Word: brandts
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...question is, would the other side cooperate? The Soviets were rooting for a Brandt victory as the lesser of two evils in the election, and Izvestia called him "more realistic on certain foreign policy questions." Perhaps they might sign a mutually attractive trade deal or grant Lufthansa landing rights in Russia. But so far, it seems unlikely that the collective leadership of Brezhnev and Kosygin would agree to any far-reaching accommodation with West Germany. One reason the Soviets moved against Czechoslovakia was that Brandt had opened negotiations in Prague that might have led to diplomatic relations and German investments...
...Brandt's administration means, in fact, a new era in which the power in West Germany has largely passed to the untainted Germans?those who were too young to be accomplices in Hitler's crimes. When Brandt cries, "Twenty years is enough!", it is not so much a plea for absolution as a reminder that a new generation is arriving and should not be condemned in advance...
...more attractive than any of the earlier generations were able to make. In one of Helmut Kirst's novels about World War II, a German soldier in Russia expresses the hope that maybe some day there may even be a Germany that is fun to live in. With luck, Brandt's Germany could be that place...
...important differences. While the Christian Democrats are older and more cautious, the Social Democrats emphasize youth and a flair for innovation. While the Germany of Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard and Kiesinger was a reliable if overly dependent partner of the West, Brandt's Socialists are certain to be more assertive and fluid, especially in foreign relations...
There were also risks. Willy Brandt's partnership with the Free Democrats might prove precarious from a practical standpoint because the Free Democrats are a schizophrenic party. It was formed in 1948, composed largely of business and professional men who found the C.D.U. too "black" or Catholic and the S.P.D. too "red" or socialistic. At first the F.D.P. was dominated by a right wing of nay-sayers?businessmen who thought there was too much welfare spending, Protestants wary of the C.D.U.'s heavy Catholic influence, nationalists who felt Bonn was too pro-American. Scheel belonged to the Free Democrats' younger...