Word: kohl
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has promised to destroy the missiles once the U.S. and Soviet weapons are dismantled, but the Soviets wanted this spelled out in the treaty; the U.S. resisted, contending that it had no right to negotiate about German weapons. Also, the Soviets insistently asked what the U.S. would do with the warheads. A way out of the impasse appeared Tuesday night as the two delegations were enjoying a picnic supper (hamburgers, fried chicken, baked beans) on a 65-ft. barge cruising down the Potomac. National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci drew Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh aside...
...Kohl's irascibility reflected the deep ambivalence that attended Honecker's five-day visit. Polls showed that three out of four West Germans were in favor of the trip. But like Kohl, many of them took no enjoyment in providing de facto recognition of East Germany, which Bonn still considers part of a single German nation. They were especially unhappy that such recognition was being awarded through Honecker, architect of the infamous Berlin Wall...
...Kohl's chilly welcome proved downright warm compared with his performance during twelve hours of meetings with his guest. Indeed, only once during the trip could the Chancellor force himself to refer to East Germany by its official name, the German Democratic Republic. Usually he called it "your place." Far from dwelling on the progress achieved over the years in relations between the two countries, Kohl launched into a blistering attack on Honecker's regime, denouncing it for everything from holding political prisoners to enforcing a shoot-to-kill order against East German citizens who try to flee...
...Kohl towered eight inches over his guest, leading police escorts to dub the pair Big Man and Little Man. Despite his height advantage, Kohl later complained that he had developed a visceral aversion to his guest, who "physically gave me the jitters." Honecker, spry at 75 but stiff and formal around Kohl, visibly relaxed as he toured four of West Germany's eleven states. He softened his rhetoric, at one point predicting that the border between East and West Germany will one day "no longer divide us but unite us." The most touching moment came when Honecker arrived in Wiebelskirchen...
Though the two leaders signed three technical accords, the only real point to the meetings, as a West German official put it, was to establish once and for all that "there are two Germanys and there will remain two Germanys for some time to come." That being so, Kohl and Honecker agreed to meet again in East Germany, though no date was set. West German Industrialist Otto Wolff von Amerongen may have best summed up the mood when he met the East German leader in Cologne. Alluding to Honecker's banquet jab, he said, "As long as the German people...