European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday july 18, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 worst . Traits its not that i held Prince Charles on a Pedestal let alone a throne. Polo is not my sport and the windsors Are not my kind of folks. The a a royals always a mind me of character actors at a great Britain theme Park but who would have guessed that the Crown Prince would abdicate his country s last lingering claim to the stiff upper lip now in a documentary being aired there Here and everywhere he confesses Royal infidelity. A broadcast journalist asks the Prince of Wales if he tried to be a faithful and honorable when he was married. Charles Ellen Goodman answers the journalist then asks the Prince if he was. A yes a says the Prince who then pauses and adds. A until it the marriage became irretrievably broken Down. With those Little words Charles leaves behind the old world in which Royalty and subjects used words like a faithful Ana honorable and enters the new world in which guests and audiences use words like a open and so much for British Reserve. Apparently nobody told the Prince that he could simply and politely decline the Public confessional. Now instead of giving up the throne he appears to be giving up his citizenship. He a becoming thoroughly americanized. On this Side of the Atlantic we have suffered through two decades of escalating confessions on the part of citizens and leaders alike. If ours was Ever a repressed country it Long ago turned into an emotional nudist Camp. A True confessions abound. Talk shows reign on radio and television. Strangers Chat intimately on the internet. People Are spilling the Beans All Over the neighbourhood. We used to keep quiet about the things we were ashamed of. Now we seem to be ashamed of keeping quiet. Now Prince Charles is dropping his British discretion As if it were a tainted set of genes while in America some of us Are finally questioning Why everyone Here has become so garrulous. At last we want to know can to anybody shut up its a curious turn of events for americans. We have a Strong right of privacy and an eroding respect for it. We Are ferocious in defending our space from government invasion. But we. Routinely expose it to the elements in the name of openness and self expression. Somewhere along the Way from puritanism to Frau Dianish to Oprah ism we became suspicious of privacy not to mention secrecy. We regard secrets As if they Are All deep dark things unhealthy to keep corrosive until exposed to the Light. We expect that husbands and wives parents and children governments and citizens will keep nothing from each other. We Are supposed to treat All relationships As if they Are trusting and therapeutic. Anyone claiming privacy is seen As a suspect with something to hide. The end result is a president who tells us what kind of underwear he wears. An administration that pours out details to the nearest journalist. Estranged husbands and wives re from Prince to pauper a who Dine out on stories about their exes. Its a Parade of people confessing and expecting understanding from an audience of one or a million. It All reminds me of a wonderful moment in a Philip Roth novel. One of the characters is so thrilled with his love affair that he wants to share the Happy news with his wife. His brother says drily a she could live without so could America. So could Britain. In the immediate afterglow of Charles confession the majority of the viewers in a British television poll rallied around their next King. Few were surprised. The invasion of Charles and Dies privacy was a cottage Industry before they began to turn it into a do it yourself operation. But in the end there a a Public need for some privacy and its corollary dignity. In a not usually keen on the Strong and silent Type but there a something worse than British Reserve. Its telling All on the Telly. A final tip from the colonies. When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died virtually every commentator noted in an awed voice her unique characteristic. In an age of compulsive confessors she kept her peace and cultivated a zone of privacy around a most Public life. Onassis neither confirmed nor denied nor explained. For this dear Charles she was considered an american Boston Globe. A a it would have been Worth it for president Clinton to go to Europe if he had gone Only to Germany. Not that he recorded great surprises or prodigious there. But he sealed in place a piece of policy architecture that had been Long in the preparing and that promises abiding stability in a continent that after everything remains at the Center of americans world. There is a a German it can be defined As finding a constructive and dignified role for the villain country of the Century a two world wars a a country whose position and Power ensure it Pride of place in Europe and whose neighbors rightly insist that it be anchored in the european and Atlantic system. A Germany skidding around the deck loosening its ties to Western partners and finally making its Way to a connection with Russia is every strategists Nightmare. The end of the cold War and its own proclivities focused the last administration on Europe. George Bush and James Baker handled Well Ger in any a emergence from the collapse of the soviet Empire As a United democratic country. It took the Clinton administration a bit of time but now it has done its part to steer Germany into a Europe at once integrating into the old West and prepared to expand peacefully into the old East a the part of Europe that is meant to include Russia too. This is the quiet and notable achievement that Clinton advanced on his trip. A a. Germany a own part in deepening and widening Europe of course is immense. Since the Wall went Down in 1989, Chancellor Helmut Kohl who is coming up on elections that could give him a fourth four year term necessarily has concentrated on incorporating and reviving the once separate and communist East Germany. For the fourth year Germany will be pouring $100 billion into this incredibly demanding and continuing project in addition to its nato High Aid and investments to other parts of the former soviet Empire. For the first time in this Century Germany is creating an Independent German foreign policy Bent not on expansionism but on integration. With the United states and with France its key european partner the germans Are working to extend eastward the great International institutions of the european Union and nato. This is being done with warm and constant american encouragement. Kohl took the Lead with Clinton in supporting Boris Yeltsin in Russia. Clinton arranged for Richard Nixon on his last trip to Moscow to drop in on Kohl on the a German language is it seems for real not just a matter of a few phrases. The press made much of the Way a a Helmut and a a Bill Jashed each other but people who saw them up close say that Clinton is serious about Germany and that he Speaks of the country As the Centrepiece of Europe. A Clinton dismissed the idea of an american a special relationship with Germany but accepted the notion of a a unique he instructed the american ambassador in Bonn Richard Holbrooke who is returning shortly to Washington As the slate departments person for Europe to spread the can guess since Clinton mentioned the number that he secs not Only strategic but some potential elec Stephen s. Rosenfeld toral reason in cultivating a country whose 58 million american cousins make them the largest ethnic group in the United states. Clinton a theme in Bonn and Berlin was to Call for a More vigorous German role in International affairs. This is a matter on which germans aware of their own history and of others sensitivity to it have diverse views at one Point Kohl Felt it necessary to haul Clinton Back a notch or two from his enthusiasm for a the full Range of Germany a capacities to Kohl said it Wasny tas though a new mood of a germans to the front a now reigns. A a still no one could ignore the extraordinary coincidence of Clinton Scall coming on the very Day when Germany a highest court ruled that Europe a largest country and leading economic Power could henceforth shoulder a greater share of International military responsibilities a in . Peacekeeping in potential nato deployments a out of area Quot As Well. These missions would be subject to parliamentary approval and International mandate a responsible democratic restraints. The ruling will surely boost Bonne a Campaign for a permanent seat on the , Security Council. Clinton underlined his Call for German leadership by taking part in a ceremony ending the . Military presence in Berlin site and Symbol of the East West confrontation that marked the cold War. The presence of . Military personnel elsewhere in Germany and Europe is crucial less to a military balance than to a psychological one and the president put a period to his policy by saying they would remain. C Washington Pas
