RICHARD LOWENTHAL
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of the missiles and thus disavowing its former policy under Chancel–
lor Schmidt, the Social Democrats had departed from serious and re–
sponsible policy for the foreseeable future, and even from the basic
consensus of the democratic parties. To me, this seems a rash and
superficial judgement.
The Social Democrats are not a single issue party. They are
basically concerned with the economic and social life of their coun–
try. And after having been excessively diverted from those issues by
the missile crisis, they are beginning to return to their proper role
with a marked sense of relief- a relief shared by the rank and file. A
considerable part of the "radical" faction voted against stationing not
just from a wish to get rid of the missiles, but to get rid of a divisive
issue. In recent state elections dealing with bread and butter rather
than world affairs, the Social Democrats have done rather well in
Hesse and Bremen. A regular party congress in May will above all
discuss an economic emergency program to deal with mass unem–
ployment. And while this is unlikely to lead quickly to a comeback
on a national scale, it will certainly keep the party focus on its main
concerns. In addition, the party leaders are fully aware of the vital
importance of maintaining the basic democratic consensus. Hans–
Jochen Vogel, the leader of the opposition in the Bundestag, while
doing his job of criticizing the government, has gone out of his way
to support its efforts to maintain reasonably normal relations with
East Germany despite the missile issue; he has also announced that
the Social Democrats will support the Christian Democratic can–
didate for the presidency of the republic, the present Berlin mayor
Richard von Weizsiicker, because of his firmness in maintaining
continuity in the intra-German aspect of Ostpolitik.
But most important, the Social Democratic Party leadership is
seeking not to keep the missile issue alive after the decision for sta–
tioning, but to bury it while hoping and working for a resumption of
negotiations. It has firmly rejected all appeals for "resistance" against
the parliamentary decision in which it was outvoted, stressing that
this is now binding in law. It has sharply condemned the appeal by a
group of writers, including Social Democratic writers, for a refusal
of military service, based on the absurd argument that the stationing
of missiles was incompatible with the constitutional limitation of the
Bundeswehr to defensive tasks . Moreover, the decision to put the
brake on pacifism running amok had come
before
the stationing:
when Willy Brandt spoke at the peace movement's mass meeting in
