A Psychoanalytical View of the Nuclear Threat — From the Angle of the German Sense of Political Inferiority

If you make yourself an advocate of reason, be prepared to be branded a communist. Sadly, that is as far as the enemies of tolerance and humanity are able to think.

In November of 1983 the parliament of the German Federal Republic, despite widespread and articulate opposition from the peace movement, agreed to the deployment of the Pershing-II missiles on German soil. The missile decision means that, for the first time in postwar history, the German Federal Republic agreed to deploy weapons that can reach the Russian power centers in and around Moscow. The different interpretations of the military nature of these weapons are important. The Russians consider the Pershing II “strategic” weapons comparable to intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Western nations consider them “tactical” weapons comparable to other weapons in the “nuclear theatre”, which means Europe. This different assessment is serious. It is more than merely a propaganda game between the superpowers. It affects West German relations with both the United States and the Soviet Union.