Abstract
The largest share of the Interdoc budget between 1963 and 1971 was provided by the Germans. In 1970 the German contribution was 605,300 guilders (about $150,000), more than 90 per cent of the total.2 Despite a sixfold increase on the 1963 budget, Geyer was well aware that this was not enough to cover the necessary support staff in The Hague, hampering the ability of Interdoc to function as intended. Geyer also had trouble justifying the rising costs from early on.3 The expansion of Interdoc Youth was an extra draw on resources. To cap it all, at the height of its activities, Interdoc’s operations were suddenly placed under serious threat. This decision came suddenly and was wholly connected with the shift in West German foreign policy towards a rapprochement with the East.
Was Deutschland betrifft, so kann ich mich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren, dass es einem recht schwierigen Jahr entgegengeht. Übrigens möchte ich noch die Hoffnung aussprechen, dass die neue Regierungskoalition sich günstig auf die Entfaltung Deiner Arbeit auswirkt.
Cees van den Heuvel, 19661
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Notes
Wilfried Loth, Overcoming the Cold War: A History of Détente (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), pp. 80–82;
David Ryan, The United States and Europe in the Twentieth Century (London: Pearson Longman, 2003), pp. 79–85.
See Zbigniew Brzezinski and William Griffith, ‘Peaceful Engagement in Eastern Europe’, Foreign Affairs 39 (July 1961), pp. 642–654;
Bennett Kovrig, Of Walls and Bridges: The United States and Eastern Europe (New York: New York University Press, 1991), pp. 107–109.
Gottfried Niedhart, ‘The East-West Problem as seen from Berlin: Willy Brandt’s Early Ostpolitik’, in Wilfried Loth (ed.), Europe, Cold War and Coexistence 1953– 1965 (London: Frank Cass, 2004), pp. 285–296.
See Jeremi Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 216–218; Gottfried Niedhart, ‘Ostpolitik: Phases, Short-Term Objectives, and Grand Design’, GHI Bulletin Supplement 1 (2003), pp 118–136; Oliver Bange, ‘Ostpolitik as a source of intra-bloc tensions’, paper presented at the Lemnitzer Centre for NATO Studies/Ohio State University, available online at http://detente.de/ostpolitik/publications/index.html (accessed 23 June 2011); Egon Bahr’s speech available online at http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=81 (accessed 23 June 2011).
See Peter Bender, Offensive Entspannung (Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1964);
Ludwig Raiser, ‘Deutsche Ostpolitik im Lichte der Denkschrift der Evangelischen Kirke’, Europa-Archiv 21 (1966), pp. 195–208;
Gottfried Erb, ‘Das Memorandum des Bensberger Kreises zur Polenpolitik’, in Werner Plum (ed.), Ungewöhnliche Normalisierung: Beziehungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zu Polen (Bonn: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1984), pp. 179–190.
Gerhard Schröder, ‘Germany looks at Eastern Europe’, Foreign Affairs, 44 (October 1965), p. 17.
László Görgey, Bonn’s Eastern Policy 1964–1971: Evolution and Limitations (Hamden: Archon, 1972), pp. 3–28.
William Glenn Gray, Germany’s Cold War: The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949–1969 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), p. 193.
See Ronald J. Granieri, ‘Odd Man Out? The CDU-CSU, Ostpolitik, and the Atlantic Alliance’, in Matthias Schulz and Thomas Schwartz (eds), The Strained Alliance: US-European Relations from Nixon to Carter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 83–101.
Reinhard Gehlen, The Service: The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen (New York: World Publishing, 1972), p. 278.
Rolf Geyer, ‘Some Thoughts on Communist Policy’, in Communist Reassessment of Capitalism, its Resultant Strategy and the Western Response, Interdoc conference, 1967.
Henry Kissinger, The White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), p. 99.
See Stefanie Waske, Mehr Liaison als Kontrolle: Die Kontrolle des BND durch Parlament und Regierung (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2008);
Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, Der BND (Berlin: ECON Verlag, 1993);
Paul Maddrell, ‘The Western secret services, the East German Ministry for State Security, and the building of the Berlin Wall’, Intelligence and National Security, 21 (2006), pp. 829–847; Eberhard Blum (code name Hartwig), ‘Einleitung und Vorschlag für Neuordnung’, 24 July 1968, archive of the Forschungsinstitut für Friedenspolitik e.V., Welheim, Germany.
Brian Crozier, Free Agent: The Unseen War 1941–1991 (London: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 104–105
Gunhild Bohm-Geyer, interviews with the author, Würthsee, 4 July 2008 and 12 July 2011. See Rolf Geyer, Entspannung, Neutralität, Sicherheit (Osnabruck: Verlag A. Fromm, 1970) and ‘Der Deutsche im Spannungsfeld psychopolitischer Vorgänge’, Politische Studien: Monatschrift für Zeitgeschichte und Politik (1975), pp. 369–376 for a concise outline of Geyer’s thinking on the negative consequences for the West of a détente process that was largely orientated towards Soviet-bloc interests.
Dietmar Töppel became chief of staff of the GDR section at BND HQ, while Peter Becker, who regarded the decision to disband IIIF as an arrogant mistake on the part of the SPD, undertook operational training and subsequently held posts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cairo, and Beijing. On the Stiftung see Albrecht Zunker, ‘Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik: Die Neu-Berlinerin’, Handbuch Politikberatung II (2006), pp. 363–373.
Waldman’s papers included ‘Canada’s Attitude towards Detente and Neutralism’ (Conference: National Views on Neutralism and East-West Détente, Deidesheim, September 1969) and ‘Political Radicalism and Defence: The Situation in North America’ (Conference: Radicalism and Security, Noordwijk, April 1970). On Waldman and Gehlen see James Critchfield, Partners at the Creation: The Men behind Postwar Germany’s Defense and Intelligence Establishments (Annapolis, MA: Naval Institute Press, 2003), pp. 31–41.
Wolfgang Höpker, Wie rot ist das Mittelmeer? — Europas gefährdete Südflanke (Stuttgart: Seewald, 1968)
ZZ Creuzberger, Kampf für die Einheit: Das gesamtdeutsche Ministerium und die politische Kultur des Kalten Krieges 1949–1969 (Düusseldorf: Droste, 2008), pp. 279–286;
Sonja Krämer, ‘Westdeutsche Propaganda im Kalten Krieg: Organisationen und Akteure’, in Jürgen Wilke (ed.), Pressepolitik und Propaganda: Historische Studien vom Vormärz bis zum Kalten Krieg (Cologne: Böhlau, 1997), pp. 333–371.
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© 2012 Giles Scott-Smith
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Scott-Smith, G. (2012). The Fallout from Ostpolitik . In: Western Anti-Communism and the Interdoc Network. Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137284273_7
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