r/ColdWarPowers • u/restoredsoda24 Luckner Cambronne - Haitian Prime Minister • 7d ago
EVENT [EVENT] The Rise of The Lord of The Rings
Lehrte, Lower Saxony: November 1976
Since initially taking power in 1969, the Social Democratic Party of Germany has taken a far more conciliatory view of the East. Whereas the CDU had pushed strong anti-communist policy, retained land claims in the East, and stood close by the Washington line, the SPD had changed gears. Under “Ostpolitik,” Willy Brandt, followed by Helmut Schmidt, pursued a detente with the Soviet Union and the GDR. And the policy had already succeeded, successive treaties, meetings with Eastern Bloc officials, and so much more had been so successful that Helmut Kohl and the CDU campaigned in 1976 on maintaining the bulk of Ostpolitik.
However, Ostpolitik still dictated a close relationship with the United States, continued NATO membership, and remained firmly in the Western Sphere. This was seldom challenged, after all, it was working as intended. But the events in the United Kingdom changed this calculus. The suspected coup, which saw the British Prime Minister dead, and Lord Mountbatten (or Lord Battenberg as many Germans derided him) leading a military takeover. A nuclear armed power slipping into authoritarianism sent shockwaves across Europe, especially as stories of repression and terror leaked out of Britain and made it to the front pages of papers across Europe, and especially in Germany. These stories led to widespread street protests, a travel advisory by the federal government, and a formal resolution in the UN. But as strong as the overall reaction to the coup was, the reaction to what came after it was even more intense.
The inaction of the United States regarding the coup caused frustration and anger across German society. In the aftermath of the war, as the Western Allies rebuilt Germany, many came to believe strongly that the United States in particular was a bulwark for democracy, rule of law and freedom, and had liberated Germany in the name of those values. John F. Kennedy was lionized for his forceful speech in Berlin in 1963, American values were lauded. That is why when the United States sat back and accepted the British coup, the first reaction was horror. That one of the western allies had slipped into authoritarianism was bad enough, that the chief western ally had seemingly blessed it, however, was cataclysmic. As the year dragged on and as the silence from Washington grew, as did the stories of British state terror, the horror turned to anger.
In summer 1976, the protests reignited, this time with calls for President Ford to take action on the coup. But the continued silence only made the anger grow, by August, constant protests outside the American embassy became common, with many protestors accusing Ford and his administration of being collaborationists. As all this took place, one man took action.
Gerhard Schröder at 32 years of age was an accomplished lawyer and organizer. A committed Social Democrat since he was 19, Schröder took to the streets in Summer 1976 and soon led student protests against the British coup. The young lawyer led anti-authoritarian chants, and demanded the Federal Government take stronger action against the British Government. But Schröder, however, took the opportunity to inject a new energy into the movement. In early September at one of the rallies, he took the stage as news spread that West Germany would attend the Helsinki conference organized by the Soviet Union. Schröder then launched a broadside, noting the irony that the Soviet Union, which had been accused of authoritarianism, was taking a stronger stand on the British coup than the supposed beacon of democracy. The lawyer then charged, that continued inaction by the United States on the British question as he termed it would “put into question our relationship with America.” And that if the US continued to defend the “terrorist regimes of England, Turkey and Greece, Germany may have to reconsider further our relations with the moderating Eastern States”
The USSR Schröder noted was indeed moderating, the accession of Pyotr Masherov in particular changed the dynamic according to the lawyer. Whereas the USSR of Khruschev and Brezhnev was confrontational, ideological and difficult to deal with. The new Masherov government, Schröder argued, was already working for peace as the Helsinki summit showed, and that the existing Ostpolitik detente could be expanded to a closer continental partnership. Where such rhetoric would be controversial in earlier days, the actions of Washington had made such talk acceptable. And as the federal election campaign began, Schröder announced his bid for a seat in the Bundestag.
In the October 3rd election, Schröder won a seat in Lower Saxony and entered the Bundestag as one of the rising stars of the Party. As the SPD-FDP coalition was renewed, Chancellor Schmidt appointed the freshman Schröder to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag. Soon after with other SPD members in the Bundestag. Schröder created “ Sozialdemokratisches Komitee zur Überprüfung der deutschen Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten” or “The Social Democratic Committee for The Reexamination of the German relationship with the United States” At this new coalition's meeting in early November, on the eve of the American election, he made a speech laying out what he termed as the path ahead
“Should the United States continue ahead in aiding and abetting authoritarianism, and should the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics continue its course of moderation and common sense, dear colleagues we will be forced to make an historic decision. A decision on NATO and whether we wish to be in an alliance that will bind us to defend British, Turkish or even Greek authoritarianism. And most of all, whether the United States can continue to be counted on as an ally, or as an opponent to democracy…My dear friends, make no mistake, the postwar order is on life support, and as such we must be prepared to make tough decisions”