International Relations (June 1955)

Attitude to the Four-Power Conference and the military status of Germany. Comparison of the military strength of the USA und the Soviet Union.

Topics: most important political problems of the country; danger of world war; danger of war in Europe; judgement on the American and Soviet peace efforts; influence of American military bases in Europe on the perceived danger of war; general attitude to Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the USA and the USSR (each according to country of survey); judgement on American and Soviet willingness to make political concessions as well as country responsible for the tense relations between the USA and the USSR; ideas about the political orientation or neutrality of the country at the current point in time as well as in the case of war between the USA and the Soviet Union and orientation on use of atomic bombs; knowledge about a planned Four-Power Conference and knowledge about the countries represented there; desired result of this conference and perceived probabilties of success; reliability of the participating countries regarding the agreements made; judgement on the willingness of the individual participating countries to make concessions; judgement on conference participants such as Eden, Eisenhower, Faure, Dulles, Molotov and Bulganin regarding their effort for world peace; personal attitude to selected conference topics and probability of agreement; definition of conference success; preference for a neutral and reunited Germany or for integration of West Germany in the western defense system; preference for neutrality even without a security guarantee by the USA; preferred solution for divided Germany; attitude to a demilitarization of Germany; attitude to communist rule in Eastern Europe and to a trip by Adenauer to Moscow; attitude to application of the Austrian model of neutrality to Germany; willingness to defend fundamental values; fear of use of nuclear weapons in a new world war; judgement on the seriousness of American and Soviet efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons; comparison of strength of nuclear weapons as well as strength of conventional weapons of the two great powers; approval of a reduction in nuclear weapons, even at a weakening of the western powers; party preference; union membership.