Thread by @ProfPaulPoast

1/ Day 4 of #NATO7for70 to commemorate 70 years of @NATO!

The fourth installment is "And The Wall Fell: Handling German Reunification"

2/ As mentioned in a previous thread, West Germany joining NATO in 1955 wasn’t really that big of a deal. The possibility was anticipated when the North Atlantic Treaty was negotiated in 1949

3/ ...and West Germany's time came just six years later

4/ But a UNIFIED Germany? Hmmm….I think we know how this ends, right?

5/ At least that was the concern in 1989-1990 when the Berlin Wall fell

6/ Consider the 🇫🇷Foreign Minister Roland Dumas (to the left of Gorbachev)

7/ In a February 1990 speech, he expressed well the broader concerns about a unified Germany

8/ And Mikhail Gorbachev was skeptical about the whole thing too, as he expressed to the West German Foreign Minister Genscher in December 1989 (from the @TheWilsonCenter archives: digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/120827):

9/ What made things especially interesting was that Germany’s fate was NOT in Germany’s hands.

Since World War II, it was technically under the control of Britain, France, the USA, and the Soviet Union

10/ These powers had to sign off on German reunification. This became the basis for the Four Plus Two talks.

11/ Now, two big issues at the talks (but not the only issues) were

(1) should Germany reunify?

(2) if Germany reunifies, should it be part of NATO?

12/ The two issues were intertwined.

Indeed, many scholars and policy makers have debated whether there was a “promise” by the USA to the Soviets to (1) not place NATO forces in E Germany territory, and (2) not expand NATO further.

13/ A number of scholars have engaged in this debate (cc @JimGoldgeier @shifrinson @timsayle @richardmaass and many more).

Mary Sarotte provides a nice overview of the issue in this @ForeignAffairs piece

foreignaffairs.com/articles/russi…

14/ If you wish to make up your own mind on the issue, a good place to look is this collection of documents from @NSArchive

nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…

15/ Regardless of what the Soviet officials heard or what the Americans might have said, Article 6 of the final Four Plus Two treaty is pretty is pretty clear: Germany can do what it wants with respect to alliances!

16/ But just to be safe, Article 3 placed restrictions on German nukes and troop levels

17/ With that, Germany reunified and entered NATO in 1990

18/ This event marked a shift in @NATO being less about external deterrence and more about internal European security. @NATO's purpose (to quote Ismay) of "keeping the Russians out" became less important and its purpose of "keeping the German's down" became MORE important!

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