East-West Peering into Europe's Future

By J.F.O. McAllister

"Present at the creation." That was how Dean Acheson, Harry Truman's Secretary of State, described the crucial role of American officials in the birth of postwar Europe. Conceiving the Marshall Plan and midwifing NATO, U.S. officials went on to deploy America's power at its zenith to shape the framework of European security for two generations.

So what is the role of George Bush and Secretary of State James Baker in creating the emerging post-postwar European order? Until now the U.S. Administration has seemed like a father pacing in a waiting room: proud that things have come so far, intensely interested in the outcome, but not able to do much more than drum his fingers -- and worry quietly about whether the baby will be healthy.

^ Last week Baker bolted into the delivery room to lend a hand. In addition to inspecting the Berlin Wall and meeting East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow, Baker proposed a revamped role for the U.S. in the "whole and free" Europe that is aborning. Its theme: to refurbish existing international bodies so that they can bear new loads as they shed others. Although framed in general terms, the plan nonetheless displayed a creative flair and reassured allies that the U.S. intends to remain, in Baker's words, part of "Europe's neighborhood."

Baker's ideas for recasting the structures of U.S.-European cooperation -- dubbed "Bakerstroika" by British pundits -- were a first cut at answering a question implicit in the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the cold war: as the Soviet military threat shrinks, what does Europe need with the U.S.? The decline of Soviet power, the growing vitality of the European Community and the rush to reunify Germany require the U.S. to contemplate European ties based less on fear of Moscow's intentions and more on healthy economic and political competition.

The smartest way to keep a U.S. hand in Europe, Baker reasoned, is to adapt existing international groups to the new reality. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 35-member body that includes the two superpowers, has met periodically since it produced the 1975 Helsinki agreement, which ratified postwar borders and set minimum human-rights standards. But a single country's veto blocks decisions there, making it an awkward vehicle for asserting U.S. leadership in Europe. The European Community, on its part, cannot accept the U.S. as a member. That leaves NATO, where the U.S. has long been first among equals, as the heavy lifter in Baker's refurbished Atlantic house. By encouraging the alliance to become the main forum for setting Western defense policy, Baker wants to upgrade NATO to be the key transatlantic body, even after reductions in defense budgets and troop levels have undercut the group's traditional source of strength.

European allies praised Baker's scheme. France and Britain welcome the U.S. as a counterweight to the colossus of a future reunited Germany, though France objects to ceding greater authority to NATO. And Germans themselves seem relieved that the U.S. is determined to remain a European power. Worry is widespread in both Bonn and East Berlin that East Germans' mounting anger at the Communist regime, coupled with emotional longings for "one German * fatherland," could result in violent demonstrations that would paralyze the government. The new leader of the East German Communist Party, Gregor Gysi, last week appealed to the U.S. to play a vigorous role in Europe, mostly to dampen West German pressure for absorbing his country.

Meanwhile, demonstrations in Bulgaria showed both the importance of updating the Atlantic alliance and the difficulty of drafting plans in the face of swiftly moving events. Continuing its plunge into reform, the Bulgarian Communist Party last week expelled Todor Zhivkov, its leader for 35 years, and announced that free elections would be held in May. When the parliament postponed until January a vote on ending the Communist Party's monopoly of power, 50,000 jeering protesters encircled the parliament building. As Josef Joffe, foreign editor of the Suddeutsche Zeitung, observed, "If only there weren't all these people in the streets . . . who will yet foul up many of the designs made by diplomats."

With reporting by James O. Jackson/Bonn and Bruce van Voorst with Baker