Word: west
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Soviet proposal is a good deal simpler than the Western plan, and hence it is easier to dismiss. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko has asked that the Big Four sign separate peace treaties with the "two German states" and then undertake the joint administration of West Berlin as a "free city." Western acceptance of this plan means recognition of East Germany, abandonment of the traditional policy of re-unification through free elections, and admission that while the East Germans have a right to East Berlin as their "capital" West Berlin must remain under political tutelage--with a new and rather...
Admittedly, even all these concessions, though extremely unpleasant, do not imply immediate surrender of any essentials. The trouble with this proposal is that it doesn't solve anything: West Berlin would be nominally free, but it would still be subject to extreme pressure from the outside; West Germany might be in NATO, but East Germany would remain in the War-saw Pact. The current crisis has taught the West that any negotiated settlement cannot leave Germany divided and Berlin a vulnerble island...
With this consideration in mind, the West has proposed a complicated four-step plan, starting with unification of Berlin by free elections under four-power supervision and ending, rather irrelevantly, with provisions for armaments reductions and European security. The most interesting feature of the Western plan is the section of German re-unification. West Germany is much larger than its Eastern counterpart, yet Soviet proposals for re-unification have always been based on the idea of "federation," with the "two Germanies" being treated as two equal states effecting a merger. The West, for its part, has insisted on immediate nationwide...
Thus prospects for demilitarization are not particularly attractive. But another possibility exists, that of neutralization: Germany could have complete sovereignty except in the making of military alliances, and foreign troops would not be allowed on German soil. This plan should certainly appeal to the West: militarily, Germany would be willing and able to defend itself; politically and economically, the extremely hopeful post-war developments of the Franco-German rapprochement and the European Common Market could be preserved; Germany, legally forbidden to enter NATO, would be none-the less committed in principle to the Western point-of-view...
...course, although the Russians have offered proposals similar to this one on several occasions in the past, they are not likely to accept it now. Almost any form of re-unification could be acceptable to the West, except one that involved the entry of Soviet troops into West Germany (Russian soldiers form rapid attachments to places they visit, and they just hate to go home). The Soviets seem to be taking the attitude of "Nobody really wants to unify Germany" and are concentrating rather on hardening and formalizing the lines that currently divide Europe...