The World - News from July 22, 1985
France and West Germany will hold unprecedented joint maneuvers of “extraordinary scope” in 1986, French Defense Minister Charles Hernu told the Deutschlandfunk radio station. France does not belong to the Atlantic Alliance military structure, and is said to be abandoning the view held by the late Gen. Charles de Gaulle--that France could defend itself alone in a European war, leaving West Germany to be a buffer between it and the Soviet Union. Hernu said France is now debating whether its defenses should begin on the Rhine--the French-German border--or the Elbe--the border between East and West Germany.
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