The United States and the German Question, 1949-1968
Author(s)
Ninkovich, Frank A.
Abstract
For the United States, ‘the German Question” between 1949 and 1968 was actually a cluster of interrelated problems. First and foremost, American policy makers worked to integrate the newly created Federal Republic of Germany into a Western European community and, more loosely, into a world community of democratic, market-oriented nations. Economic integration was quickly followed up with an urgent push to include a rearmed Germany into an undermanned Western alliance system. “Double containment,” as this intricate multipronged approach has since been called, was designed both to stave off the Soviet threat and to clip the wings of Germans nationalism. It was, however, more complicated than that. Despite its essentially supranational and international thrust, this policy of integration also sought to make use of nationalist sentiment by dangling the lure of unity before the German people.
