Decisions

Like a boulder dropped into a still pond, West Germany's historic decision at the polls stirred the stagnating surface of the Western alliance. "This decision," said Konrad Adenauer in his hour of triumph, "cannot fail to have its effect on other European countries . . . Europe will now come into being." Across the Rhine, the land of Germany's historic enemies and grudging allies was washed by the ripples. "It is high time for France to take stock of herself and make in peace the recovery she was able to make in 1914 in the midst of battle ..." commented Paris' Aurore, "Without that we will watch like surly, reluctant spectators the construction of a Europe which will go on without us, dominated by Germany."

The victory of the old Chancellor and his "European idea" altered the facts of international life almost overnight:

P: Only eight years after defeat, prosperous West Germany had achieved the stablest government in Western Europe, and was in a fair way to seize leadership of the Continent from frustrated France.

P: Only weeks after it had been pronounced dying and all but ready for burial, the dream of a European Army to defend a united and free Europe came alive again.

More than ever, the next move was up to France, which conceived the European idea but has since come to fear it as a means of surrendering its dominance on the Continent to renascent Germany. The spectacle of a strong, confident Germany that knows its mind did little to ease France's worries nor did it help when Adenauer, momentarily carried away by his success, spoke of turning now to "the liberation" of Communist East Germany. (Later, admitting that the Chancellor's words had been unfortunate, an aide remarked: "We know that one shouldn't stamp his feet when a Frenchman is baking a souffle.")

But in making its choice, West Germany pushed French Premier Laniel and his government to a point where France could not much longer delay its choice. With West Germany's strength badly needed in the cold-war defense line, France had to choose the European Army or risk some blunter solution that puts Germans back into their own feldgrau uniforms, with their own high command. Jauntily expectant that a decision is in the offing, Bonn's "Bureau Blank," the embryonic West German war ministry, last week placed an ad in the newspapers: "Wanted: 500 clerks, secretaries and interpreters ... Must be of good demeanor."

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