Cervia, [Beginning of August], 1970
The Americans in Europe
The widespread assumption that the Americans can be met everywhere in Europe and that they virtually inundate the Old Continent is totally wrong. Here at the beaches of the Adriatic where millions of Europeans spend their vacation, Americans are rarely seen. Americans come in the summer to Europe for sight-seeing tours. They are on their way throughout Europe by motor coach, stimulating city tourism. While Europeans relax and enjoy themselves at the beaches or in the mountains, the Americans sweat through the old inner cities and endure the sticky air of palaces and museums that usually are not air-conditioned.
Cervia, [Beginning of August], 1970
Italy: Summer 1970
Although one has gotten used to government crises in Italy and is inclined to assume that Italy rules itself also without a government, the reality looks quite different. After the Cabinet of Mariano Rumor had resigned, the continuing political crisis that has caused strikes throughout the country is worrisome. The heavy unrests, which first started in Reggio Calabria in the South, are now also spreading in the Province of Veneto in the North. The demands for higher wages by the metalworkers in Mestre set off a general strike.
Italy still suffers from severe social tensions. The danger that the country may succumb to a swing to the left cannot be denied in view of the fact that the Communists are in control of the municipalities throughout Central Italy. Why does Italy compared to the rest of Europe lag behind? Modern industry is still sparse and unevenly distributed. It is for the most part limited to the Plain of the Po River in the North, stretching from Torino to Milan and Mestre near Venice. Other regions of the country are very backward. Much is still done manually, where machinery should have been used long ago. Europe’s widespread economic handicap of burgeoning small trades has been thriving in Italy. As prices are rising, wages hardly cover the bare subsistence. The specter of a “sciopero generale,” of a general strike is always hovering over the country. Italy clearly shows that the Common Market is not the panacea for curing the economic weaknesses of a country. Recovery must come from within. Anyway, here the Common Market has not as yet become transparent.
What further worries Italy is the increasing presence of Russia in the Mediterranean. It is indirectly connected with the reckless actions of the Lybian Revolutionary Regime, which arbitrarily confiscated the personal property of Italians living in Lybia. These destitute refugees had to seek shelter in Naples. It remains to be seen if the new Cabinet of Emilio Colombo will be able to cope with the accumulation of so many difficult problems.
Innsbruck, August 12, 1970
German-Soviet Treaty on Renunciation of Force and Cooperation
“Mit diesem Vertrag geht nichts verloren, was nicht längst verspielt worden war.” (With this treaty nothing is going to be lost what had not been lost long ago.)
Willy Brandt
Today in the St. Catherine’s Hall of the Kremlin, Chancellor Willy Brandt and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed the German-Soviet Treaty on Renunciation of Force and Cooperation. Without much fanfare, after 25 years of uncertainty and illusory hopes, political reality in Europe was looked into the eye. The existing borders have been recognized and declared inviolable. With one sentence, the Oder-Neisse Line has been recognized as the Western border of Poland and the boundary between East and West Germany accepted as legitimate frontier. Rarely in European history has so much been given and given away with so few words.
After this treaty, the political integration of Europe has become all the more urgent if Europe does not want to be sucked into the Soviet sphere of influence. With the easing of tensions, the need for American protection is being diminished. This could lead to American disengagement, which has been pursued for some time anyway. Europe could enter a phase of neutralization between East and West, which could be an opportunity but also an impending danger.
The New Era of Treaty Euphoria
It may be regarded as an encouraging sign of the present world situation that the big and dangerous issues of conflict between East and West are being brought to mutually agreeable solutions at the conference table. The SALT negotiations in Helsinki and Vienna, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as the German-Soviet Treaty on Renunciation of Force and Cooperation that was just signed, all have contributed their share. There is hope that the tension charged atmosphere between the two superpowers will be relieved and that solutions for peace will be found by negotiations.