West German rearmament

[citation needed] People resent the fact that while the United States followed a policy of German disarmament and of friendship with Russia after the war, it now advocates rearmament.

They could just as easily argue that it was for cooperation with the Soviet Union and to change its policy.The vigorous disarmament program in Germany continued by the UK and the US for the first three years of occupation.

[7] On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated the RDS-1 atomic bomb, which forced a reevaluation of the defense requirements of Western Europe.

Both France and the United Kingdom were wary of the revival of German military potential since they had been severely tested in the world wars.

[9] American political figures, such as Senator Elmer Thomas, argued that West Germany needed to be included in a defensive system.

West Germany wanted to join NATO because of Adenauer's desire to appease the fears of its neighbors and to show a willingness to co-operate.

[16] To get his point across, he used this chart: To reach that goal, the West German border security force (Bundesgrenzschutz) was transformed into military personnel by using both conscripts and volunteers.

To that end, a group of former senior officers gathered on 9 October 1950 at Himmerod Abbey to produce a memorandum for Adenauer, which included these key demands: Adenauer accepted those propositions and in turn advised the representatives of the three Western powers that a German military would not be possible as long as German soldiers remained in custody or were brought before courts.

In the early months of 1951, public declarations from Dwight D. Eisenhower and other United States Armed Forces officers followed that outlined "a real difference between the German soldier and Hitler and his criminal group".

[12] With the different organizations working together, a naval proposal referred to as the Wagner Paper was adopted to use as a negotiation tool at the February 1951 conference of the EDC, held in Paris.

To resolve the issue, the Wagner Paper was sent to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), which was in favor of naval rearmament.

At the same time, the Soviet Union used this as a foundational justification to implement the Warsaw Pact, which formalized substantial military and political control over key Eastern European states.