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At the Big Three's Bermuda conference, the absent, uninvited Chancellor of West Germany was even more a participant than France's ailing Premier, who spoke scarcely a word. Before dispatching to Moscow their agreement to a Big Four conference in Berlin, the Big Three leaders solicited Adenauer's approval. When Prime Minister Churchill suggested it might be wise to consider some alternative to EDC for Germany's rearmament, President Eisenhower dismissed the proposal with a wave of his hand. The U.S. will not consider alternatives, said the President, and besides, "EDC is what Adenauer wants."
Decisive Events. West Germany has won this place at the council table despite the fact that it is still nominally an occupied country, and has yet to arm a single soldier, build a plane or roll out a tank.
Seated one day last week in his huge office in the Palais Schaumburg, Chancellor Adenauer made a temple of his fingers and, chatting with TIME Correspondent Frank White, allowed himself the luxury of some mild self-satisfaction. "I cannot avoid smiling a little when, as chief of an occupied country, I sit down with the leaders of the occupying nations, such as Mr. Eden and M. Bidault. In spite of the fact that Germany hasn't yet full sovereignty, its economic and political impact is fully felt in world affairs."
Adenauer had his own list of "the decisive events" of the year: "The clear and determined attitude" of the U.S. to take the lead in the struggle against Communism, the uprisings in East Germany, his own election victory, and President Eisenhower's atomic pool proposal, which Adenauer believes "may well be the beginning of real understanding between East and West." Stalin's death, he says, was "not a factor of major importance." It did not increase the chances for peace. "Stalin had the power and prestige to alter the course of Kremlin foreign policy. His successors have not."
Adenauer has some advance worries for 1954: "There is wind in the air, and the sky is not without clouds." Biggest clouds: indecision in France, the approaching four-power conference on Germany, the state of mind of the U.S. Congress.
As for France: ". . . The French people have a much clearer conception [of EDC] than does the French Parliament ... I am convinced the French will finally agree to the formation of an integrated Europe."
On four-power negotiations: "The hope that the Soviets have altered their course is unfounded. Their strategy for the Berlin conference is mainly that of delay . . . The three [Western] ministers must maintain an undivided front. Russia will attempt to weaken the French will to ratify EDC. If successful ... it would be Russia's greatest triumph."
On Congress: "I fully understand that there should be impatience. I confidently hope, however, that as much as they dislike what happens, they will be wise enough not to stop giving [moral] assistance and [financial] support at this critical moment, when final success is in sight."
"The first six months of 1954 will be decisive."