ABSTRACT
A renaissance of German strategic studies is overdue, and Helmut Schmidt’s book is all the more welcome because of this. He does not, it is true, belong to any distinctively German tradition of thinking. His mentors are the Americans – Kissinger, Wohlstetter, Gavin, King – and the British – Buchan, Buzzard, Blackett. He writes largely, he admits, to bring the conclusions of these Anglo-Saxon thinkers to the attention of a German public quite uninstructed in defence matters. The forces of Russia and of Germany’s Western allies would be reduced to symbolic frontier detachments with the same function as the Berlin garrison: to act as guarantees of the continuing interest of these powers in the preservation of the military balance within this area. Outside the area, the great powers could make whatever disposition of bases and of nuclear weapons that they pleased.
