(2 of 2)
Though Ahlers doubtless talked too much, average Germans and the German press could hardly be blamed for displaying a bit of self-satisfied pride in the strength of their currency. But as soon as the leaders of Bonn's Grand Coalition sensed how poorly the German gloating was being received elsewhere in Europe, they moved without hesitation to curb the enthusiasm of their countrymen. In a radio interview, Willy Brandt gave the Germans a lesson in prudent international etiquette. Said the Foreign Minister: "Arrogance toward our neighbors and partners would be stupid and dangerous." Chancellor Kiesinger warned his people about developing pretensions of grandeur. "In the journalistic utterances abroad during the past days, there were voices that spoke of an alleged shift of power within Europe to Bonn," he said. "I would like to warn my fellow-countrymen urgently against falling for such slogans. Nothing could be more unbecoming to us than such a presumption, which in any case betrays a lack of comprehension of the true situation in Europe."
Position of Primacy. Kiesinger's pronouncement was perhaps reassuring to his fellow Europeans, but it was slightly disingenuous. West Germany's economic primacy in Europe is a fact, and so is the political leverage that goes with it, whether exercised or not. Charles de Gaulle's defiant and determined effort to preserve the parity of the franc cannot mask the reality of France's diminished stature. In order to stop the outflow of francs, France is now sealed behind a monetary barrier, deprived of much of the economic freedom that De Gaulle has used in the past to act as arbiter of Europe and counterweight to West Germany. Nothing so underscored France's reduced position as the cancellation of next year's nuclear tests in the Pacific, in which France was expected to explode its first missile-sized H-bomb. Doubtless the general will continue to talk of grandeur and gloire with his familiar fervor, but until the soundness of the franc is restored, the old perorations must necessarily have a hollow ring.
The new disparity in power relationships in Western Europe may open new opportunities for U.S. diplomacy. De Gaulle has summoned to Paris many of his top ambassadors for a thoroughgoing review of French foreign policy. The result of that review could lead to at least a partial resumption of that sense of common purpose that once bound France not only to its European allies but also to the U.S.