Helmut Kohl

InIn 1946 — as time extended its reach overseas, and the despotic dreams of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito lay in ashes — a nascent alliance of free peoples spanning the North Atlantic was just starting to coalesce against the gathering storm of imperial communism.

What would follow would be a decades-long struggle to turn back this tide of tyranny. In my estimation, no European leader contributed more to this noble cause than Chancellor Kohl. Our relationship was forged in the fires of political controversy . When Helmut became German Chancellor in 1982, the Atlantic alliance faced one...