Word: rearmed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Even if it were possible to persuade the French government (which is caught in a political vise between left and right and which has to face parliamentary elections next year), there still remains the problem of convincing the Germans themselves of the desirability of rearming. Germans might be happy to rearm to fight in China or India, but they know that any future war will be fought right in the middle of their own homeland...
Plainly the French delegation did not share the American feeling of urgency in the defense of Europe. It would be at least nine months, they said, before promised U.S. equipment could reach French divisions, so why all the rush to rearm the Germans? There were mounting signs (see below) that U.S. patience with querulous West Europeans was wearing thin...
...truculent document, devoted mostly to vilifying the Western powers for their plan to rearm Western Germany (". . . the aggressive bloc of the so-called Atlantic pact [is trying] to make [Germany] definitely a tool of their aggressive, war-strategic plans in Europe . . ."). Then, crying "peace and international security," the communiqué demanded a Big Four "proclamation" banning the remilitarization of Germany, a peace treaty to be followed by the withdrawal of occupation forces, a new "All-German Constitutional Council" uniting East and West Germany...
...There is a great deal of rearming to be done in Western Europe and in the United States, and Germany is not the most appropriate place to begin. Until we have a stronger force in Europe, until there is appreciably greater progress in the integration of Western European defenses and implementation of the Schuman plan, we can do better to rearm elsewhere than in Germany...
Against Russia's 100 divisions the Western Allies had a mere 15, including two U.S. divisions in Germany. Only one of the U.S. divisions-the 1st Infantry-was organized for combat. The program to rearm Europe with U.S. aid had dragged through a year of staff conferences, then dragged through Congress and was last week dragging through more staff conferences. Europeans had the impression that, so far, rearmament was just talk. This impression was 99% correct...