RSS

At the moment, nearly the whole of Germany is looking forward excitedly to a US president from the Democratic Party. Barack Obama is already being celebrated as the "black Kennedy." At the same time, the Germans have related especially well with Republican US presidents since 1945. Richard Nixon put an end to the Vietnam War which was started by the Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and which they let intensify. Regarding the Soviet Union, Nixon focused on easing tensions and disarmament and was the first president to visit Beijing in order to relieve tensions with China.

The Nixon doctrine embodied what Germans wish for from a US president as long as they themselves do not actually feel threatened and ask for help from Washington: the transfer of global power functions to regional allies. In this way, after initial skepticism, Nixon granted Willy Brandt plenty of rope in his Ostpolitik.

On the one hand, Ronald Reagan excessively over armed the Warsaw Pact and thus created the conditions for the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany. On the other hand, Reagan liberated Germany and Europe from the threat of middle range missiles by stripping down the American and Soviet arsenal together with Gorbatchev. Reagan's Vice President and successor George Bush Sr. finally made German unification possible - despite originally strong resistance from Margaret Thatcher, Mitterrand, and Gorbatchev.

And the Democrats? John F. Kennedy did indeed claim to be a "Berliner" but helplessly watched as the Wall went up. He was much more likely to risk a Third World War over Cuba. The Iranian Revolution and the disaster of the failed liberation of American hostages in Teheran's embassy took place during Jimmy Carter's term in office. Carter reacted to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with a doctrine that militarized America's policy in the Middle East and destabilized the region. Bill Clinton failed in his attempt to reach a peace settlement between Palestinians and Israelis. He denied the genocide in Rwanda. The USA withdrew from Somalia after a short intervention. In the Balkans, Clinton did - after much hesitation - interfere in the Yugoslav civil war. However in Kosovo and in Bosnia, he left behind international protectorates from which Germany still remains unable to withdraw.

Clinton did not only fail in Rwanda and Somalia. His motto, which was to protect the lives of American soldiers, led him to resort to a policy of correctional bombing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan. This method, however, was ineffective in the fight against totalitarian regimes and Islamic terrorism. The German Federal Armed Forces are suffering the consequences of this today in the Hindu Kush. The demand that German soldiers here too, have to kill, and in some cases die, is an issue that crosses party lines; this is not only a requirement of the Republicans George W. Bush and John McCain but something that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would expect too.

Thomas Speckmann is consultant to the Office of the Governor of the Federal State of North-Rhine Westphalia and Assistant Lecturer at the seminar on political science and sociology of the University of Bonn.

This text was translated from German by the Atlantic Community Editorial Team and first appeared here in German in "Die Welt" on June 10, 2008.

Related materials from the Atlantic Community:

• Hot Issue: How Long is Bush's shadow?
• Ruediger Lentz: Europe's Hope for Obama Presidency Likely to be Dashed
• Benjamin Lucas Schoo: The Next US Economic Policies