. MOSCOW (TASS) — A July 27 article, ‘‘Under the
' Protection of U.S. Missiles’, published in Pravda
evoked broad repercussions in political circles and
among the public of European countries. A particularly
" strong reaction to it was in Bonn. However paradoxical,
official comments in the West German capital bypass the
‘essence of the matters touched on in the article. Thus,
FRG Chancellor Helmut Kohl said in a radio interview
§ that “‘Moscow’s campaign against West Germany re-
4 vanchism”’ is a purely propagandist action whose aim is
=... to undermine the international reputation of the
| FRG.” The Chancellor added that since he does not see
| any signs of West Germany wanting to expand its bor-
i ders to those of 1937, ‘the entire campaign does not
orry”’ him.

_ Wrong. The article dealt precisely with examples of
yevanchism, tangible, ponderable examples which jus-
tifiably cause public concern, not last of all by sober-

" Unconditionally supporting the U.S. course of con-
frontation with the Soviet Union and other socialist
countries, acting as the initiators of the arms race in

'ever to implement their plans of undermining the Ger-
‘man state of workers and peasants (the GDR — Ed.).
‘And the revanchist contents of this policy are
amouflaged by references to ‘‘common German in-

~ It will not be amiss to recall GDR leader Erich Hon-
| ecker’s pronouncement once again in this connection:
the socialist GDR and the capitalist FRG cannot be
, combined, just as it is impossible to combine fire and
| water.
Commenting on Pravda’s article, Stae Secretary of the
FRG Foreign Ministry, Mertes stated that. Moscow
- “‘tries to break Germany’s will for self-determination in
| conditions of freedom.’’ What is this if not the claim to
speak on behalf of both German states contrary to poli-
tical realities and the principles of international law?
On the Rhine, one can say, it is now a period of
_ increased revanchist solicitations with regard to the
German Democratic Republic. Those solicitations are
based in many respects on calculations to use economic
‘relations with the GDR as a means to interfere in the
sovereign affairs of the Republic and to gradually erode
the foundations of its socialist system.
' An economic lever has been repeatedly resorted to
break the peaceful post-war set-up in Europe and, in
© particular, to disturb the stability of the GDR. This time a
?} concrete cause has been the agreement between the
‘West German Deutsche Bank and the GDR’s Foreign
Trade Bank on the granting of credit to it. A West Ger-
‘man news agency (DPA) has the federal cabinet’s con-
“sent to the credit tied up with a catalogue of political
demands which include the creation of conditions for a
| further expansion of the flow of visitors from the FRG
l: and West Berlin, the liberalization of the import of publi-
cations into the GDR, etc. All this resembles not so much
an expansion of contacts for humane purposes, as they in
t FRG are fond of talking about, as an attempt at

¥
|

getting new channels for political and ideological
influence.

_ Having lost their sense of proportion, a section of the
West German press has started to write about a direct
{ interconnection between the granting of the above-
_ Mentioned credit and “‘political interest’? which the

Last December, Bonn’s parliament voted to deploy U.S. Pershing-2 missiles in the FRG triggering a new arms race.
Today, Bonn hypocritically talks about “limiting the damage” while trying to fulfill their long-term plan of a new
German Reich”, charges the Soviet Union. Photo: West German police dispursing anti-nuclear protesters.

‘Common German interests’ a
_ blind for Bonn’s revanchism

News
Backgrounder

GDR, they say, should pay if it is interested in develop-
ing economic contacts with the FRG. Pressing for con-
cessions from the GDR, Bonn politicians at the same
time do not intend in any way to meet its legitimate
demands as a sovereign state — to recognize GDR
citizenship and the international legal character of the
border between the GDR and the FRG, to transform the
permanent missions into embassies, to eliminate the so-
called Erfassungsstelle department in Salzgitter which
has usurped the right to supervise the activities of the
citizens and bodies of the GDR, etc. Helmut Kohl has
frankly stated that little can be done in matters of prin-
ciple. He said that when he recalls the question of
citizenship, etc., he realizes that to him all that is not
subject to discussion.

Characteristically, in Bonn they are trying to justify
the current massive pressure on the GDR also by claim-
ing what they call a special mission of both German
States to “‘limit the damage’’ done by the new round of
the arms race in Europe. A pharisaical logic indeed it is!
First Bonn together with the U.S. and other NATO allies
gave an impetus to this race with American missile
deployments, thereby inflicting enormous damage on the
process of detente, relations between socialist and
capitalist countries. And now under the pretext of “‘limit-
ing damage’’ they are trying to fulfil their long-standing
revanchist plans, which, naturally, can only complicate
the situation in Europe even further.

The mass media in the FRG these days have become
exponents of nationalist euphoria on a direct prompting
from the Chancellor himself. For it is he who said that
Europe will not know genuine peace until a “‘German
reunification’’ takes place, of course, in accordance with
the Bonn recipe. Those who adopt such slogans make
believe they are unaware that banking on efforts to erode
the socialist system in the GDR leads not to peace and, of
course, not to a relaxation of international tension but in
quite the opposite direction, especially in conditions
where encroachments on existing borders in Europe
syncronize with the arms buildup in the FRG.

In order to somehow reassure the public in the FRG
and elsewhere, which is showing serious concern about
the growth of tension in Europe, Bonn keeps saying that
no “‘glaciation” is foreseen in Europe, including be-
tween the GDR and the FRG — as ifit is possible to close
one’s eyes to the American Pershings trained on coun-
tries of the socialist community! And as if neither have
there been any counter-measures adopted by Warsaw
Treaty Member States!

In the West German comments on the Pravda article
there have been quite a few statements about the FRG’s
wish to maintain mutually beneficial relations with
socialist states. Such relations based on the principles of
peaceful coexistence are favored also by socialist coun-
tries. But the FRG’s attempts to interfere in the internal
affairs of its eastern neighbors and lay revanchist
claims, in particular to build relations with the GDR ona
chauvinist basis, clearly run counter to this. Such a
policy meets the interests of neither the FRG itself nor
peace in Europe.

From Bertin

Fils Delisle

FRG media
consciously

twists facts

BERLIN — State Council Chairman Erich Honecker
has exposed as lies and provocation the propaganda
rumble in the West that the German Democratic Re-
public is parting ways with the Soviet Union and turning
to the idea of reunification with capitalist West Germany
instead.

The new tack in the western imperialist psychological
war against the socialist countries has sought to pér-
suade public opinion in recent weeks that the GDR has
abandoned solidarity with the socialist camp, that it puts
financial assistance from the Federal Republic of Ger-
many ahead of socialist principles, and that it has incur-
red Soviet anger because it is now primarily concerned
with a unified Germany outside the socialist camp.

To support these theses, West German and North
American press agencies and other media have been
falsifying and distorting comments in the Soviet and
GDR press and consciously twisting facts.

The FRG’s media recently launched the claim that the
GDR was making border-crossing concessions to FRG
citizens in payment for a loan of about $400-million from
FRG banks.

Though a spokesman for West German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl’s office was forced to deny its absurdity,
the claim is still being made. The facts are, as the FRG
government acknowledges, that agreements in both
cases resulted from two entirely separate processes of
negotiation. Further, it was the FRG’s banks which of-
fered the loan to the GDR in the first place as a good
business proposition, and the question of regulations
governing entrance into the GDR by West Germans had
long been under study in the GDR.

Honecker, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity
Party,.nailed. other. falsifications currently .being cir-
culated in the West in an interview with Neues Deutsch-
land, the Berlin Zeitung and the GDR’s news agency,
ADN.

He pointed out that the official policy of the FRG fora
new German Reich in the boundaries of 1937 was well
known and would never be realized.

This program of revanchism would include swallow-
ing up of the GDR and encroaching upon the sovereignty
of Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR.

The attempt to confuse and divide people with talk
about the GDR now supposedly itself moving toward
union with the FRG, Honecker said, was ridiculous. He
added: ‘‘Socialism in the GDR is irrevocable. A uniting
of capitalism and socialism is just as impossible as com-
bining fire and water. That is the position of the Socialist
Unity Party and of the Government of the GDR.”’

On the question of peace, the fight for disarmament
and work for detente, the position of the GDR as set forth
by Honecker showed western propaganda claims to be
pure bunk. The GDR, Honecker said, stood side by side
with the Soviet Union behind the various proposals for
peace made by the Warsaw Pact and, most recently, by
Comecon, the economic organization of the socialist
countries. And that, Honecker emphasized, would con-
tinue to be the GDR’s position. The alliance with
the USSR, Honecker declared, was not a provisional
tactic but a permanent relationship.

He added: ‘‘In ummistakeable terms I have informed
the FRG Government that the GDR will consistently
implement its alliance duties in the Warsaw Pact in order
to make its contribution to the guaranteeing of the mili-
tary-strategic balance in the world.”

On the other hand, the GDR was also ready to con-
tinue efforts to reduce the harm already done by the

stationing of U.S. nuclear missiles on West German

territory. If the U.S. rockets were removed from the
FRG, the GDR and the USSR would remove the Soviet
missiles placed on GDR territory as a necessary re-
sponse to the U.S.-FRG missiles.

The Honecker interview revealed that the position of
the GDR has been made clear to the West. The press and
media claims in the imperialist countries are thus con-
trary to the facts known in official circles in Bonn and
Washington. It must therefore be concluded that the
latest propaganda rumble there is a conscious effort to
show discord among the socialist countries and to con-
fuse the peace forces in the West.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE. SEPTEMBER 7, 1984 « 9