Innsbruck, June 2, 1989
The Visit to Europe Was a Success
President Bush returned to Washington today from his seven day visit to Europe with stops in Rome, Brussels, Bonn, and London. The visit to Europe was a success. Bush could strengthen the cooperation with the European allies and retake the initiative of the West by his disarmament proposal.
After the meeting of the NATO member states in Brussels, he immediately went to Bonn. Chancellor Helmut Kohl accompanied his guest on a tour boat up the Rhine River to Mainz. In the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz, Bush made a declaration of principle. He strengthened the German-American friendship and conceded to the Federal Republic a leading role within the Western Alliance. He repeated Reagan’s demand to tear down the Berlin Wall and expressed his view that Glasnost should also apply to East Germany. Calling attention to the Austrian-Hungarian border, where at this time the barbed wire is being removed, he called on the countries along the Iron Curtain to do likewise and encouraged them to continue the started process of democratization.
Innsbruck, June 4, 1989
The Massacre
Despite the news blackout, reports are currently coming through on the European and Austrian news services of the unrests in Peking. The demonstrations on Tiananmen Square have not ceased. Following the confusion in the last several days, the hard-liners within the Chinese government have obviously won the upper hand. The military was ordered to use force. The consequences of this drastic action are worse than one can imagine. Today, a massacre took place on Tiananmen Square when units of the People’s Army shot indiscriminately into the crowd of demonstrators. Armored vehicles moved scurrying through the city and opened fire on defenseless civilians. News agencies tell of thousands of wounded and casualties. Similar to the “Prague Spring” of 1968, the call for more freedom was brutally crushed. Thus, the reform movement in China, which began so full of hope, and its opening to the world have come to an abrupt end.
Innsbruck, June 7, 1989
Signs of Disintegration
The world community is following the events in China with dismay and incomprehension. The reports of the reckless action by the army against defenseless civilians, of an indescribable chaos, of foreigners fleeing Peking appear in quick succession. Is China at the brink of a civil war? Assumptions are growing stronger that units of the People’s Army are shooting at each other. The political leadership is in such disarray that doubts have arisen about its ability to govern. One thing is certain: This gigantic empire, where one fifth of mankind lives, will not be the same again after these events. Until now, one could not have imagined how world Communism would one day end. The events in China, the Soviet Union, and in the Communist countries in Eastern Europe show signs of internal disintegration. Suddenly, it is becoming clear that world Communism is nearing its end. Its end is coming about not by intervention from outside but by a rapidly spreading disintegration from inside. Gorbachev’s reform initiative in the Soviet Union gave the impetus. In the entire Communist sphere of influence a reform movement toward democracy has been set in motion, which cannot be stopped anymore.
Innsbruck, June 12 and 13, 1989
Gorbachev in Bonn
The state visit of Mikhail Gorbachev in Bonn has brought a decisive turnabout in German-Soviet relations. Gorbachev is presently received in the Federal Republic with such ecstatic enthusiasm that one could speak of a “Gobi Mania.” High hopes are placed on his reform course. Not only is an easing of tensions in the dialogue with the Soviet Union being expected of the meeting between Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl but in the long run also a solution of the German question. Not without reason, the key to the solution of the German question is expected to be in Moscow. But how far is Gorbachev willing to go, or how far can he dare to go without pushing East Germany into the defensive and thereby destabilizing the East Bloc? Gorbachev is assuming a cautious attitude. He wishes to bring about a political reorganization of Europe - to dissolve the two power blocs (Warsaw Pact and NATO) and to bring Eastern and Western Europe closer together. At the moment though, he needs the economic cooperation of the Federal Republic in order to be able to carry out Perestroika, his economic restructuring program.
Innsbruck, June 16, 1989
Rehabilitated
A rare drama is being played out in Hungary. The former Prime Minister Imre Nagy and his followers are given a solemn state funeral. After the suppression of Hungarian uprising in November of 1956, they had been arrested, finally executed in 1958 and buried in a mass grave. The rehabilitation of Imre Nagy after 33 years means a revival of his reform course as well as resuming the goals of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Just as Nagy had done at the time, the new government in Budapest supports liberal economic reforms and a multi-party system. There are also talks of Hungary possibly leaving the Warsaw Pact and of neutralization. With a certain anxiety one may ask whether this time around the reforms and surprisingly fast development toward democracy will succeed. Heartwrenching are the pictures from Budapest where thousands of people are laying wreaths at the bier of Imre Nagy. This day means for Hungary a reconciliation with a national tragedy.
Innsbruck, June 26, 1989
The EC Summit
Decisive issues of European integration are being discussed at the present summit of the European Community (EC) in Madrid. It is about introducing a common European currency and the authority of a central European government. While introducing a single European currency has moved within the range of possibility, establishing a central European government remains a long-term objective hardly to be realized. Centuries-old traditions of the nation states stand in the way of establishing a central federal government. A confederate Europe of the fatherlands is more likely to be imagined.
June 26, 1989
Austria’s Letter to Brussels
Today, the two major political parties, SPÖ (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs – Socialist Party of Austria) and ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei - Austrian People’s Party), have reached an agreement that is of vital interest for the country. It addresses Austria’s joining the European Community. In a letter to Brussels applying for membership, it is specified that joining the EC should not impair Austria’s neutrality status. Furthermore, the limitations for foreigners to acquire land and real estate have to be upheld. The forthcoming negotiations on Austria’s entry into the EC will have to decide on the most important matter the country had to deal with since the State Treaty of 1955. Yet before Austria definitely joins the EC, a referendum has to be held.