Mending Fences in Germany

When President Reagan made his controversial visit to West Germany’s Bitburg Cemetery last May, he was angered by demonstrations led by the opposition Social Democratic Party which struck anti-American themes. He thereupon refused to see the SPD leader, former Chancellor Willy Brandt.

The demonstrations may well have been irritating but the President’s snubbing of Brandt was in crude violation of the conventional diplomatic wisdom that it pays to keep your lines open to the “outs” because you may have to deal with them after the next election.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Burt, who took up his post in Bonn shortly after the Reagan visit, has had to spend a great deal of his time mending fences with the Social Democrats. Fortunately, the SPD leaders have also deemed it expedient to remove the impression of a basic split with Washington. And Reagan has been wise enough to respond.

Reagan met for a half-hour the other day with Johannes Rau, who will be the SPD candidate for chancellor in next year’s election. The message Rau carried to Washington was that, critical though they may be of U.S. policy, the Social Democrats are fundamentally loyal to the Atlantic Alliance.

In a broad sense that is undoubtedly true. But the U.S. government cannot help but worry about the SPD’s views on specific defense issues. The party, for example, opposes the presence of U.S.-made medium-range missiles in West Germany, even though their deployment was originally agreed to when the SPD was in power. The party has concluded a draft agreement with the ruling East German Communist party that chemical weapons be banned from German soil, and talks toward a similar agreement on nuclear weapons have been held. It doesn’t seem to matter to the SPD that, since the East Germans have no veto over what weapons the Soviets deploy on their territory, such an agreement is lopsided.

Recent polls indicate that, for reasons unrelated to defense policy, incumbent Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the Christian Democrats will probably be unbeatable next year. But that could change.

Rau’s visit to Washington reflects a realization among party leaders that the SPD’s chances of winning the next elections will be even more remote if the party is perceived by West German voters as being anti-alliance.

The Reagan Administration is wise to recognize, though belatedly, that its chances of influencing the policies of West Germany’s leading opposition party will be greater if it maintains civil relations than if it doesn’t.