Introduction: the Historian As a Detective
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Notes Introduction: The Historian as a Detective 1. In preparation of the two-part “docu-drama” titled Deutschlandspiel (German Game) to mark the tenth anniversary of the reunification of Germany, along with other broadcasters the Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF) had had around 60 interviews conducted with the international main actors in the process. I took part in these. Deutschlandspiel was produced by Ulrich Lenze, and Hans- Christoph Blumenberg was the director. Blumenberg conducted a largest num- ber of the interviews, while Thomas Schuhbauer and I conducted a smaller number. I also wrote the treatment and served as an academic advisor for the film project. 2. Compare the literature at the end of this book. 3. The official files of Gorbachev’s talks with other politicians are in the Presidential Archive. Those in the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow that I was able to look at were prepared at the time by clerks and translators. Most were countersigned by Chernayev himself, the main “note-taker” then. These meeting minutes stand apart under the comparisons that I carried out and appear, among others, to be authentic, because critical statements or sections are included, in which Gorbachev does not appear in the best light. Nor have I found any “retrospective foreshadowing” of particular views of Gorbachev or his discussion partners. The Politburo minutes are not official minutes, but rather later compilations of the notes made during the meetings by Medvedev, Skhakhnazarov, who has died, and Chernayev—that is, by Gorbachev’s people. These Politburo minutes also give a credible impression, particularly naturally in their original note form. The minutes are also marked, among other things, by the contradictions, on the basis of which I caught Chernayev, that rather supported the opponents of Gorbachev and now could be clarified through these notes. However, they are incomplete and the degree of their lack of com- pleteness is seldom apparent. 4. Dokumente zur Deutschlandpolitik. Deutsche Einheit Sonderedition aus den Akten des Bundeskanzleramtes 1989/99, published by the Ministry of the Interior, edited by Hanns Jürgen Küsters and Daniel Hofmann. Technical director: Klaus Hildebrand, Hans-Peter Schwarz, Federal Archives: Friedrich P. Kahlenberg, Munich 1998. (Henceforth cited as DzD.) 5. Auswärtiges Amt (ed.): Deutsche Außenpolitik 1990/91. Auf dem Weg zu einer europäischen Friedensordnung. Eine Dokumentation, Bonn 1991; Auswärtiges 346 / Notes Amt (ed.): Außenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Dokumente von 1949 bis 1994, Köln 1995; Auswärtiges Amt (ed.): Umbruch in Europa. Die Ereignisse im 2. Halbjahr 1989. Eine Dokumentation, Bonn 1990. 6. Documents on British Policy Overseas, Serie III, Band VII, “German Unification 1989–1990,” ed. Patrick Salmon et al., London 2009. 7. Vaïsse, Maurice, and Christian Wenkel (ed.): La diplomatie française face à l’unification allemande. Verlag Tallandier, Paris 2011. These documents con- firm my theses about Mitterrand‘s European and German politics, which I had developed already in 2002, as well as the British ones. 8. Various sources in the Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv in Berlin, see the Bibliography). 9. Some declared themselves ready for public discussions in the Institute for History and Biography of the Fernunivesität Hagen, for example the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the specialist for Germany in the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikolai Portugalov, the advisor to Chancellor Kohl Horst Teltchik, the last prime minister of the GDR Lothar de Maizère, then leader of the SPD Hans-Jochen Vogel, the dissidents Ulrike Poppe, Joachim Gauck, the specialist for state security Walter Süß, etc. (The records are in the Institute for History and Biography of the Fernuniversität Hagen, as is the case with all the cited interviews.) 10. Alexander von Plato, Tomas Vilimek in Verbindung mit Piotr Filipkowski, und Joanna Wawrzyniak: Opposition als Lebensform. Dissidenz in der DDR, der ČSSR und in Polen, Berlin 2013, there the essay: Alexander von Plato: Revolution in einem halben Land. Lebensgeschichten von Oppositionellen in der DDR und ihre Interpretation, pp. 23–278. 11. Mikhail S. Gorbachev: Letter to Alexander von Plato, Moscow, March 6, 2002. 12. There are some exceptions; among others I would like to mention, especially Charles S. Maier: Dissolution. The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany, Princeton 1997 (with the focus on the development in the Communist parties and countries); Mary Elise Sarotte: 1989. The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, Princeton and Oxford, 2009 (this book, which I highly appreciate, was just published when my book was completed for the third edition [2009]; in this English edition I discuss her theses and very often I agree with her); Norman M. Naimark: The Superpowers and 1989 in Eastern Europe, in Mueller, Vienna 2014, who has a critical view on the American policy. 13. Alexander von Plato: Die Vereinigung Deutschlands—ein weltpolitisches Machspiel. Bush, Kohl, Gorbatschow und die internen Moskauer Protokolle, Berlin 2009 (third edition). 1 The Beginnings 1. Hanns Jürgen Küsters was the head of the group that released the Federal Chancellery’s files concerned with reunification. 2. General Scowcroft was already a security advisor under President Ford. From 1989 to 1993 he was director of the National Security Council and a close advi- sor to President George Bush. Notes / 347 3. Senior director for European and Soviet concerns of the National Security Council of the United States from 1989 onward, before which he was temporar- ily responsible for questions of security under President Ford. 4. Political scientist and employee of the National Security Council. 5. In criticism of a paper about the committee of coordination of American European policy called “NSR-5.” 6. In the view of the chairwoman of the committee, Rozanne Ridgway. 7. Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 55f. 8. Condoleezza Rice, political scientist at Stanford University, was brought into the White House by Scowcroft and was present at the talks between Bush and Gorbachev as a transcript writer and then as member of the American negoitia- tion delegation at the 2+4 negotiations. Rice was later appointed head of the National Security Council by Bush Jr. 9. Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 58. 10. Ibid, p. 56. 11. Interview with me on September 14, 1999. 12. See DzD, Hanns Jürgen Küsters’s introduction, p. 35. 13. Translated by Zelikow/Rice 1997 as “Partner in the leadership role,” p. 63. 14. See the memoirs of Margaret Thatcher, p. 1092ff. Küsters also quotes Howe as evidence for this, 1994, p. 560. 15. Bush’s speech in the Rheingold-Halle in Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 62. 16. Ibid.; more critical: Norman M. Naimark, The Superpowers and 1989 in Eastern Europe, in Mueller, Vienna 2014. 17. Interview with Horst Teltschik in “Bonner Generalanzeiger” of July 6, 1989, p. 13. 18. Horst Teltschik on September 27, 2000, in conversation with me. 19. Ibid. 20. De Maizière in “the Lüdenscheid conversation” with me on January 1, 2000. 21. Walters 1990, pp. 655–662; Walters 1991, 1994. 22. Horst Teltschik in “the Lüdenscheid conversation” with me on September 27, 2000. Hans-Dietrich Genscher confirms Teltschik in this matter and criticizes Rice und Zelikow’s description as glossed over with hindsight (Genscher in “the Lüdenscheid conversation” on April 25, 2001). 23. The last quotations: Hans-Dietrich Genscher in an interview with me on April 25, 2001 in Lüdenscheid. 24. Ibid. 25. Powell in an interview with me in 1999. Compare also Thatcher’s memoirs and Howe 1994, p. 560, Volle 1990, p. 130–144, Urban 1996. 26. Compare this with a later chapter in this book dealing with the Soviet policy on the German question. See also Gorbachev’s memoirs 1995, the books by Georgi Schachnasarow 1996 and Anatoli Chernayev 1992, 1993, and 1994 or my interviews with him such as Pfeiler 1991, Oldenburg 1991, 1992, Umbach 1992. 27. Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 53 in a chapter with the ambitious title “Bush Takes the Helm.” Compare also with Garthoff 1994, Beschloss/Talbot 1993, p. 52 ff.; again more critical: Norman M. Naimark, The Superpowers and 1989 in Eastern Europe, in Mueller, Vienna 2014, Mary E. Sarotte, “Elite Intransigence 348 / Notes and the End of the Berlin Wall,” in: German Politics, Nr. 2/1993, S. 270–287; Mary E. Sarotte, 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, Princeton and Oxford, 2009 (Chapter 1, p. 22 and Chapter 2, pp. 48–81). 28. Reagan’s demand “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the Wall!” belongs to this context. Compare with Adomeit 1994a, p. 197–230, 1994b, p. 31–58. 29. Introduction by Küsters, DzD, p. 35. Küsters has this letter from the Federal archives: BArch, B 136/29806, 212–30101 A5 Am 4 Bd. 21. The letter was confidential, without a date, and passed on by the US embassy in Bonn on May 12, 1989. According to an oral version of Hanns Küsters, the reasons why this letter was not published in the Federal Chancellery files was exclusively due to time limitations as the publication of the volume had been arranged for the end of May 1989, and also because of, among other reasons, George Bush’s visit to Bonn. At most, 10 percent of the Chancellery documents were not published, principally due to security reasons. When asked whether any- thing of significance had been left out, Küsters answered neither yes nor no. (Conversation, February 14, 2002.) 30. 1989 to 1992 advisor in the State Department under Baker. He took up the “top position among the advisors,” write Zelikow and Rice (p. 51). 31. Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 57. 32. Federal Government Press and Information Service, November 28, 1989. 33. Condoleezza Rice in conversation with me on September 17, 1999 at Stanford University. 34. My italics. 35. From Zelikow/Rice 1997, p. 19. 36. Ibid, p. 223.