Monday, Dec. 25, 1950
In an Atmosphere of Crisis
Soft music wafted from loudspeakers, through streets gaily arched in colored lights, over children tumbling in the snow, across the city preparing to holiday. On the Eve of Christmas, Brussels looked serene and secure, but, like the rest of the world, Brussels felt the underlying fear and tension. Inside the rococo Hotel Metropole, in an atmosphere of crisis, the Foreign Ministers and military chiefs of the twelve Atlantic pact nations met this week to set up the long-delayed military force for defense against Communism.
Volkskammer. The Brussels meeting was held under a cloud of new threats from Russia. Three days before the meeting opened, the Kremlin had called in the French and British ambassadors, handed them similar notes. Said the one to France: Russia would not "accept" the rearming of West Germany planned by the Atlantic pact powers. Furthermore, France was "responsible" for undermining the six-year-old Franco-Soviet non-aggression pact. Meanwhile, the Communist German East zone Volkskammer (Parliament) unanimously decreed penalties up to death by beheading for all Germans--West as well as East zone--who supported German rearming.
The Communist threats underlined the choice facing the Brussels conference: it could either back down and leave Europe defenseless, or it could act swiftly before the Communists translated threats into action. The conference seemed determined to act. At the end of the first day, the conferees announced plans to form a 1,000,000-man force by the end of 1953, including 55 to 60 divisions under Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (formally appointed this week).
Barely a few days before, NATO deputies and defense chiefs had settled the sharpest issue: German participation in a Western European army. From France they had wrung assent to German regimental combat teams of 6,000 men each; in turn they had agreed to the French demand that these units be absorbed into divisions commanded by non-Germans.
Gleichberechtigung. If the Brussels conference ratified this agreement, the next major job would be to sell it to the Germans. As the Western military position had deteriorated, and the Russian threat grew, Germany's price for risking rearmament had risen. The Bonn government now demanded no less than Gleichberechtigung (equality). Politically, this meant ending the occupation statute, replacing it by a treaty giving Germany sovereignty. Militarily, it meant full German divisions, commanded by Germans.
Britain and the U.S. seemed prepared to concede German political equality and to bargain with the Germans over military equality.
After two years lost in haggling--five meetings of NATO Foreign Ministers, four of Defense Ministers--the West was finally taking a decisive step toward rearmament.
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