Word: ostpolitiking
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...mindful of the dubious value of nonaggression pacts and the tragic history of earlier German-Soviet diplomatic cooperation, raised warnings. "The haste on both sides," wrote Neue Zurcher Zeitung. "poses the question "Who plucked the rose before it bloomed?' Is it a success of West Germany's Ostpolitik or Soviet WestpolitikT' London's Economist pointed out that while the Russians talk peace in Europe, they are extending their sphere of influence in Asia, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. "This is not the behavior of a country looking for a settlement...
Willy Brandt's own ideas about Ostpolitik date from the years he served as mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966. Brandt became disillusioned early with the Dulles-Adenauer policy, which assumed that German reunification would be achieved as an inevitable consequence of the West's economic and military strength...
...prepared to risk confrontation with the Soviets over the German issue. So Brandt set out to try to do something himself. He decided on a policy of "small steps" toward the same ends -modest efforts at relaxation on a bilateral basis. His first attempt at Ostpolitik, after becoming Foreign Minister in 1966 in the Grand Coalition, was in Czechoslovakia. The Soviets seized on the West German rapprochement with Czechoslovakia as one of the main justifications for the invasion. The Czechoslovakia experience taught Brandt that progress could only be achieved through direct dealings with Moscow...
DURING his first nine months in office, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt has been preoccupied with the elaborate orchestration of Ostpolitik, his policy of improving Bonn's relations with the Communist regimes to the east. Lately, the tempo has increased. Last week West German diplomats were in Warsaw for the fifth round of talks about Bonn's recognition of the Oder-Neisse Line as Poland's western border. This week Foreign Minister Walter Scheel is due in Moscow to continue-and possibly conclude-negotiations with the Soviet Union over a mutual renunciation-of-force agreement. Paris, London...
...commanding a simple majority in the Bundestag on the recognition issue. His coalition partners, the Free Democrats, whose 30 seats give him only a narrow twelve-seat majority in the 496-seat lower house, might split on the question. Thus, before Brandt can carry out the aims of his Ostpolitik, he might feel compelled to hold new national elections in West Germany. If the voters continue to give him the overwhelming support indicated by recent opinion polls-as high as 75% in favor of his handling of the chancellorship-Brandt will then have the mandate that his bold plans demand...