‘Forces of Freedom’ Will Unify Germany--Quayle

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —  Vice President Dan Quayle said today that the reunification of Germany is inevitable and that, when it comes, the rejoined nation will be “allied with the forces of freedom and democracy, which is the West.”

“East Germany is East Germany because of the communist system,” Quayle said. “Do away with the communist system and it’s Germany.”

The vice president told the Republican Governors Assn. that the GOP has delivered on the issues of peace and opportunity in the 1980s and that it is no accident that “the forces of freedom and democracy are on the march in Eastern Europe.”

He said it is Democrats, not President Bush, who have been timid in dealing with change at home and abroad, because all they want to do is spend more money.

“The Democrats haven’t offered one creative idea on how to manage the evolving situation in Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union except to criticize the President,” Quayle told a group of reporters later. He said the Administration has been properly cautious but still “out front on this issue.”

In Germany, where the East German government has opened the Berlin Wall permitting free travel to the West and has promised elections, “Eventually you will see reunification,” Quayle said in the interview. “It’s going to take some time.”

He said that reunification would not mean the elimination of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact but would require a change in the responsibilities of those military alliances, in Western relations with the Soviet Bloc and in the institutions and culture of East Germany itself.

“A unified Germany in defense alliances will continue to look West, it will continue to be allied with the forces of freedom and democracy, which is the West,” Quayle said.

At the same time he cautioned against unilateral reductions in U.S. troop strength in Europe, saying that precipitous cuts could damage both Western security and the movement toward freedom in the East.