Nevertheless, the Non-Proliferation Treaty carried with votes from all parties, although only a minority of Christian Democrat deputies supported it. In the 1970s, after long hesitance, West Germany came to embrace arms control as equal to military defense in importance. In time, arms control gained priority, to the chagrin of some of the Federal Republic's Western allies. Germans were instrumental in the 1979 decision to pursue arms control along with deployment of intermediate-range nuclear forces, and they pressed for serious negotiations throughout the process. West Germany incorporated liberal rights to conscientious objection into basic law, and the number of objectors has been in the tens of thousands for years.
Civilian control is solid.
To add parliamentarian to executive control, the Bundestag established the office of the defense controller, a civilian directly responsible to parliament. All soldiers are entitled to complain to the defense controller without fear of reprisals. Despite these checks, the public, particularly the left and younger Germans, remains wary of the military. The average German conscript enters service unenthusiastically and leaves in the same mood. Meetings of World War II veterans provoke protest.