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President's Signal. Faced with the Communist threat, the Western Allies firmly reminded the Soviet Union that they hold the Russians responsible for maintaining free access to West Berlin. After talks in Bonn with Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson jetted to West Berlin for a seven-hour visit. "We shall continue —you can count on this—to do all that is in our power to ensure that your freedom is preserved," he said on television. Berliners were pleased and somewhat reassured. But they were even more pleased by the prospect of next week's visit by President Nixon. As the Berliners see it, Nixon's determination to press on with his visit, despite the present tension, serves notice on the Communists that the new American President will back up the old U.S. pledge to protect Berlin.
Western diplomats felt that it was highly unlikely that the Soviets would allow the East Germans to aggravate the Berlin situation into an American-Soviet dispute while Nixon was en route there. After all, the Soviets have so far been careful not to provoke the new President. They hope that he will work with them to forgo the building of an anti-ballistic missile system and to keep West Germany from getting nuclear weapons by pressuring Bonn into signing the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Those Soviet goals would be imperiled by a new showdown in Berlin. As West German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt put it, "The higher interest of the Soviet Union argues against a big crisis."
Still, it was significant that the Soviets had allowed the East Germans to go as far as they did. Perhaps the most plausible explanation was that the Soviet leaders felt compelled to allow their most loyal and important ally to kick up a minor fuss, while all the time stage-managing the crisis so that its timing and proportions would not seriously impair U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations.
Unfortunate Delay. Whatever the Soviet motives, the West Germans' inept handling of the election plans probably tempted the Russians to fasten on to that particular issue. Despite vague Communist warnings, the West Germans decided last December to go ahead with presidential selection in Berlin. But then the West Germans unfortunately failed to send out the formal summonses that would have made the decision final. The delay apparently led the Communists to believe that the West Germans could still be badgered out of holding the elections in Berlin.
Consequently, the Communists openly stepped up their threats. At the urging of West Berlin's Mayor Klaus Schiitz, the West Germans felt that under the circumstances they could not back down. Britain, France and the U.S., who had previously been skeptical about the political wisdom of holding the election in Berlin, felt obliged to back up the West Germans. So last week Bonn finally sent out 1,036 invitations to federal and state legislators, convoking them in Berlin on March 5 to choose between the Christian Democrats' Gerhard Schroder and the Socialists' Gustav Heinemann for the office of President of the Federal Republic.