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PARTISAN REVIEW
place, the government would be faced with considerable Social
Democratic opposition to the NATO decision, not to mention the
possibility that the Greens will succeed in electing representatives to
the Bundestag. But, whatever the outcome of the elections, it is clear
that the nuclear debate from now on will include discussion of a
question many had thought to be settled: that of German national
identity.
The foundations on which deterrrence and the Western alliance
rest are not very firm . Once again politics as a search for personal or
national identity is crowding out the politics of responsibility.
Moreover, securing some of the few remaining democracies against
political intimidation and blackmail will never be a purely technical
problem. Like
all
political questions, it is one of values. True, the
German question has unique features . But throughout Europe–
with the exception of Socialist France-and especially in Great
Britain, the intellectual Left is burying its head in the sand. Unlike
political romanticism about far away and distant revolutions, this
situation is filled with illusions that may have very damaging
consequences for Western Europe itself, for without the United
States, the Western Europeans cannot effectively deter the Soviet
Union . Unless the Europeans do more to defend themselves, the
alliance will not last another thirty years . And unless the liberal-left
drops its embarrassment over Atlanticism, it is likely that an alliance
without moral and political enthusiasm or commitment will dissolve.
Those who think this would not be such a bad thing are not only
failing to think seriously about the Soviet Union . They are also
underestimating the fragility and historical uniqueness of liberal
democracy and political freedom in Europe .
We regret the death of
ARTHUR KOESTLER,
one of our earliest contributors.
