
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994                   TAG: 9408150015
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DONALD NUECHTERLEIN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SEEKING PARTNERSHIP

DESPITE HIS administration's waffling on many foreign-policy issues, Bill Clinton did a courageous thing in Berlin last month. He told the German people that the United States wants a special relationship that would maintain peace and promote prosperity in a new Europe

The president showed courage for two reasons. First, he distanced U.S. policy on Germany from that of two key NATO allies, Britain and France. Second, he chose to override the concerns of many Americans who are not convinced that Germany should again be a leader in Europe.

Britain, for example, is sensitive about any country replacing its own 50-year special relationship with Washington. Clinton's gesture to Germany was particularly ill-timed, many Brits think, as it came only a month after their queen and Clinton celebrated the D-Day invasion of Normandy that led to Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945.

France, too, has a problem with Clinton's offer to Germany. French governments worked for more than 40 years to forge special economic and political relationships with Bonn, and make continental Europe less dependent on American economic and military power. If Germany moves closer to the United States, France's influence in Europe is diminished.

American public concerns regarding Germany's future role mirrors the ambivalence felt by many Europeans.

Put simply, the question is this: After 50 years of defeat and rehabilitation, should the new Germany be trusted to remain a good, democratic neighbor?

Many older Europeans, including Germans who remember the Hitler period, have serious doubts about whether Germany should take a leading political role in Europe, especially if this entails sending German forces outside their homeland. Many Americans, particularly those who lost relatives in Hitler's Holocaust, find it hard to accept the reality that a united Germany is once again the economic powerhouse of Europe and will increasingly be its political leader as well.

Clinton's statements in Berlin suggest he is convinced that Germany will be a good partner for peace and that German democracy is now well and strong. There are risks in that assessment but they are outweighed, in my view, by the benefits.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's objective of bringing Eastern European countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - into the European Union and NATO by the end of the decade parallels American policy. From Washington's viewpoint, these countries must either be integrated into Western Europe's economic and military organizations, or they will face increasing pressure from those in Moscow who dream of re-establishing a new Russian empire.

For his part, Clinton knows (and Europeans are now beginning to accept) that American influence in Europe is declining. This results from the withdrawal of many U.S. forces from Europe and from serious problems in the U.S. economy that have resulted in the dollar's recent sharp decline against most European currencies.

In sum, Washington needs a special relationship with Bonn in order to retain some influence in Europe. And Berlin needs America's support for its objective of bringing Eastern European countries into a close relationship with the European Union, in which Germany will increasingly exercise the leadership role.

Clinton's initiative in Berlin therefore has the makings of a good German-American partnership.

Donald Nuechterlein of Charlottesville recently returned from Germany, where he taught international business at the University of Kaiserslautern.

by CNB