Victory

The divided world watched in united suspense last week as the people of West Germany fought the cold war with ballots. The battle, crucial to the global struggle between the democratic West and the Communist East, swirled around one man--Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

To topple him from power, the Communists ordered East German toughs and Red agents to slip across the border and sabotage the elections. But alert police and hastily mobilized West German youth organizations thwarted them: they were picked up by the thousands and jailed or bundled back across the border. To help him win, the U.S. Secretary of State made a blunt appeal for an Adenauer victory (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), and unwittingly gave Konrad Adenauer's most threatening opponents, the Social Democrats, an issue they sorely wanted. It embarrassed Adenauer's Christian Democratic coalition somewhat, but it came providentially late in the campaign.

Do Not Disturb. In the last hours of the campaign, no concern showed on the stern, creased face of the 77-year-old man who had piloted West Germany from chaos to prosperity, from defeat to respectability and alliance with the democracies of the West. He sped coolly through the last campaign stops, and then, on the day before election, retired to his garden on the banks of the Rhine and sent out orders to his party aides not to disturb him that night, nor on the next night when the election returns came in.

This week more than 26 million West Germans--of 33 million eligible to vote-streamed out into the warm sunshine to make their choice. Some, with rucksacks on their backs, queued up before polling booths as early as 4 a.m., voted, trudged off for holiday hikes. In Munich, a team of boxers went to their polls in boxing trunks on the The Christian Democrats had expected at best to run up a narrow majority over the Social Democrats and the crazy quilt of splinter parties competing for the 484 seats in the Bundestag. Instead, they won a smashing victory, and the right to govern Germany for four more years. In district after district, the Socialists lost strength and Adenauer's C.D.U. gained. Every one of the Communists' 14 seats in the Bundestag--including that of Party Boss Max Reimann--was jerked away from them. The neo-Nazi German Reich Party did even worse than the Communists.

Peacefully Sleeping. For the Western world, it was a resounding victory. West Germany, faced with the tempting alternative of Socialist neutralism that would cost it less in forbearance and treasure, had reaffirmed its determination to rearm on the side of the West and buttress up the faltering cause of European union. From statesmen in Western capitals came jubilant statements of victory. But from the quiet house of West Germany's Chancellor came no election-night message. Dr. Adenauer, it was explained, was peacefully sleeping.

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