A Change of Course

?Emerging after WWII under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the West German Social Democratic party envisaged a united Germany within a democratic, socialist Europe. Strongly anti-Communist, it opposed the concept of German rearmament and participation in NATO.... Schumacher's successors continued to oppose Adenauer's foreign policy, and this opposition became even more bitter as nuclear weapons for NATO forces came under discussion. But within a few years, the position changed and German Social Democrats acquiesced and eventually supported Bonn's membership in NATO and the introduction of nuclear devices in Western Europe, so that future Social Democratic administrations would, like their Christian Democratic predecessors, become reliable partners of the US and the other Western powers. The details of these changes of heart and the reasons for them are carefully described and analyzed by the author, a foreign affairs expert. Artner contributes to our understanding of an important political party whose motivations and thoughts are not always clearly perceived by the US. College collections.?-Choice