Another Tug on the Noose

Whenever the West begins to relax about Berlin, the Communists have a jarring way of reminding everyone that it is still there, and still vulnerable. Though crises flare and die elsewhere in the world, Berlin, where the cold war began, remains a constant pressure point, always susceptible to fresh Communist maneuvers.

Isolated deep within hostile East Germany, West Berlin depends for survival upon its right of free access to West Germany. Last week that right suddenly acquired a price. In a swift move, the regime of Communist Boss Walter Urbricht forced all West German and West Berlin travelers through East Germany to buy transit visas at $2.50 a round trip. After July 1, truckers and bargers will be required to pay new taxes on their cargoes, and after July 15 all West German travelers will be required to carry passports (in the past they needed only identity cards). In all, the East Germans will collect some $20 million per year in fees on the 13 water, rail and highway routes that connect the city with West Germany.

Walter Ulbricht was not really interested in revenue. The move seemed intended primarily to underscore East Germany's claim that it is a sovereign nation. It was also likely that Ulbricht, as the East bloc's last surviving Stalinist, hoped that a new Berlin crisis might induce a show of comradely support in Eastern Europe, dampening the trends toward liberalism in Czechoslovakia and Rumania. Since it was his third move in recent months against West Berlin's access routes, Ulbricht also obviously hoped to shake the city's self-confidence and discourage foreign investors.

The Danger of Reasonableness. On receiving the news, West German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, the former mayor of West Berlin, hurried back from Vienna. Ironically, he had been on his way to Belgrade to seek President Tito's support for West Germany's new policy of easing tensions with the East bloc. In Bonn, Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger held an emergency Cabinet session. In Paris, London and Washington, the allies, who guarantee West Berlin's security, conferred about what to do. The painful decision was to do nothing, aside from making a few perfunctory gestures. Kiesinger flew in a U.S. Air Force plane to West Berlin, where he promised that the Bonn government would pick up the tab for the East German transit charges, and the three allies sent a protest to the Soviets, whom they hold responsible for the maintenance of free access to West Berlin.

The allies were reluctant to take any retaliatory action, such as refusing to grant travel documents to East Germans for trips to NATO countries, because the East Germans had carefully left U.S., British and French access rights untouched. For its part, the West German government was unwilling to hit Ulbricht where it would hurt him most--restricting inter-German trade--since that would also hurt the average East German. Kurt Kiesinger's Grand Coalition is committed to a policy of trying to make life easier, not harder, for the East German population. Furthermore, because of the partial success of its new Ostpolitik, Bonn does not want to lose friends in Communist countries by appearing to be as repressive as Ulbricht.

The danger of such a low-key response was that Ulbricht might be emboldened to undertake some new move to tighten the noose that he holds around West Berlin.

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