West Germany: House Divided

Schmidt faces his foes

Most political leaders look forward to party conventions as festive tributes to their achievements, real or imagined. Not Helmut Schmidt. This week, as 400 delegates from West Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (S.P.D.) meet in a concrete, saucer-shaped hall built for the 1972 Munich Olympics, the West German Chancellor faces the sharpest criticism and the most divisive party battle of his eight-year tenure. So important is the confrontation that Schmidt has threatened to resign if the S.P.D. does not support his policy on nuclear defense. Though it appears unlikely that he will have to do so,...

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