Word: germanically
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...West German officials contend they were surprised when the President told reporters last month that he did not want to offend his German hosts by visiting a concentration camp, which he said would run the risk of "reawakening the passions of the time." Kohl had told him that 60% of the present German population had been born since the war, and Reagan exaggerated that point at his press conference: "Very few [of the German people are] a live that remember even the war, and certainly none of them who were adults and participating in any way." The careless and obviously...
...that repeated his hopes for a presidential trip full of upbeat symbolism. One paragraph, they say, mentioned Dachau as a Konzentrationslager that Reagan should see out of respect for its victims. Reagan aides would not confirm that such a suggestion was repeated by Kohl. Moreover, they contend, lower West German officials expressed pleasure that Reagan had publicly announced his intention to avoid such an appearance. A senior Bonn official concedes, "Quite a lot of German people were pleased about the decision not to go to Dachau because it is like going backward...
...President's decision not to pay homage to Holocaust victims raised little fuss in the U.S. until White House Spokesman Larry Speakes two weeks ago announced Reagan's intention to visit the military cemetery. Asked who was buried there, Speakes replied that he "thought" both American and German soldiers were interred at the site. He later refused to ex plain where he had received that impression or whether the President had also assumed this to be true. The furor broke when reporters discovered that not only were there no Americans in the cemetery but that the notorious SS officers were...
Reagan could have blunted the controversy by admitting he had made a mistake. He could have canceled the wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery and simply given a speech outlining his commitment to American-German amity. The reason he had not done so by week's end apparently stemmed from his concern for Kohl, who would lose face if Reagan backed out of the Bitburg ceremony...
...President, I know and I understand, we all do, that you seek reconciliation. So do I. So do we. And I, too, wish to attain true reconciliation with the German people. I do not believe in collective guilt, nor in collective responsibility. Only the killers were guilty. Their sons and daughters...