ABSTRACT
Soviet-American relations were strained throughout the postwar era, despite periods of dtente when both sides attempted to reduce tensions. This chapter talks about German states strained relations, and Willy Brandts attempts to forge better links between the Bundesrepublik and the GDR. It discusses how the enlarged Bundesrepublik met the challenges that followed unification. However, the disappearance of the GDR from the map of Europe was only the beginning of the unification process. Brandt recognised that better relations with the GDR could only be achieved as part of a wider process which included other eastern European states, particularly the Soviet Union itself. The Berlin Wall prevented the continuing westward haemorrhage of the GDRs population after 1961 and confirmed Germany's division as a lasting feature of the European map. As with the 1970 Moskauer Vertrag, the Bundesrepublik appended to the treaty a letter in which it committed itself nonetheless to pursuing the ultimate goal of German unity.
