8

[Y]

The first step on this front had to be to overcome the image of Germans as enemies. As early as May 1945, shortly after I was put in charge of the intelligence team in the Bergstrasse, I wrote to someone who has urged me to be tough: "Somewhere this negativism has to end; we must produce something positive, or we will have to remain here as guardians over chaos forever... We must lose no opportunity to demonstrate the civility of our ideals. We are here because our values are better than those of the Nazis, not that we are better because we are here. These are the instructions I have given to every member of my team."

The Minister President was kind enough to ask me to describe in what manner my experience in the Bergstrasse affected my later life.

I will answer it in two ways. On one level, it represented an end of conflict based on nations or race and a return to human relationship.

It changed the vocation of my life to public service.

9

[Y]

Paradoxical as it may seem, life in occupied Germany returned to human normalcy very quickly despite the enormous shortages and hardships, and perhaps because of them. Human relations were what gave life meaning and hardship content. The German population turned to the task of reconstruction with great energy; the occupiers soon abandoned their original punitive intent and spent more and more of their energy on supporting this effort. Traditional patterns returned with extraordinary speed. Football resumed in the fall of 1945. I took the occasion to see my hometown team, Spvg. Fürth, play in Mannheim and IFC Nürnberg in Frankfurt. Theater started almost from the beginning. Make-believe sustained a harsh reality. I went frequently to packed houses, especially in Heidelberg, though difficulty of heating made it necessary to dress warmly during the cold winter. Perhaps the most moving performance was here in Darmstadt.

In a theater in what I remember as a partially bombed building

10

(though perhaps my memory is inadequate), there was a performance
of "The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder. It is a play about a
typical American family living in a present-day New Jersey suburb,
who survive the Ice Age, the Great Flood (as in the book of Genesis in
the Bible) and World War II.

I do not know how the play would strike a modern audience.

But that grim winter in Darmstadt, the tale of the collapse and rebirth of civilizations evoked a deeply emotional response and an almost personal bond between the audience and the performers – almost as if they were a single family reliving a joint personal tragedy.

On a less personal level, the period at the Bergstrasse marked
the beginning of my participation in the cooperative relationship
between Germany and America, which became one of the pillars of the
Cold War world and a key element of my life. A spirit of comradeship
and a sense of a shared destiny between Germans and Americans

11

[Y]

[emerged]. Two Berlin crises, a Middle East war, rejection of the police states in Eastern Europe [and] close cooperation during the process of unification produced a partnership based on shared convictions.

The experience of the Bergstrasse was the beginning of a process in which, in one way or the other, I was given the opportunity to participate in strengthening the ties between Germany and the United States in the decades since. Perhaps unexpectedly, the generation of émigrés from the Germany of the 1930s, whatever their personal experiences in the Nazi period, retained and fostered in their vast majority a special relationship to the country of their birth. Many of them became active in the promotion of close ties between Europe and America. They had learned in their youth the danger of ideologized foreign policy and of treating an entire people by stereotype. They remembered Germans who had remained supportive

12

[Y]

despite the dictatorship. They felt a special obligation to help in
building a new system of international relations, overcoming the
catastrophes of the past, and the talents of people[s] can be put in the
service of positive aspirations.

That generation, too, has developed a special attitude toward
the role of the United States. They are grateful for the refuge they
have found there and the opportunities afforded to them. They
appreciated the matter-of-fact ease with which America integrates
refugees into its society and the friendliness of life in America. They
are therefore impatient when America is attacked as imperialistic,
semi-authoritarian or the other lexicons of anti-American rhetoric and
when partnership is treated not as shared aspirations but as the
balancing of pressures.

For my generation, the recent tensions in the Atlantic
relationship are therefore especially painful. It is not that previous

13

[Y]

decades were free of controversy. Spirited encounters occurred over
the years between American leaders and Chancellors of both major
German parties. I have observed and participated in several of those
disagreements. In fact, my first diplomatic mission was to Konrad
Adenauer on behalf of President [John F.] Kennedy during the Berlin
crisis of 1961. Those controversies differed from the disputes of
recent years because they never questioned the premise of a common
destiny.

The basis of the postwar German-American relationship was
mutual trust. These days, too often the argument is made that only if
Europe is strong - *auf gleicher Augenhöhe* - can it be dealt with
seriously by America. This does not do justice to the achievements of
the postwar period. German-American friendship was not the result of
mutual pressure but of the inner necessities of statesmen. A strong
Europe is important and should be welcomed by the United States. It

14

will surely help the cause[s] of peace and progress. But the reliable
basis for a German-American relationship is not an exercise in balance
of power but a striving to achieve a compatibility and community of
values.

Europe and America face many common tasks.

In the Middle East, there are two types of challenges. An
agreement between Arabs and Israel is becoming conceivable based
on mutual adjustment of territories. This has to overcome vast
psychological obstacles. For Israel, giving up settlements beyond the
agreed dividing line will be traumatic. For the Palestinians, giving up
the aspiration to return to Israel will be painful, especially for refugees
– a feeling that Germans can share particularly. However, if Europe
and America join in encouraging both parties on a road to which there
is no real alternative, our period may see a breakthrough to peace.

15

[Y]

In Iraq, the challenge is to build a democracy. In this connection, I would reject the comparison between the occupation of Germany and the occupation of Iraq that is often made by [the] American media. Germany was a homogeneous country; Iraq is characterized by ethnic and religious cleavages. Germany had a democratic tradition, [albeit] an occasionally contested one. In Iraq, the current effort is the first enterprise in democracy. The German population was relieved that the war was over and welcomed the new circumstances - American soldiers in the army of occupation experienced no hostility, not to speak of danger; in Iraq, there is an insurrection, especially in the Sunni areas, and American lives are in constant danger. In Germany, the army of occupation encountered a group of leaders such as Adenauer, Kaiser and Schumacher with experience in democratic politics; there are none in Iraq because there has never been any democratic government. In Germany, the only

16

hostile neighbor, the Soviet Union, served as a warning and an
inspiration to democrats; in Iraq, there are hostile neighbors, such as
Iran, in a position to impede the process of democratization.

Whatever our differences over the security issues in Iraq,
America and Europe have a common interest in building a democratic
government. Such an enterprise cannot be the task of one nation
alone. It requires joint action by Europe and America.

There is the issue of nuclear proliferation, focusing for the
moment on Iran. A common diplomacy between Europe and the
United States is essential. Even more, there is the need for a common
diplomacy and a common strategy if diplomacy fails. Indeed, I would
argue that diplomacy can succeed only if there is a credible strategy
defining the consequences of failure.

Finally, the center of gravity of international affairs is moving to
the Pacific, requiring major adjustment of established patterns.

17

Thus, we meet at the anniversary of the end of the war in a
period of unprecedented change. Foreign policy is global, the center of
world affairs is moving toward Asia, private groups are achieving the
ability to threaten security in a way heretofore reserved to states. To
master these challenges, German-American friendship is essential and
in the interest of both people[s]. Sixty years ago we overcame
seemingly insurmountable obstacles; we must do so again.

Mr. Minister President, I am deeply touched by the spirit in which
you have received me and the opportunity for nostalgia you have
afforded me. In those days in the Bergstrasse, it never occurred to
me that someday I would be Secretary of State or be shaping a
common international [WORD MISSING]. The long road to this point
had an important beginning in this region. Thank you for inviting me
and letting me share it with you.

2752 words

4/19/05-#2

Hesse speech

I want to thank Minister President Koch for this invitation. It means a great deal to me. At the end of the war, I spent fifteen months with the army of occupation at the Bergstrasse, living in Heppenheim. It was an important experience in my life, the period marked a turning point in the history of Germany, of Europe and of the relations of the nations bordering the North Atlantic.

No one at the time could imagine the dramatic nature of the
next decades. That Germany would emerge as one of the leading
high-technology producers of the world was unimaginable amidst the
rubble of German cities. Europe was split by the rivalries of countries;
national states were aware of their importance but not yet of their
* remedy for weakness by overrunning certain opportunities for cooperation. America was present with its troops but

2

[Y]

far away with its ideology looking to return them home so that we
could resume our historic isolation.

Sixty years later, we see a united democratic Germany, a
European Union, an Atlantic partnership [and] an Atlantic alliance
which includes all the states until very recently part of the Soviet
Empire. I lived through the beginning of this process not far from here
in a very subordinate position. [But] the mood of those days may [be]
enmity & cooperation & friendliness,
of interest. This is why I have followed the Minister [President's]
& share with us an at times
suggestion that the audience might want to hear something of the end
of the war and its immediate aftermath through the general mood of
the time. I do not generally speak of personal experiences. For this
day, when the guns fell silent and a new world order began (though
can remind us how much we can learn from
we did not know it), may hold some insights into [WORD MISSING?]
& recall imagination & deduction.

When I was drafted into the US Army in February 1943, I was
nineteen and had been in America four and a half years. After a year

3

[Y]

of service in various army posts in America, I was sent to Europe with the 84th Infantry Division in the summer of 1944. In December 1944, during the Battle in the Ardennes, I was transferred from the infantry to counterintelligence without any previous intelligence experience.

The commanding general of our division thought I would be able to identify any German spies because of my German background and first by looking at their language skill. Luckily, that presumed skill was never put to the test because my division never encountered a German spy, or at least never found one. In March 1945, the German front in the West began to disintegrate, and the 84th Division moved across northern Germany through Hannover and Bielefeld to the Elbe River, where we met the Soviet troops.

To observe the collapse of a country one has known as a child was an awe-inspiring experience. The cities were destroyed; the at the appearance end of the war: on the other hand, the civilian population was preoccupied with the day-to-day requirements

4

[4]

of food and shelter. There were no communications or civilian
venicular traffic. With my family's experience in the Nazi period and
on the basis of what we had seen when some concentration camps
were liberated – especially Bergen-Belsen – there existed a big gulf
between Americans and the German population. Indeed, General
[Dwight D.] Eisenhower issued a nonfraternization order that
prohibited any social contact between Allied personnel and Germans.

It proved an unenforceable order. First, because it was
practically unfeasible and, more importantly, because the human plight
of the occupied population was bound to touch one's heart, whatever
had happened during the war. In a letter home on November 29,
1944, I described the first German refugees I encountered: "It is
tragic, no matter what you think of German actions. A suitcase in one
hand, a kerchief with clothes in the other, they part tearfully from their
homes. Yet they will not go far and will return soon."

5

[Y]

Though technically assigned to counterintelligence, my work began to concentrate increasingly on helping with the restoration of essential civilian services. This was made all the more imperative because very few American military personnel spoke German, and the German population had next to no facility with English.

In late April, with combat essentially over, I was transferred to Landkreis Bergstrasse, charged once more with finding nonexistent German spies and assisting increasingly in the reconstruction tasks.

The conditions of the time were chaotic: none of the modern means of communication, no mail service, no telephone, large numbers of foreign workers on the roads and in the cities, little shelter for the civilian population and, of course, no automobiles.

The generation that knows these events only from books and that has lived in a high consumption society for decades will find it difficult to imagine conditions at the margin of existence. Due to the

6

[Y]

achievements brought about by the dedication of its grandfathers, this generation cannot really appreciate the enormous distance Germany has traveled since those desperate days. From the beginning, I was impressed by the tenacity and courage with which the German population and its leaders launched themselves on the task of reconstruction. Remember, this was before the Marshall Plan and any foreign economic aid; the currency was still that of the war period.

There was no central German government or even a Land government, and there would not be a central government for four more years. The fundamental German civil administration, including police, stayed in place; the leading Nazi Party officials were removed by the military occupation, but the vast majority remained in place. Military government confined itself essentially to tasks of supervision; day-to-day operations were increasingly in German hands.

7

[Y]

Yet this was the beginning of a journey that unified Germany and won the Cold War. It created a European Union and an Atlantic partnership. During the same period, America undertook a major transformation of its own historic foreign policy. As late as 1944, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt had told Winston Churchill that American forces could not remain in Europe for more than two years. Under the presidency of Harry S. Truman, America abandoned its historic isolation and adopted a policy that tied its destiny to the future of European recovery and Atlantic partnership. Like the Adenauer choice for Atlantic partnership,

the moral component of Truman's choice was the most important. A decade later, I asked Truman what he considered his greatest achievement. He replied, "That after total victory in war, we brought back our adversaries to the community of nations as equals."

8

If my life was an odyssey, air pollution service.

9

gave life meaning and hardship content. The German population
turned to the task of reconstruction with great energy; the occupiers
soon abandoned their original punitive intent and spent more and
more of their energy on supporting this effort. Traditional patterns
returned with extraordinary speed. Football resumed in the fall of
1945. I took the occasion to see my hometown team, Spvg. Fürth,
play in Mannheim and IFC Nürnberg in Frankfurt. Theater started
almost from the beginning. Make-believe sustained a harsh reality. I
went frequently to packed houses, especially in Heidelberg, though
difficulty of heating made it necessary to dress warmly during the cold
winter. Perhaps the most moving performance was here in Darmstadt.
In a theater in what I remember as a partially bombed building
(though perhaps my memory is inadequate), there was a performance
of "The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder. It is a play about a
typical American family living in a present-day New Jersey suburb,

[Y]

10

On a less personal level, the period at the Bergstrasse marked the beginning of my participation in the cooperative relationship between Germany and America, which became one of the pillars of the Cold War world and a key element of my life. [In this connection, I would reject the comparison between the occupation of Germany and the occupation of Iraq that is often made by [the] American media. Germany was a homogeneous country; Iraq is characterized by ethnic and religious cleavages. Germany had a democratic tradition, [albeit]

11

[y]

an occasionally contested one. In Iraq, the current effort is the first enterprise in democracy. The German population was relieved that the war was over and welcomed the new circumstances – American soldiers in the army of occupation experienced no hostility, not to speak of danger; in Iraq, there is an insurrection, especially in the Sunni areas, and American lives are in constant danger. In Germany, the army of occupation encountered a group of leaders such as Adenauer, Kaiser and Schumacher with experience in democratic politics; there are none in Iraq because there has never been any democratic government. In Germany, the only hostile neighbor, the Soviet Union, served as a warning and an inspiration to democrats; in Iraq, there are hostile neighbors, such as Iran, in a position to impede the process of democratization.

The essence of the German-American relationship moved from hostility to friendship. The decisive aspect of the German-American

12

[Y]

relationship of the postwar period was the emergence of a spirit of
emerged
comradeship and a sense of a shared destiny between Germans and
Americans. Both sides began to have faith in a common destiny. Two
Berlin crises, a Middle East war, suppression of freedom in Eastern
Europe [and] close cooperation during the process of unification
produced a partnership based on shared convictions.

The experience of the Bergstrasse was the beginning of a
process in which, one way or the other, I was given the opportunity to
participate in strengthening the ties between Germany and the United
States in the decades since. Perhaps unexpectedly, the generation of
émigrés from the Germany of the 1930s, whatever their personal
experiences in the Nazi period, retained and fostered in their vast
majority a special relationship to the country of their birth. Many of
them became active in the promotion of close ties between Europe and
America. They had learned in their youth the danger of ideologized

13

[Y]

remembered Germans who had remained supportive despite the

dictatorship. They felt a special obligation to help those who seek to create a new world order, in which the catastrophes of the past are overcome, and the talents of people[s] can be put in the service of positive aspirations.

That generation, too, has developed a special attitude toward the role of the United States. They are grateful for the refuge they have found there and the opportunities afforded to them. They appreciated the matter-of-fact ease with which America integrates refugees into its society and the friendliness of life in America. They are therefore impatient when America is attacked as imperialistic, semi-authoritarian or the other lexicons of anti-American rhetoric and when partnership is treated not as shared aspirations but as the balancing of controversies.

14

[Y]

For this generation, the recent tensions in the Atlantic relationship are therefore especially painful. It is not that previous decades were free of controversy. I have observed and participated in several of those disagreements. Spirited encounters occurred over the years between American leaders and Chancellors of both major German parties. In fact, my first diplomatic mission was to Konrad Adenauer on behalf of President [John F.] Kennedy during the Berlin crisis of 1961. But they have differed from the disputes of recent years because they never questioned the premise of a common destiny. The basis of the relationship was trust. These days, too often the argument is made that only if Europe is strong – *auf gleicher Augenhöhe* – can it be dealt with seriously by America. This does not do justice to the achievements of the postwar period. German-American friendship was not the result of mutual pressure but of the inner necessities of statesmen. A strong Europe is important and

15

should be welcomed by the United States. It will surely help the cause of peace. But the reliable basis for a German-American relationship is not an exercise in balance of power but a striving to achieve a compatibility and community of values.

There is the issue of nuclear proliferation, focusing for the moment on Iran. A common diplomacy between Europe and the United States is essential. Even more, there is the need for a common strategy if diplomacy fails. Indeed, I would argue that diplomacy can succeed only if there is a credible strategy defining the consequences of failure. The democracies must come to some understanding of how to avoid or how to manage a world of multiple nuclear power centers and what happens to civilian life under the shadow of threats producing casualties, not of hundreds, but tens of thousands.

16

[Y]

In the Middle East, there are two types of challenges. An agreement between Arabs and Israel is becoming conceivable based on mutual adjustment of territories. This has to overcome vast psychological obstacles. For Israel, giving up settlements beyond the agreed dividing line will be traumatic. For the Palestinians, giving up the aspiration to return to Israel will be painful for refugees - a feeling that Germans can share particularly. However, if Europe and America join in encouraging both parties on a road to which there is no real alternative, our period may see a breakthrough to peace.

In Iraq, the challenge is to build a democracy. This is a special

challenge because, as I explained earlier, the obstacles are greater

than they were in Germany. Therefore, the promotion of democracy

Europe and America.

17

Western democracy developed over centuries in homogeneous societies; minorities found majority rule acceptable because they had a prospect of becoming majorities, and majorities were restrained in the exercise of their power by their temporary status and by judicially enforced minority guarantees. Such an equation does not operate where minority status is permanently established by religious affiliation and compounded by ethnic differences and decades of brutal dictatorship. Majority rule in such circumstances is perceived as an alternative version of the oppression of the weak by the powerful. In multi-ethnic societies, minority rights must be protected by structural and constitutional safeguards. Federalism mitigates the scope for potential arbitrariness of the numerical majority and defines autonomy on a specific range of issues.

Finally, the center of gravity of international affairs is moving to the Pacific, requiring major adjustment. We meet at a period of

18

Sixty years ago we overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We must do so again.

Mr. Minister President, I am deeply touched by the spirit in which
you have received me and the opportunity for nostalgia you have
afforded me. In those days in the Bergstrasse, it never occurred to
me that someday I would be Secretary of State or be talking to the
people among whom I was stationed about shaping a new world order.

2752 words

4/19/05-#2

Hesse speech

I want to thank Minister President Koch for this invitation. It means a great deal to me. At the end of the war, I spent fifteen months with the army of occupation at the Bergstrasse, living in Heppenheim. It was an important experience in my life; the period marked a turning point in the history of Germany, of Europe and of the relations of the nations bordering the North Atlantic.

No one at the time could imagine the dramatic nature of the
next decades. That Germany would emerge as one of the leading
high-technology producers of the world was unimaginable amidst the
rubble of German cities. Europe was split by the rivalries of countries;
national states were aware of their importance but not yet of their
opportunities for cooperation. America was present with its troops but

2

[Y]

Sixty years later, we see a united democratic Germany, a
European Union, an Atlantic partnership [and] an Atlantic alliance
which includes all the states until very recently part of the Soviet
Empire. I lived through the beginning of this process not far from here
in a very subordinate position. But the mood of those days may [be]
of interest. This is why I have followed the Minister [President]'s
suggestion that the audience might want to hear something of the end
of the war and its immediate aftermath through the general mood of
the time. I do not generally speak of personal experiences. For this
day, when the guns fell silent and a new world order began (though
we did not know it), may hold some insights into **[WORD MISSING?]**

3

The commanding general of our division thought I would be able to
identify any German spies because of my German background and
language skill. Luckily, that presumed skill was never put to the test
because my division never encountered a German spy, or at least
never found one. In March 1945, the German front in the West began
to disintegrate, and the 84th Division moved across northern Germany
though Hannover and Bielefeld to the Elbe River, where we met the
Soviet troops.

To observe the collapse of a country one has known as a child
was an awe-inspiring experience. The cities were destroyed; the
civilian population was preoccupied with the day-to-day requirements

4

of food and shelter. There were no communications or civilian vehicular traffic. With my family's experience in the Nazi period and on the basis of what we had seen when some concentration camps were liberated – especially Bergen-Belsen – there existed a big gulf between Americans and the German population. Indeed, General [Dwight D.] Eisenhower issued a nonfraternization order that prohibited any social contact between Allied personnel and Germans.

5

[4]

6

7

[and] created a European Union and an Atlantic partnership. During

8

The Minister President was kind enough to ask me to describe in
what manner my experience in the Bergstrasse affected my later life.
I will answer it in two ways. On one level, it represented an end of
conflict based on nations or race and a return to human relationship.
Paradoxical as it may seem, life in occupied Germany returned to
human normalcy very quickly despite the enormous shortages and
hardships, and perhaps because of them. Human relations were what

9

[4]

10

[Y]

On a less personal level, the period at the Bergstrasse marked the beginning of my participation in the cooperative relationship between Germany and America, which became one of the pillars of the Cold War world and a key element of my life. In this connection, I would reject the comparison between the occupation of Germany and the occupation of Iraq that is often made by [the] American media.

11

an occasionally contested one. In Iraq, the current effort is the first
enterprise in democracy. The German population was relieved that
the war was over and welcomed the new circumstances - American
soldiers in the army of occupation experienced no hostility, not to
speak of danger; in Iraq, there is an insurrection, especially in the
Sunni areas, and American lives are in constant danger. In Germany,
the army of occupation encountered a group of leaders such as
Adenauer, Kaiser and Schumacher with experience in democratic
politics; there are none in Iraq because there has never been any
democratic government. In Germany, the only hostile neighbor, the
Soviet Union, acted as a warning and an inspiration to democrats; in
Iraq, there are hostile neighbors, such as Iran, in a position to impede
the process of democratization.

12

relationship of the postwar period was the emergence of a spirit of comradeship and a sense of a shared destiny between Germans and Americans. Both sides began to have faith in a common destiny. Two Berlin crises, a Middle East war, suppression of freedom in Eastern Europe [and] close cooperation during the process of unification spelled a partnership based on shared convictions.

13

foreign policy and of treating an entire people by stereotype. They
remembered Germans who had remained supportive despite the
dictatorship. They felt a special obligation to help those who seek to
create a new world order, in which the catastrophes of the past are
overcome, and the talents of people[s] can be put in the service of
positive aspirations.

14

15

[M]

should be welcomed by the United States. It will surely help the cause
of peace. But the reliable basis for a German-American relationship
[is] not an exercise in balance of power but a striving to achieve a
compatibility and community of values.

16

In the Middle East, there are two types of challenges. An agreement between Arabs and Israel is becoming conceivable based on mutual adjustment of territories. This has to overcome vast psychological obstacles. For Israel, giving up settlements beyond the agreed dividing line will be traumatic. For the Palestinians, giving up the aspiration to return to Israel will be painful for refugees – a feeling that Germans can share particularly. However, if Europe and America join in encouraging both parties on a road to which there is no real alternative, our period may see a breakthrough to peace.

In Iraq, the challenge is to build a democracy. This is a special challenge because, as I explained earlier, the obstacles are greater than they were in Germany. Therefore, the promotion of democracy cannot be the task of one nation alone. It requires joint action by Europe and America.

17

[Y]

18

Mr. Minister President, I am deeply touched by the spirit in which
you have received me and the opportunity for nostalgia you have
afforded me. In those days in the Bergstrasse, it never occurred to
me that someday I would be Secretary of State or be talking to the
people among whom I was stationed about shaping a new world order.
The long road to this point had an important beginning in this region.
Thank you for inviting me and letting me share it with you.

1904 words

4/18/05

Hesse speech

a period marked
in the history of Germany of Europe + of
the relations of the nations formerly part of the old world.

a truly unique point of view, and I believe
I will never forget the relations of the nations formerly part of the old world.

The Minister President suggested that the audience might want
of interest. This is only a few months
suggesting
to hear something of the end of the war and its immediate aftermath.

in the hope that general of the time.

I do not generally speak of personal experiences. But this day, on

which the war ended [sixty years ago] and a new world order began,

a long time

we did not know it)

may be an appropriate exception.

to some exceptions into

When I was drafted into the US Army in February 1943, I was
nineteen and had been in America four and a half years. After a year
of service in various army posts in America, I was sent to Europe with

2

The commanding general of our division thought I would be able to identify any German spies because of my German background and language skill. Luckily, that presumed skill was never put to the test because my division never encountered a German spy, or at least never found one. In March 1945, the German front in the West began to disintegrate, and the 84th Division moved across northern Germany through Hannover and Bielefeld to the Elbe River, where we met the Soviet troops.

To observe the collapse of a country one has known as a child was an awe-inspiring experience. The cities were destroyed; the civilian population was preoccupied with the day-to-day requirements of food and shelter. There were no communications or civilian

3

[Y]

vehicular traffic. With my family's experience in the Nazi period and
on the basis of what we had seen when some concentration camps
were liberated - especially Bergen-Belsen - there existed a big gulf
between Americans and the German population. Indeed, General
[Dwight D.] Eisenhower issued a nonfraternization order [that]
prohibited any social contact between Allied personnel and Germans.

determined to first German refugees encountered: "This is my home.
no matter what you think of Germany.
A writer in one land, a relief with clothes
in the other to pay faithfully for our lives. 94%

Though technically assigned to counterintelligence, my work
began to concentrate increasingly on helping with the restoration of
essential civilian services. This was made all the more imperative
"We will not go forward and will
return soon."

4

[4]

The conditions of the time were chaotic: none of the modern
means of communication, no mail service, no telephone, large
numbers of foreign workers on the roads and in the cities, little shelter
for the civilian population and ______ not to ______ automobiles.

The generation that knows these events only from books and
that has lived in a high consumption society for decades will find it
difficult to imagine conditions at the margin of existence. Due to the
achishments brought about by the dedication of its grandfathers, it cannot really appreciate the enormous distance Germany has traveled since those desperate days. From the beginning, I was impressed by the tenacity and courage with which the

5

[4]

German population launched itself on the task of reconstruction.

Germans as enemies evaporated quickly. As early as May 1945,

shortly after I arrived at Bergstrasse, I wrote home: [INSERT B]

And when my time of military service was over, I stayed on for a
year, teaching at the intelligence school in Oberammergau American

[4]

During the same period, America undertook a major transformation of its own historic foreign policy. As late as 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had told Winston Churchill that American forces could not remain in Europe for more than two years. Under the presidency of Harry Truman, America abandoned its historic isolation and adopted a policy that tied its destiny to the future of European recovery and Atlantic partnership. Like the Adenauer choice for Atlantic partnership, the moral component of Truman's choice was the most important. A decade later, I asked Truman what he considered his greatest achievement. He replied, "That after total victory in war, we brought back our adversaries to the community of nations as equals."

The Marshall Plan and the Atlantic Alliance were the expressions of this policy. Those acts of reconciliation would not have been possible without a courageous commitment to the future inside

6

[Y]

personnel assigned for military government or intelligence duties,
explaining to my parents why: [INSERT C] By then, I had been
three years in Europe with the American army, most of them in
[Germany]. When I returned to America in 1947, I had lived in
Germany for over eighteen of my first twenty-four years. Germany
can therefore never be for me a foreign country.

The Minister President was kind enough to ask me in what
[manner] my experience in the Bergstrasse affected my later life. I note
will answer it in two ways. On one level, it represented a return to
normalcy. Paradoxical as it may seem, life in occupied Germany
returned to human normalcy very quickly despite the enormous
shortages and hardships, and perhaps because of them. Human
relations were what could ______ life + relationship ______ meaning content. The German
population turned to the task of reconstruction with great energy; the
occupiers soon abandoned their original punitive intent and spent more

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started from the beginning. Rake's belief in the best reality. Resumed, even though difficulty of heating made it necessary to dress warmly during the cold winter. (Change)

Almost every town reopened its opera houses and theaters. I went frequently, especially in Heidelberg. (It passed through)

Perhaps the most moving performance was here in Darmstadt. In a theater in what I remember as a partially bombed building (though perhaps my memory is inadequate), there was a performance of "The Skin of Our Teeth" by Thornton Wilder. It is a play about a typical American family living in a present-day New Jersey suburb, who survive the Ice Age, the Great Flood (as in the book of Genesis in the Bible) and World War II.

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But that grim winter in Darmstadt, the tale of the collapse and rebirth of civilizations evoked a deeply emotional response and an almost personal bond between the audience and the performers – almost as if [they] were a single family reliving a joint personal disaster.

On a less personal level, the period at the Bergstrasse marked the beginning of my participation in the cooperative relationship between Germany and America, which became one of the pillars of the Cold War world and a key element of my life. In this connection, I would reject the comparison between the occupation of Germany and the occupation of Iraq that is often made by [the] American media. Germany was a homogeneous country; Iraq is characterized by ethnic and religious cleavages. Germany had a democratic tradition, [albeit] an occasionally contested one. In Iraq, the current effort is the first enterprise in democracy. The German population was relieved that

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[Y]

the war was over and welcomed the new circumstances – American soldiers in the army of occupation experienced no hostility, not to speak of danger; in Iraq, there is an insurrection, especially in the Sunni areas, and American lives are in constant danger. In Germany, the army of occupation encountered a group of leaders such as Adenauer, Kaiser and Schumacher with some experience in democratic politics; there are none in Iraq because there has never been any democratic government. In Germany, the only hostile neighbor, the Soviet Union, acted as a warning and an inspiration to democrats; in Iraq, there are hostile neighbors, such as Iran, in a position to impede the process of democratization.

The experience of the Bergstrasse was the beginning of a process in which, one way or the other, I was given the opportunity to participate in strengthening the ties between Germany and the United States in the decades since. Perhaps unexpectedly, the generation of

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émigrés from the Germany of the 1930s, whatever their personal experiences in the Nazi period, retained and fostered in their vast majority a special relationship to the country of their birth. Many of them became active in the promotion of close ties between Europe and America. They had learned in their youth the danger of ideologized foreign policy and of treating an entire people by stereotype. They remembered Germans who had remained supportive despite the dictatorship. They felt a special obligation to help those who seek to create a new world order, in which the catastrophes of the past are overcome, and the talents of people[s] can be put in the service of positive aspirations.

That generation, too, has developed a special attitude towards
the United States. They are grateful for the refuge they have found
there and the opportunities afforded to them. They appreciated the
matter-of-fact ease with which America integrates refugees into its

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[4]

or the other lexicons of anti-American rhetoric, as not placed on equality

The decisive aspect of the German-American relationship of the postwar period was the gradual emergence of a spirit of comradeship and a sense of a shared destiny between Germans and Americans.

Both sides began to have faith in a common destiny. Two Berlin crises and close cooperation during the process of a Middle East peace, suppression of freedom in Berlin, and unification symbolized these shared convictions.

For my generation, the recent tensions in the Atlantic relationship are therefore especially painful. It is not that previous decades were free of controversy. I have observed and participated in several of those disagreements. Spirited encounters occurred over the years with chancellors of both major German parties. In fact, my first diplomatic mission was to Konrad Adenauer on behalf of President [John F.] Kennedy during the Berlin crisis of 1961. But they have

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[Y]

differed from the disputes of recent years because they never
questioned the premise of a common destiny. The basis of the
relationship was trust. Too often, the argument is made these days
that Europe's weakness caused tensions and that only if Europe is
strong - *auf gleicher Augenhöhe* - can it be dealt with seriously by
America. This does not do justice to the achievements of the postwar
period. German-American friendship was not the result of mutual

pressure but of the inner necessities of statesmen. A strong Europe is
*important & should be realised by the United States. It will help the cause of peace. The German-American relationship needs a reliable basis for its
should not turn into an exercise in [the] balance of power but [strive] to achieve* a compatibility and community of values.

Mr. Minister President, I am deeply touched by the spirit in which
you have received me and the opportunity for nostalgia you have
afforded me. In those days in the Bergstrasse, it never occurred to
me that someday I would be Secretary of State or be *talking* in

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To

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private groups that are the essence of terrorism, preemptive action is justified. But what remains the subject of debate is how to establish the international framework for such actions. It is not possible in the long run that each nation defines the nature of preemption unilaterally.

Some common multilateral method for doing so must be devised. The Atlantic alliance could make a major contribution by working out such a concept for its members.

The list of issues necessary to create a new world order and in which European-American partnership is important is vast. I shall briefly mention two of them: democratization and globalization.

All Western democracies are committed to spreading democratic ideals. But how to apply this principle in support of a new world order is a relatively new role for them. And it is important to understand its complexity. Western democracy developed over centuries in homogeneous societies; minorities found majority rule acceptable

It is my duty to support the President in seeking a major adjustment to theetenment of Iraq.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz and I applied these
principles in a joint statement to the Iraq situation in the following four
objectives: (1) to prevent any group from using the political process
to establish the kind of dominance previously enjoyed by the Sunnis

[Y]

shaping a new world order. We meet at a period of unprecedented
change. Foreign policy is global, the center of world affairs is moving
towards Asia, private groups are achieving the ability to threaten
security in a way heretofore reserved to states. To master these
challenges, German-American friendship is essential and in the interest
of both people[s]. And, for me, the long road to this point had an
important beginning in this region. Thank you for inviting me to
letting me share it with you