West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had gone along with the West's rebuff to Russia's offer of a united "neutral" Germany (TIME, March 31). Now he had to convince a skeptical Bundestag.
Adenauer's favorite argument—that German independence and security can be had only through integration with the West—no longer sufficed. Socialists and even members of his own coalition pointed out that the Russian offer promised not merely independence, but a reuniting of East and West Germany.
Adenauer maneuvered adroitly. To take the edge off opposition charges that he is putting integration ahead of unification, he...
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