Word: rearmaments
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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After all the international fretting over whether Konrad Adenauer would get a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag for German rearmament, the Bundestag last week gave its answer. It overwhelmingly enacted the constitutional amendments needed to clear the way for the creation of the new German armed forces. With all but a few Socialists voting in rare solidarity with Adenauer's Christian Democrats, the vote was an overwhelming...
Adenauer got his majority by making a sizable concession to the Socialists: he agreed to place the army under command of a partially autonomous Defense Minister (except in war, when the Chancellor becomes commander in chief). The Socialists in turn abandoned all-out opposition on rearmament, concentrated on making sure that the reconstituted German army would never become a militaristic menace but would take its subordinate place under civilian and parliamentary control. Once the upper house and President Heuss add their approval, the new citizens' Bundeswehr* (Federal Defense Force) can get on with plans to take in some...
...national repercussions: seats in the federal upper house are chosen by the local governments. He was thus deprived of North Rhine-Westphalia's five votes there, and lost his two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat. Adenauer needs the two-thirds majority to put through constitutional changes permitting German rearmament...
Germany has built up a dollar reserve of $1.3 billion, balanced its budget, and expects to bank a $600 million surplus this year. But its good showing was possible chiefly because of vast grants of U.S. aid, and because Germany spent relatively little for rearmament (see FOREIGN NEWS). In an effort to liberalize foreign trade, Belgium lifted virtually all exchange restrictions on the franc and established a free gold market. But Belgium is having trouble staying within its income, has run up a $6.2 billion national debt. Gradually, however, Belgium is getting the problem in hand, expects its deficit this...
...constantly falling short of constantly reduced goals. The original goal of 90 active divisions was cut by the Three Wise Men*to 50. Soon after he took command in mid-1953, Gruenther recognized that not even this goal was going to be met. In the U.S., Eisenhower shifted U.S. rearmament from a crash basis to "the long haul." In Europe, making a virtue of what was political necessity, Gruenther set up the New Approach Group to devise a new strategy for the defense of Europe, with himself as chief planner...