Bridging the Abyss

Clinking crystal glasses filled with champagne in the ornate splendor of Prague's Cernin Palace last week, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Czechoslovak Premier Lubomir Strougal toasted a historic moment: the signing of a treaty that establishes diplomatic ties between the two countries for the first time since World War II. The new treaty declares void the notorious 1938 Munich Diktat that allowed Nazi Germany to grab the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia-and take another step toward war. After the ceremony, a somber Brandt declared: "The acts of brute force cannot be wiped out simply by promising never to use force again, but we can build a bridge over the abyss."

Brandt's resumed Ostpolitik, which at week's end had also resulted in establishing diplomatic ties with Bulgaria, came only after tortuous negotiations. The Prague meeting was originally scheduled for September, but Brandt's demand that any treaty include assurances of West Berlin's continued special status as part of West Germany chilled the talks. To reach a compromise, however, Brandt eventually backed off from the West Berlin issue and agreed to take it up with Prague next year. The immediate reaction to the treaty in Prague was hardly encouraging. In his official toast to Brandt, Czechoslovak Premier Strougal pointedly emphasized his country's enduring and primal loyalty to Moscow. Rude Pravo, the party paper, was even more doctrinaire. It reaffirmed the international duty of Socialist countries to protect the "achievements of socialism" -presumably even if that should once more mean sending tanks to put down liberal movements as happened with Czechoslovakia's "springtime of freedom" in 1968. Nonetheless, now that all the legalities are in place, Brandt's grand scheme of Ostpolitik envisions that the Western nations by their example eventually will be able to exert a liberalizing influence on their Eastern neighbors.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.