Memorandum from Paul H. Nitze to George H.W. Bush about “Forum for Germany” meeting in Berlin.
National Security Archive
This concise note to President Bush from one of the Cold War’s architects, Paul Nitze (based at his namesake Johns Hopkins University School of International Studies), captures the debate over the future of NATO in early 1990. Nitze relates that Central and Eastern European leaders attending the “Fo
Source: Memorandum from Paul H. Nitze to George H.W. Bush about “Forum for Germany” meeting in Berlin. Date: Feb 6, 1990 Archive: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library Collection: NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard Dec 12, 2017
SAIS The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies The Johns Hopkins University
February 6, 1990
The President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500
My dear Mr. President:
During the last week, I attended a meeting in Berlin of the "Forum for Germany." Some 120 representatives from eastern and western Europe discussed the fading reality of the division of Germany and of Europe. In the concluding session, representatives of the two superpowers were scheduled to present their views. In the unavoidable absence of Richard Burt, who could not leave Geneva to join us, he asked me to present the U.S. position. I enclose a copy of the substance of my concluding remarks.
In the discussions of the first day of the conference, the majority view appeared to be that unification would and should take time. In addition, an agreement between the Warsaw Pact and NATO would be required, perhaps to be formally ratified by the Helsinki process. Such an agreement would involve equal concessions by both sides, including the withdrawal of both East and West troops from a unified Germany. If the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, NATO would also be dissolved.
At the end of the conference, the consensus view had radically changed. Almost all except the Soviet delegation agreed (a) that German reunification had de facto taken place while we were meeting and was now irreversible; (b) that there was no valid analogy between the Warsaw Pact and NATO--one was a true alliance, the other consisted of arrangements formerly imposed upon countries now no longer under Soviet dominance; (c) that the idea of neutrality was inappropriate to a unified
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The President Page 2
February 6, 1990
Germany and unacceptable; and (d) that Germany should enter into discussions with its allies and its neighbors with a view to taking their interests fully into account.
I thought it a good meeting and hope that its tentative conclusions can be carried forward.
With all my best personal wishes,
Respectfully,
Paul H. Nitze
Enclosure
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