Posted on 09/13/2009 2:04:43 AM PDT by OldSpice
Documents published last week highlight the former prime minister's concern that the fall of the Berlin Wall could be a risk to Britain's national security.
"We do not want a united Germany," Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev at a lunch meeting in the Kremlin in September 1989, two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the whole international situation and could endanger our security."
Among the 1,000 transcripts of Politburo and other high-level papers smuggled out of Russia by Pavel Stroilov, a researcher in the Gorbachev Foundation, and published for the first time last week – in what The Times described as a "bombshell" – was Thatcher's admission to Gorbachev that although she supported German reunification in public, in private and off-the-record she felt "deep concern" about the "big changes" afoot.
Writing of the meeting with Gorbachev, she says: "I explained to him that although Nato had traditionally made statements supporting Germany's aspiration to be reunited, in practice we were rather apprehensive."
In reply, "Mr Gorbachev confirmed that the Soviet Union did not want German reunification either. This reinforced me in my resolve to slow up the already heady pace of developments. Of course I did not want East Germans to live under Communism, but it seemed to me that a truly democratic East Germany would soon emerge and the question of reunification was a separate one, on which the wishes and interests of Germany's neighbours and other powers must be fully taken into account."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Not everyone gets it right all of the time.
She should have been more worried about multiculturalism and Islamasists invading her country.
I too had mixed feelings. On the one hand East Germany was free. On the other hand, Germany had started three major wars in less than 70 years that in the end basically killed Europe.
Had those wars not occured, Europe would have had 200 million more people today (including 10 million Jews) and socialism would not have taken hold
However, you cannot blame a man for the sins of his grandfather. I don’t blame a german today for what his grandfather did. However, as Lady Thatcher correctly points out, there is something called a National Character
Germany started World War I?
From a geopolitical perspective, England will always be concerned about a United Germany.
Well look at it this way, the Germans have proven it’s easier to go west than east and I doubt the U.S. or Britain would fight for the French a third time and aren’t all those trees planted in the 40’s magnificent shade trees now for them to march in???
It was a reasonable fear and not entirely outlandish. Fortunately she was wrong about this fear.
Yes, at the end of the day, they are ultimately responsible for WW I. Every major historian agrees to this point. They were itching for a fight with England and used an excuse of their alliance to jump in. The Kaiser was convinced that Germany was going to win in a matter of weeks or months and that France was going to fall again just like it had 40 some years ago. They NEVER counted on the English coming in and making a stand, nevermind us Americans joining the war.
So Germany won the Eastern Front against Russia (which settled and withdrew from the war) but lost the Western Front war
Which major historians? Both England and Germany were expecting that their paths were leading to war. How did Germany force Russia to mobilize or the Serbian question. I am not trying to absolve Germany, but England, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany equally believed a war was coming and it would be quick. You’ve watched way to many movies to get your historical information.
Everyone knew the United Kingdom would become involved. Have you ever read the Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans? In 1912, it was already accepted by the public that Germany and the United Kingdon would be at war soon.
The United States today is welfare state that is culturally and fiscally as far to the left as it is because of our involvement in World War I.
...I see a united Germany as Europe’s best hope to drive back Islam.
...I see a united Germany as Europe’s best hope to drive back Islam.
Thatccer was absolutely right on that one! Most Germans either do not want to deal with the past nor are they willing to accept responsiblity through their foreign and domestic policies.
OTOH Britain has some major problems of its own...maybe worse than Germany’s.
The only fly in the ointment is Islam's cancerous growth throughout Europe.
it has been a pillar of Britain’s foreign polices for centuries to oppose a united Germany. Maggie was simply espousing this view.
Germany isnt going to be starting any wars, at least in the near future. The killer combo of left weenies and crazy Muslims pretty much cut the nuts of a once proud people. And it is a shame because who knew more about fighting than the krauts. They beat the French in Franco Prussian war, they near won the first World War and lost the second world war because they adopted an evil form of goverment. But the tatics they devised and weapons they invented are still, in one way or another, being used by militaries thru out the world.
Bingo. The Germans along with the Poles, Austrians, some northern Italians and others stopped Islam at the gates of Vienna in 1683 AD.
The Austrians, Germans and Poles did most of the heavy lifting then. British did nothing.
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