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Show German Rearmament find Political Expediency Russian aggression in Korea revives the bitter question of whether Western Germany should be rearmed. Most military experts and a number of statesmen believe, but are afraid to say openly, that Western Germany should be armed against possible Russian Rus-sian aggression. They believe that Stalin, after his Korean venture, or even during it, might strike elsewhere at anytime, any-time, perhaps in Europe. If so, Western Europe could not bo held without the support o well-armed German armies. In two wars the Germans have shown they can produce th finest of fighting machines. Yet any attempt to put guns in the hands of the Germans would raise an outcry of opposition oppo-sition that could be heard all over Europe. Leaders of such Western European countries as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Nether-lands, Denmark, Norway, and Luxembourg, overrun by the Germans in the last two wars, would immediately oppose through fear, any attempt at German rearmament. They fear that if Germany were rebuilt as a military power, pow-er, the peoples of the world would have two potential aggressors ag-gressors with which to deal, not just Russia. But if backed into a corner, most of these leaders would concede that a friendly German war machine i might mean salvation in advent of a Russian invasion. ! At the moment the Allies have approximately 35 heavily armed divisions to defend Europe! Eu-rope! a French general several days ago said that a minimum of 75 would be necessary. However, How-ever, maybe the general is being be-ing optimistic, as Russia and her satellites could immediately mobilize 175 divisions for an European campaign. No doubt about it, Russia has the world's largest army, in the sense of sheer manpower, and is likely to keep the numerical advantage for sometime. So the question remains, should the war-like Germans be rearmed, or should Western Europe attempt to defend itself it-self against the Kremlin without German military might? The question may be decisive in importance. im-portance. In the arguments pro and con, the need of German armies to help stem the Soviet hordes appears ap-pears to be the predominant factor, fac-tor, but yet it is the one and only argument in favor of German Ger-man rearmament. Those who fear a revived Western Germany can cite two major dangers inherent in a powe.rul army for the Germans: (1) The Facist element in Germany Ger-many is still strong, and important impor-tant segments of the German population have been waiting for just such a crisis between E?st and West to grab the military mil-itary balance of power; this would mean the resurgence of German Fascism of the most aggressive ag-gressive kind. (2) The acceptance accept-ance of a rearmed Germany would convince the world of the West's willingness to accept all allies, even Facists, so long as they are anti-Communist. Then the way would be open for a settlement of differences with Franco and P e r o n, Hitler's World War II buddies. Should the Allies rearm the Germans? The question seems o be too dangerous, politically, o invite comment. x GWH |
