Repairing the Alliance

FOREIGN RELATIONS

When West Germans were polled recently on which nation they regarded as their country's best political and economic friend, 67% named the U.S.* The results, released last week, came as something of a surprise to Washington, which over the past year has felt increasingly estranged from its most powerful NATO ally.

For its part, Bonn has been nettled by such touchy issues as the future of U.S. troop commitments in Western Europe, West Germany's attempts to formalize relations with Communist countries in the East, and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which many West Germans view uneasily as a Soviet-American scheme to relegate the Bundeswehr to the status of a perpetually second-class army and leave the country open to nuclear "blackmail."

It was to repair this communications gap that West Germany's Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger flew to Washington last week for two days of private talks with President Johnson--their first meeting since their brief encounter at Konrad Adenauer's funeral last April. If the conferences did nothing concrete to settle differences, they did provide both Johnson and Kiesinger with a strong basis of personal understanding. Said one White House aide: "They emerged comfortable and confident with each other--and that's a damn big plus."

No Big Brother. West Germans have been worried about troop cutbacks since May, when the U.S. announced a "redeployment rotation" of its NATO forces that will take 35,000 Americans out of West Germany. On its part, Bonn alarmed the Pentagon in July by reporting that budgetary troubles would force a reduction in the Bundeswehr of as many as 60,000 men, weakening NATO's defenses at the Eastern frontier.

Kiesinger assured the President that the West German army will likely be cut by only between 15,000 and 19,000. Also, Bonn will maintain a ready reserve force of some 200,000 that can be used to flesh out cadre units on a few days' notice. In net effect, Kiesinger told Johnson, "I do not believe it will be necessary to reduce one troop."

While Kiesinger still has reservations about the nonproliferation treaty, which may well be presented to the Geneva disarmament conference this week, he got the President's warm assurance that the U.S. approves of Ostpolitik, Bonn's new policy of cultivating ties with Eastern Europe.

One of the most encouraging notes of the visit came when Kiesinger spoke at a National Press Club luncheon. Said he: "We no longer look upon the United States as the big brother to whom one comes running as soon as something goes wrong." If the syntax was Germanic, the sentiment was distinctly and hopefully Atlantic.

-* Followed by Britain, with 17%, and France, with 11%.

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