(5 of 5)
Things are unraveling fast for the East German regime. Some Western analysts fear a longer-term crackdown, but that would merely increase internal pressure, not diminish it. In the long run, Honecker, or his successors, will be forced into reform. Yet steps toward democracy and a free-market economy pose a special peril for the G.D.R. If East Germany became more like West Germany, what would be the point of a separate state?