Description
From June to September 1950, the North Korean invasion and the American intervention to defend South Korea led West German and American officials to believe that the USSR would use East Germany to initiate a war for German reunification. Washington and Bonn perceived parallels between the post-World War II divisions of Germany and Korea which demonstrated that a war in Korea predicted a war in Germany. Historians of US-West German relations in the early Cold War argued that the war scare was an opportunity for the Allies and especially Bonn to remilitarize the Federal Republic by manipulating anti-communist fears. These historians studied West German rearmament without deeply investigating if Washington and Bonn rearmed West Germany based on a genuine fear Soviet/East German invasion, if fears of communist aggression accurately reflected Moscow’s or East Berlin’s intentions, and if the Korean War was a legitimate indicator of a coming war over German reunification. Declassified materials from Washington and Bonn revealed that deep suspicions of Soviet and East German aggression were caused by liberal American and West German ideologies. American and West German policymakers catastrophized Germany’s division based upon the US’s losses to the Soviet-back North Koreans. The CIA did not find definitive evidence of a Soviet-East German diplomatic alliance, communist subversive activities in West Germany, nor military buildups in East Germany. In reality, Moscow and East Berlin wanted to avoid conflict over Germany’s division. Nonetheless, West German and American officials believed that the East Germans and Soviets would conquer West Berlin and defeat West Germany because of Allied policies for disarmament. The Allies began deliberations on rearming West Germany which ranged from arming Germans for paramilitary units, strengthening the police, and creating a national army. By the end of the summer when the US rapidly reconquered South Korea and proved its anti-communist defensive strengths, the Allies agreed to the principle of West German rearmament and firmly committed to defending West Berlin. West Germany was not threatened by the USSR or East Germany, but Washington’s and Bonn’s sense of a threat led to the Federal Republic’s remilitarization.
