such a way as to allay the two fears of non-Germans: fears of military aggression and of economic domination. No reasonable person expects Reichspresident Kohl to embark on wars of conquest, and all reasonable people want and expect treaties guaranteeing the present Polish border, and a German no-nukes pledge. But treaties, as the Locarno Pact showed, are paper, and who knows what sort of German politician may appear down the road?

A "neutralized" Germany--a common Soviet buzz-phrase --would be worse than useless. The last thing we want is a Germany hanging, like forgotten laundry on a line, between East and West. The best remedy is to keep Germany in NATO, with a quorum of American troops in Germany. A continuing American presence would be a symbol of American commitment to the status quo, providing Germany with a cultural and psychological anchor to the West. Americans should stay even after the Soviets have gone. There might be a transitional period in which Soviet units remained in the former GDR, even though the entire country would be a NATO power. But the Soviets must see that we are better guarantors of their security in the long run than they are themselves in their present and future enfeebled state.

The ideal counterweight to German economic might also involves American power, but the economic means of projecting it is free trade. Those who look to Brussels as Europe's next Rome imagine that an economically rambunctious Germany could be kept in check by the European Community. But a Germany accounting for 40 per cent of the Community's gross national product would obviously dominate such a structure, rather than be dominated by it. A German-dominated Europe, tempted to protect its high-cost industry by tariffs, would give U.S. demagogues like Dick Gephardt their best excuse for circling the economic wagons.

German economic power can only be constrained effectively by free trade in the widest possible free market. We would like to see a "Europe" that stretches from Poland and Hungary initially to Connemara, subsequently all the way west to the Pacific. A North Atlantic Free Trade Area would be the economic equivalent of NATO plus Eastern Europe. Built on free competition rather than bureaucratic regulation, it would be the largest market and greatest alliance of free nations in history. And it would be too vast and diverse for any one nation to dominate. Just as, in 1949, American military power rescued Europe from Soviet domination, so today U.S. economic strength can protect France, Britain, Italy, and the smaller EC countries from German domination. As Clemenceau might put it: Europe is too important to be left to the Europeans.