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Document No. 111: Memorandum of Conversation of George H.W. Bush, John Sununu, Brent Scowcroft, and Helmut Kohl December 3, 1989
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647 Document No. 111: Memorandum of Conversation of george H.W. Bush, John Sununu, Brent Scowcroft, and Helmut Kohl December 3, 1989 This conversation immediately after the Malta summit marks a turning point in the process of German unification, where President Bush effectively joins Chancellor Kohl’s program—yet neither man expects unification to happen even in two years, much less by October 1990 when West and East would actually join . Bush gives Kohl a rundown on the conversation at Malta, describing Gorbachev as “tense” during talks about Germany and convinced that Kohl is moving too quickly: “I don’t want to say he went ‘ballistic’ about it—he was just uneasy.” Both men agree to reassure Gorbachev and “not do anything reckless.” The key moment here comes when Kohl tells Bush the opposite, in effect, of what Bush told Gorbachev about inviolability of borders under the Helsinki Final Act. Kohl reminds the American that Helsinki actually allows borders to be “changed by peaceful means;” and this seems to be the first time Bush internalizes this possibility. At the same time, Kohl outlines three deliberate steps: first, a free government in the former GDR, second, “confederative structures, but with two independent states,” and finally a “federation; that is a matter for the future and could be stretched out. But I cannot say that will never happen.” Kohl scoffs at predictions that this will take only two years: “It is not possible ; the economic imbalance is too great.” He is using similar language to Gorbachev ’s—“the integration of Europe is a precondition for change in Eastern Europe to be effective”—but says that European resistance to unification really comes from envy over Germany’s economic growth (“[f]rankly, 62 million prosperous Germans are difficult to tolerate—add 17 million more and they have big problems”). Bush asks about GDR opinions on unification, and neither he nor Kohl foresees the rush to reunification that would dominate the March 1990 elections there. As for European opinions, Kohl gives a candid summary, calling Mitterrand “wise” for disliking unification but not opposing it, while “Great Britain is rather reticent.” Bush exclaims, “That is the understatement of the year”—referring to Thatcher’s total opposition . Kohl says, “She thinks history is not just. Germany is so rich and Great Britain is struggling. They won a war but lost an empire and their economy.” The German version of this conversation contains more detail than the American version below, including an interesting discussion of Gorbachev and values (12 lines in the German, but only a parenthetical comment below) where Bush says “the entire discussion about economic issues had an unreal aspect to it more because of ignorance on the Russian side rather than narrow-mindedness. For example, Gorbachev took offense to the expression ‘Western values.’” The President: We had no particular agenda for our meeting in Malta, and President gorbachev was very accommodating on that point. gorbachev displayed little emotion, unlike my first meeting with him. The most contentious issues were discussed without rancor—the issue of Soviet bloc arms supplies to the Melyakova book.indb 647 2010.04.12. 16:21 648 Sandinistas, for example. This could have been a shouting match, but it was very calm. We spent much time on the german question. gorbachev said you are in too much of a hurry. Chancellor Kohl: Can I tell you about what happened today in the gDR? Everyone has resigned. There is a crisis supposedly in just running the government. The people want to know about special privileges being given to the leaders. That is only the beginning. In Rostock people broke into a factory and found arms there. They will now want to find where the arms were going. (He then described Krenz’ situation.) I told gorbachev it was not in my interest to invite things to get out of control. I think Modrow will be the new general Secretary. I will be in Hungary on December 18 to speak to the parliament, and then will go to meet the new leaders of the gDR. We cannot pay the 100 marks for each visitor anymore. It already amounts to $1.8 billion. (He then discussed how East germans were taking advantage of this program.) It will be phased out at the end of the year. We will help the gDR in several areas; such as the country’s big shortage of doctors, environmental protection matters, and building-up the telephone system. gorbachev said to...