Evening star., 1950-12-21
Full Circle in Germany

It is far cry from the days of the so-called
Morgenthau Plan. At that time, not long be-
fore the total defeat of Hitler in 1945, lot of
people believed that our then Secretary of the
Treasury had a good idea in proposing not only
that Germany be forever disarmed but also that
it be deindustrialized and reduced to pastoral
land made up of practically nothing but farmers.
After some sober second thoughts, of course,
the Western allies-a few of whose leaders at
first took it rather Seriously-recognized the
basic absurdity, if not the madness, of such a
plan. But at PotSdam, after the downfall of
Nazidom, they still clung to watered-down
version of it in agreeing with Russia that "pri-
mary emphasis shall be given to the develop
ment of agriculture and peaceful domestic in
dustries" in organizing the postwar German
economy.
About two years later, however, after having
seen Russia deliberately violate the Potsdam
agreement by blocking the countrys unification,
and after having awakened to the fact that the
recovery of Western Europe depended largely on
the revival of Germany's great industrial produc-
tivity, the United States took the lead among
the Western allies in ditching the idea of estab-
fishing more or less pastoral German economy.
Since then, in the Ruhr and elsewhere in the
Anglo-French- American zones, the factories have
been humming at an ever-increasing tempo,
though stringent measures have been in effect
to prevent output for remilitarization.
And now events have swung almost full circle.
Little more than five years after all the talk
about the Morgenthau Plan, France, Britain the
United States and every other member of the
12-nation Atlantic pact are looking to West
Germany not merely as an industrial workshop
whose output is essential to European economic
recovery but also as country whose military
help is urgently needed as part of an integrated
continental force
threat of Soviet aggression Thus, in keeping
with the decisions reached at this weeks Brussels
conference, the Pact Powers are now hoping that
Chancellor Adenauer's government at Bonn will
cooperate in the common defense by helping to
organize limited number of German air. tank
and infantry units.
When compared to the attitude prevailing five
years ago. all this adds up to kind of ironic
commentary on the naivete and amateurishness
of the free worlds statesmen after We day. The
irony, moreover, is heightened by the fact that
the West Germans themSelves-whom the French
until now have been extremely reluctant to
rearm in any significant degree-are by no
means enthusiastic about the Brussels proposals.
Instead, perhaps alarmed bit by the Soviet
threat not to tolerate" their remilitarzation on
even strictly limited scale, many of them are
inclined to fight shy of the whole idea or demand
important concessions in exchange for their
cooperation.
In other words, the Western victors of 1945
have become rather like supplicants in their
dealings with vanquished country which they
once thought of "pastoralizing" but whose aid
they are anxious to have now in an effort to
counter the great menace posed by the treachery
and aggreSsiveness of their erstwhile Soviet ally
There have been ironical switches of the same
sort in times past. AS far as this one is con-
cerned, we can only hope that the free nations,
with West German help, will surmount the dan
gers it has caused-dangers that would be much
less pressing today if our present hindsight
existed as foresight five years ago.
The Tightening of credit on the eve of a
holiday season makes for strange company. One
hears that austerity, along with Santa Claus, is
just around the corner.