The Cuban Missile crisis and West Germany. A prelude to the “New Ostpolitik” and the “1968 Movement”

This article analyzes the impact of the Cuban missile crisis on the domestic and foreign policy, as well as on the transformation of the German political culture in the 1960’s. The research is based on a wide range of sources, including the German press publications, as well as the BND intelligence reports and transcripts of the negotiations between Chancellor K. Adenauer and the U.S. representatives during the acute phase of the conflict over Cuba (the reports and transcripts were published in 2012). The author examines the correlation between the Cuban missile crisis and the Spiegel affair in Germany and comes to the conclusion that both conflicts, developing in parallel, became a major factor in the political elites’ polarization in West Germany. Whereas the “Cold War party” around K. Adenauer sought to escalate tensions and prevent rapprochement between Moscow and Washington, the “detente party” advocated a new positioning of Germany on the world stage as an intermediary between East and West. Therefore, the Cuban missile crisis became the turning point in the development of a “new Eastern policy”, which Bonn implemented in the 1970’s under Chancellor W. Brandt. Furthermore, the author draws the conclusion that the “Cuban shock” should be considered as a prologue to the “1968 movement”, which resulted in the “new foundation of the Federal Republic” on the principles of left-liberal ideology and critical attitude to the Nazi past.

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