European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes Flora Lewis Germany moving ahead at Breakneck Speed Imrem Iii Mima i i Ottawa the principle is stilled. West Ger Many will absorb Easl Germany probably this year. Bonn s december elections will be for a Rich Kanzler. Not just Leader or the Federal Republic but of ail Ger Many. Whether East germans participate remains to be decided. But they will have a big influence. The electorate will know it is choosing the government for a United coun try. There is an enormous Complex of questions ahead on How two separate state systems two separate economies two separate societies Are to be merged. Nobody was even asking these questions before. But they have become urgent and unavoidable. For example what happens to the East German army a highly trained Force of 173,000 with 324.000 reserves closely meshed with the soviet command Bonn officials say officers keep turning up to ask for equivalent jobs in the West German forces. So do some East German diplomats. But the big administrative structures won t just melt away. The soviets Aren t trying to hide their unhappiness atthe Pace. Foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze told Canadian legislators it was important to go slowly to act cautiously and  but he seemed to realize it was too late for Moscow to put on the brakes so he sought to Speed up the demilitarization of Europe and creation of a new pan european Security  but there Loo. The questions weren t asked in time so there will have to be improvisation in the desperate attempt to make the two calendars German and european coincide. The soviets want to Start right away drafting plan for new East West institutions encompassing the new Germany to be established by Helsinki Summit talks late this year. The italians and some other europeans Are thinking on the same lines. They Aren t pleased at the two plus four formula leaving it to the wartime big four to oversee implications of the German settlement for everybody else. The poles worried about their vital Western Border want their voice to be heard. They have a Strong Point. Bonn always said it could t commit to a United Ger Many without a peace treaty. But after All there in t going to be a German peace treaty 4 years later. So the commitment must be made now in some other form. Eastern europeans have been quicker than the rus sians to realize that a Neutral Germany not attached to the West is More danger than Benefit to Europe. The partition of Germany and of Europe Stephen s. Rosenfeld the first clue thl we maj want b rethink this whole German reunification thin the Coal began with the Deutsche Mark said the polish foreign minister Kris Lyslof a Kupiszewski. Referring to the 1948 currency Reform in the three Western occupation zones and it will end with the Cutsche Mark taking Over East Germany. The West German army is now totally under nato and it sees the advantage of keeping it that Way until a new european system is in place. If that Means soviet troops staying on awhile in a special East Ger Man zone so be it. The witty czechoslovak foreign minister Jiri Dienstbier put it succinctly where we live in a symbiosis of the Good Soldier Schcik Franz Kafka and Josef Stalin nothing is  the problems roiling the europeans now arc really those left by the world War i settlement. The United states is just thinking of the aftermath of world War ii. In Gol off the world for the generation Between two wars and does t have the insulin Clive institutional memory of europeans. Appeals to remember the horrors of Hitler and the nazis miss this sense of older european instability which has to be addressed in making sure thai history in t , diffusely the old line separating Europe and Russia is reappearing. Moscow having abandoned Sta Lin s Way of erasing it is trying to overcome in by integrating the soviets with the rest of Europe. In won i work in the time available. Italy looking ahead More clearly than others. Now thinks in terms of three concentric circles the vast sweep from Helsinki to Vladivostok to san fran Cisco which includes the so vices and the Umed states Europe itself and the Wesley european Community solidly anchoring Germany. The russians can t really be in Europe and land oils id As the Ether superpower. They can t de cide although accepting a higher ceiling for american troops shows How they Are tugged. Perhaps National upheavals tearing at the Soviel Union will Force the  Brand new order is being Crea cd. This is a crucial year. The Busl Omen is that people want peace More than Power and people Are making their voices heard. New Yurt times the world of 50 years ago comes info focus the postwar Security system whose Stab a Ishmonl led Harry Truman s Secretary of Sale. Dean Acheson to entitle his memoirs somewhat grandly present Al inc creation is Only now receiving ils ultimate Iri Bule. This by slim had already been duly credited by the Wesl for ensuring More than 40 years of unprecedented peace and in its sphere Prosperity. Now come the soviet Union and ils erstwhile satellites in the Easl essentially trying to join and thereby to Crealo for inc first Lime in nearly a Century a Europe without enemies with the two great Modem disturb ers of the european peace Germany and Russia Bolh suitably lamed. The system was simply an Alliance in which democracies pledged common cause. Its distinction was that the United states was taking in peacetime a Piv Otal All right dominant european role and earn ing it by showing itself ready to take the most fateful nuclear risks on Europe s behalf. We helped Europe rebuild and come together. We helped make West Ger Many Safe for democracy. In its main thrust the system worked. And now Mikhail Gorbachev has abandoned the Kremlin s old artificial idea of a Commonwealth of european socialist countries which Moscow invented to justify ils hold on Eastern Europe in favor of an idea of a common european House which seems More authentic by inc Day. Democracy the free mar Ket and cooperation arc the foundations of this Struc Ture. Openly and quickly in most of Eastern Europe More hessian by culturally As Well As politically in the soviet Union itself the bloc wants in. The bizarre and unnatural situation that the bloc is trying to work its Way out of can be depicted in these strokes at the beginning of world War ii Poland was a country in the heart of Central Europe bul in ended the War having been physically moved 250 Miles West Ward by Stalin and nonetheless it was then in the heart of Eastern Europe this was Stalin s Way of keep ing Europe Western Europe at Bay. Gorbachev s Way of rejoining Europe has been on especially vivid display in inc mane vering Over inc Long Moo cd now imminent reunification of Ger Many a development astounding to look at from a distance but increasingly acceptable if you look at it from close up. It has been to recognize the Zinsli Tulious Hal gave the Wesl self Confidence and coherence in inc first instance nato and the european comm Nily and to see How the Easl can live Wilh Ihm. This represents a historic change from the Huff and puff decades when inc Kremlin tried to frus Rale and fracture these institutions the Betler supposedly to weaken the american connection to Europe and soften up Europe for Soviel purposes. Or. Stagnation him self Leonid Brezhnev broke that Mold in the 1970s, when he helped the White House defeat a congressional initiative the Mansfield amendment to remove american troops unilaterally to Start subtracting the United states from the contain men of an economically res urgent politically Ever More appealing West Germany. Brezhnev wanted to be sure americans would stay a part of a divided Europe. Gorbachev wants the United so alas to stay a part of a United Europe. He seems now to accept that Europe could be unified made whole Only if German is reunified. He with everyone else also accepts that Germany could be reunified Only if the United sales is there to help keep things steady. Finally the soviet Leader accepts the irad Lional american idea Hal a reunified Germany must be firmly anchored in the Western Alliance to make sure that a restored Germany will slay democratic and never go wild again. This is How the american connection and presence now become More important to the Easl nol less. Keeping a reunified Germany in nato becomes nol threat but a source of reassurance. Nato becomes an instrument of All of Europe s Security an Alliance for All  details remain to be put in place setting Force Levels including nuclear level eliminating Ger Many s Small residual claim to now and forever polish lands and so on. Mainly this Means constancy Hunting for the right formula of taking initiatives catching up negotiating and consulting. But the Large work has been done not so much by the activity of american policy in the 1990s As by the Genius of american policy in the 1940s. The new world thai lies beyond con lain enl in inc phrase George Bush uses to indicate his purpose turns out to be one created nearly 50 years ago. The Washington Post