Nuclear Disarmament - How Helmut Kohl Nearly Prolonged the Cold War - Der Spiegel

Newly released secret documents reveal that Chancellor Helmut Kohl opposed negotiating with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late stages of the Cold War. Had the West German leader prevailed, it's likely the conflict would have ended very differently.
The interview with Hans-Dietrich Genscher had come to an end and the former German foreign minister was standing in the door of his home near Bonn to see out his visitor.

But there was time for one last question: What had Genscher's relationship with his former coalition partner, ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, been like? Did he like him? The answer, on this spring day several years ago, was "yes." There was a personal connection, Genscher said, but also a lot of wounds that went "more than just skin deep."

From 1982 to 1992, Genscher and Kohl governed West Germany, and then Germany, together. They negotiated German reunification and paved the way for the euro. But at the same time, the two men -- who addressed each other using the informal "du" -- spent years waging a protracted feud, a battle that overshadowed their relationship until the end of their lives. Information was leaked, accusations leveled and insults spread.

Kohl, a member of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), called Genscher a "master of self-promotion." Genscher, from the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), maintained that the chancellor was not an international political heavyweight, saying there was simply nothing there.

Some of it was just muscle flexing. But there were also considerable, substantive differences, with far-reaching consequences. The most important conflict centered around Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, who took over the Kremlin in 1985 and pursued a policy of détente. While Genscher saw Moscow's new policy as an opportunity, Kohl was far more skeptical.

Secret documents from 1987 that have now been released show the extent of the discord -- and how lucky the Germans were. The Institute of Contemporary History in Munich published the paper at the behest of the German Foreign Ministry: ambassadors' reports, analyses from department heads, conversation transcripts from the archives of the Foreign Ministry and the Chancellery, and several letters from Kohl's private home in Oggersheim.

The documents reveal that when Kohl met with other heads of state and government, he would rail against the new Soviet leader in Moscow, and the German leader tried to put the brakes on the Soviets' disarmament initiatives. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), which banned nuclear intermediate-range missiles, is now considered a major turning point of the Cold War. Back then, though, it seemed for a time as though it would fail due to Bonn's concerns. - Read More

How Helmut Kohl Nearly Prolonged the Cold War