The three-week-long drama over whether the West German Parliament would ratify the treaties of Moscow and Warsaw ended enigmatically last week. The Bundestag ratified both agreements by wide margins248 to 10 for the Moscow treaty. But 238 opposition members of the Bundestag abstained from voting on the Moscow treaty. In the Bundesrat, the upper house, a majority of the members21 out of 41also abstained. Chancellor Willy Brandt, leader of the Social Democratic Party, grandly described the vote as opening "a new phase in the history of the Federal Republic." That may well be so, but, reports TIME'S Bonn Bureau...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
