|
East Germany The United States
The absence of formal diplomatic relations between the United
States and East Germany had represented a reluctance to accord
political legitimacy to East Germany. When the two governments
signed diplomatic protocols in Washington on September 4, 1974,
the SED could rightly claim that an unpleasant era had come to an
end. In a practical sense, East Germans were interested in
establishing relations with the "main imperialist power," but the
prospects for these relations always depended on the overall
condition of East-West relations and on Washington's support for
Ostpolitik.
The major obstacle facing expanded trade relations was the
unwillingness of the United States Congress to grant mostfavored -nation treatment to imports from East Germany. Since 1974
a number of governmental emissaries from East Berlin have passed
through Washington in an effort to promote bilateral trade in the
absence of such treatment. Despite their efforts, from 1980 to
1985, the United States declined from East Germany's twelfth to
its twenty-eighth largest trading partner.
In the mid-1980s, political relations between the United
States and East Germany have warmed somewhat. In 1984 Honecker's
efforts to isolate inter-German relations from the effects of the
decline of superpower détente won the regime some credit in
Washington. A number of diplomatic exchanges between the two
countries have occurred, including a meeting between East German
foreign minister Oskar Fischer and United States secretary of
state George Shultz in October 1984.
* * *
The DDR Handbuch, compiled and published in West
Germany under the direction of Hartmut Zimmermann, Horst Ulrich,
and Michael Fehlauer, is an invaluable source of information on
East Germany. Other important works include Henry Krisch's The
German Democratic Republic, Hermann Weber's Geschichte der
DDR, C. Bradley Scharf's Politics and Change in East
Germany, Klaus von Beyme and Hartmut Zimmermann's
Policymaking in the German Democratic Republic, and Martin
McCauley's Power and Authority in East Germany. Notable
works on East German foreign policy include Melvin Croan's
East Germany: The Soviet Connection, A. James McAdams's
East Germany and Détente, Eric C. Frey's Division and
Détente, and articles by Ronald D. Asmus, B. V. Flow, Arthur
M. Hanhardt, Jr., Walther Leisler Kiep, and Woodrow J. Kuhns.
(For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of July 1987
|
