(See Cover)
Ernst Reuter, indomitable Mayor of Berlin, is one of the few authentically big figures in Western Europe, a fearless, consistent foe of Communism who meets the enemy without flinching or compromise. Long before other Western leaders, he saw his city in its true role, as Europe's outpost of freedom. He rallied his people in the critical months of the Red blockade. As an ally of the West, he looked good then. Now that Korea, like a lightning flash, has shown what may happen any time in Europe, his figure on the international scene bulks bigger than ever before.
The key to Europe is Germany. The key to Germany is Berlin, and not since the Russian blockade of 1948-49 has the outpost city seemed more menaced by the Red domain that surrounded it. Under the Kremlin's goad, East Germany is arming fast in the name of a united (i.e., Communist) Deutschland.
Berliners and West Germans know that only token defenses stand between them and the threat from the East. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that many Germans (and other Europeans) are profoundly discouraged and defeatist. West German morale soared during the Berlin airlift, plummeted when the West failed to take advantage of its moral victory. Morale flashed up again last June when the U.S. promptly and decisively accepted the Communist challenge in Korea. But it dropped again when U.S. battle defeats, added to appeasing statements from Washington, cast doubt on the U.S. determination to make a firm stand against Communism in Asia, however doughty might be its stand in Korea. The morale of Germany, and the rest of Europe, could only be revived by immediate European rearmament, with the U.S. as leader and Germany as one of the partners. Otherwise, soon, Berlin might go; the loss of Berlin would demoralize the West Germans and the Europeans; they might fight the advancing Russians, but they would have little hope of holding the Red army back from the Atlantic.
No Terrified Rabbit. Few men understood this danger so clearly as Berlin's Reuter. He did not need the Korean war to bring home to him the nature of the Kremlin's conspiracy against the world. He had once been a high official of the German Communist Party, a trusted friend of Lenin, an associate of Stalin. Reuter not only understood the danger, he knew what had to be done to meet it. Said he: "It is not my business to act like a terrified rabbit staring at a snake." For the past four years he had made it his business to rouse in his countrymen the love of freedom that all men have and to urge the free world to let the Germans have the means of defending themselves.