The End Of The Cold War?: Bush, Kohl, Gorbachev, And The Reunification Of Germany (palgrave Studies In Oral History)

This carefully researched history draws on archival sources as well as a wealth of new interviews with on-the-ground activists, political actors, international figures, and others to move beyond the narratives both the German and American varieties that have dominated the historical memory of German reunification. This carefully researched history draws on archival sources as well as a wealth of new interviews with on-the-ground activists, political actors, international figures, and others to move beyond the narratives-both the German and American varieties-that have dominated the historical memory of German reunification. The re-unification of Germany was part of a process that changed the world: it extended the West to the East bringing parliamentarian democracies and a market systems, and expanded NATO to the (Bela) Russian border with an increasing American influence; at the same time, the Soviet Union imploded and the Eastern military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, disappeared. Alexander von Plato traces this process in detail. His carefully researched history draws on archival sources as well as a wealth of new interviews with on-the-ground activists, political actors, international figures, and others to move beyond the narratives-both the German and American varieties-that have dominated the historical memory of reunification. In the process, it addresses some fascinating lingering questions from 1989: What led the Soviet side to agree to the reunification of Germany and the membership of a united Germany in NATO? Was it promoting, as a condition for German unity, military neutrality or an overall European security system as an alternative to the expansion of NATO? Was the government of the FRG subjected to pressure from the Soviet side to decide between unity and its ties to the West? Did the American side rule this out? And what strategies did the West and East European as well as the Canadian governments ultimately pursue? What are the consequences until now? "There is by now a very familiar received narrative of German reunification, one that began to coalesce immediately upon the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even before the files of most of the state offices, the foreign ministers, and the secret services were opened, television productions, radios, and newspapers, began painting a picture of reunification and the end of the Cold War in which the people of the GDR, as part of a movement for citizens' rights, and with the support of the 'master strategist' Gorbachev, in a short time achieved its freedom and joined with West Germany to form a new republic with a bright future. The historical and contemporary truth is, of course, much more complex and elusive. This carefully researched history draws on archival sources as well as a wealth of new interviews with on-the-ground activists, political actors, international figures, and others to move beyond the narratives--both the German and American varieties--that have dominated the historical memory of reunification. In the process, it addresses some fascinating lingering questions from 1989: What led the Soviet side to agree to the reunification of Germany and the membership of a united Germany in NATO? Was it promoting, as a condition for German unity, military neutrality and an overall European security system as an alternative to the expansion of NATO? Was the government of the FRG subjected to pressure from the Soviet side to decide between unity and its ties to the West? Did the American side rule this out? And what strategies did the West and East European governments ultimately pursue?"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xv Introduction: The Historian as a Detective....Pages 1-3 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 The Beginnings....Pages 7-19 Summer 1989: Gorbachev in Bonn....Pages 21-31 Gorbachev and the “Soviet Fatherhood” of the GDR....Pages 33-60 Coincidence as the Helper: Pushing Movements, Driven Politicians....Pages 61-146 2+4, 4+2, or 33+2? The Centers of Power Take Over the Negotiations on the International Aspects of Unity....Pages 147-220 Elections in the GDR and Their Consequences....Pages 221-253 What Is National and What Is International in the 2+4 Negotiations?....Pages 255-311 Signing of the Contracts....Pages 313-325 Summary and Prospects for the Future....Pages 327-343 Back Matter....Pages 345-439