East German Election Results Pose Opportunities For Active US Policy

The Center for Security Policy today released the first of a series of analyses of transitions to democracy. This paper, entitled Devising a Sound U.S. Policy Toward an Elected East German Government, evaluates the implications of recent national elections in East Germany and offers policy prescriptions for U.S. decision-makers in addressing this critical juncture in German history. The Center identifies specific actions that would help consolidate the power of pro-democratic groups in East Germany and encourage the integration of a unified Germany into NATO.

"The Bush Administration is to be commended for quickly and explicitly rejecting the Soviet suggestion that Germany might be a member of both the NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances," said Frank J. Gaffney, the Center’s director. "The United States’ own security interests, those of its allies and of the German people themselves demand that Germany’s reunification be on the basis of full and exclusive membership in NATO and the rapid, complete withdrawal of all Soviet troops from East Germany."

Dr. Constantine Menges, who has joined the Center as a Senior Associate, added, "We welcome the East German election results and believe that U.S. policy can be instrumental in helping the democratic leaders dismantle the remaining elements of the communist apparatus of coercion."

The report identifies this apparatus as consisting of three key institutions in East Germany that continue to have the potential to threaten the consolidation of democracy by the newly-elected coalition government: the Communist Party, the East German military and the secret police. To help attenuate the threat posed by these organizations, the Center recommends, among other things:

• The U.S. government should provide regular and public reports of continuing hostile international actions by East German entities to include espionage, support for aggressive foreign regimes and technology theft and diversions.

 

• West Germany should be encouraged to offer amnesty and cash rewards for former East German intelligence agents providing reliable information of past, present and possible future hostile activities; and

 

• U.S. concurrence with West German desires for liberalized export controls should be predicated on a demonstrated rupture of all East German ties with the coercive apparatus of the Soviet Union.