German Unity

Robert Gerald Livingston’s anti-German column (“Unity Rethought but Not Reborn,” Op-Ed Page, Oct. 10) will not go unchallenged by fair-minded people. The amazing thing is that Livingston directs the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. Let’s hope all the institute people don’t think the way he does.

Since when do Bonn’s neighbors “all dread a unified Germany?” Does France, which even under Charles de Gaulle became a steadfast friend of Germany, really dread it? Does Poland, a longtime victim of Soviet imperialism and one that frequently asks West Germany for help, dread it? How about Austria, which managed long ago to get out of the bloated Soviet empire?

In effect, Livingston does what Stalin and some of his successors did in defending the Iron Curtain system--invoke the ghost of the Third Reich. That worked like magic for years. It doesn’t any more. The Germans deserve freedom just as much as anyone else. That means freedom to unite as a nation, as Americans did more than 200 years ago.

FRANCIS FROELICHER

Santa Barbara