HELMETS AND HATRED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

One important thing the nine powers failed to do in London was to make some stipulation about the style of uniform the West German army will wear. This point is not so silly as it may sound. The public relations value of the traditional German uniform (especially the helmet) is absolutely nil.

A German army may march alongside those of other Western European nations, but fear and hatred will be the natural and undesirable response of her former victims when they see what her new troops will look like. Even now the West German Border Patrol, core of the proposed forces, is parading around in resurrected Whermacht outfits.

East Germany, who has had its own Elite Guard of heavy-weaponed "People's Police" ever since an Adenauer army was a gleam in Dean Acheson's eye, has been much more subtle. The Volkspolizei wear Russian-style uniforms to give an illusion at least that the Fascist state has passed out of existence. Of course it's a question as to how many people they fool.

I am not suggesting that Adenauer hire Jacques Fath as a consultant, but a "new look" will make a lot of Europeans, and Americans too, breathe easier whether they have reason to or not. Malcolm D. Rivkin '53