oct 22, 1969 - Willy Brandt becomes West German Chancellor

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Willy Brandt is significant because he was the chief architect of what came to be known as Ostpolitk: a set of policies that set to normalise and neutralise relations between West and East Germany. This is considered an early forerunner and part of the easing of relations between the East and West known as Detente.

"The West Germans had already paved the way by suggesting that if Germany could not be unified, then perhaps East Germany, Eastern Europe, and even the Soviet Union itself could in time be changed. A carefully controlled flow of people, goods, and ideas across Cold War boundaries might lower tensions, expand relationships, and over the long term moderate the authoritarian character of communist regimes. The primary goal would be geopolitical stability. But Ostpolitik as the policy came to be known, could also provide social stability by reducing the frustrations that were sure to arise within both Germanys as it became clear that they were to remain divided." (Gaddis 2006, p. 153-154).

"Nixon and Kissinger were initially wary of Ostpolitik.. but they quickly came to see how it could fit within a wider strategy: economic necessity could combine with the opening to China to push the Soviet Union into negotiations with the US on a range of issues – limiting strategic arms, negotiating an end to the Vietnam War, increasing East-West trade – that would at the same time defuse the domestic critics who had come so close… to paralysing American foreign policy." (Gaddis 2006, p. 154).

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