ABSTRACT
The rationale of West German foreign policy is very simple: the postwar era has ended. Its hallmarks were high hopes for Western political structures on the one hand, and high tension between East and West on the other. For Germany, an exclusively national policy of deterrence would lack both credibility and effectiveness. West Germany wants to sec Western Europe unified, It was, after all, Chancellor Brandt who engineered a decisive breakthrough when, at the Hague Conference in December 1969, he convinced France's President Pompidou of the necessity to get Europe moving again. The Soviets showed themselves willing to accept a letter from the Federal Government to the effect that self determination for the entire German people remains the goal of our policy. The people in both parts of Germany want practical solutions that would permit the nation to live together more easily than it can at present.
