How to Convince Skeptics

West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had gone along with the West's rebuff to Russia's offer of a united "neutral" Germany (TIME, March 31). Now he had to convince a skeptical Bundestag.

Adenauer's favorite argument--that German independence and security can be had only through integration with the West--no longer sufficed. Socialists and even members of his own coalition pointed out that the Russian offer promised not merely independence, but a reuniting of East and West Germany.

Adenauer maneuvered adroitly. To take the edge off opposition charges that he is putting integration ahead of unification, he welcomed a Socialist resolution: that German unity is "the highest goal of German policy." To prove his loyalty to the goal, he promised to urge the West to arrange free, all-German elections. But Adenauer's best defense was his Realpolitik. Instead of arguing for Western integration for its own sake, he explained that the best way to get bigger & better concessions out of the Russians is to snuggle up close to the West.

Impressed, the Bundestag by a show of hands confirmed his policy, approving further negotiations with the West to end the Allied occupation and to put German soldiers in a European army.

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