Willy Brandt’s new government signs the Moscow Treaty
After almost having fallen into nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the USA and Soviet Union realized that they would need to come to some form of long-term understanding. The first social-liberal government in West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt took advantage of the new mood of coexistence and détente to develop a new brand of foreign policy known as the “New Eastern Policy” (Neue Ostpolitik). Concluding agreements with a number of Warsaw Pact states, all sides agreed to work together to resolve their differences peacefully and give up warfare as a means of politics. The first agreement was the Moscow Treaty signed on 12 August 1970, and it was followed by agreements with Poland, the DDR and Czechoslovakia.
The Moscow Treaty committed its signatories to the peaceful resolution of existing conflicts. Above all, West Germany was required to accept both the Oder-Neisse line between East Germany and Poland and the reality of German division. Despite this latter undertaking, the West German delegation handed the Soviets a letter directly after signing the treaty, outlining its commitment to achieving the peaceful reunification of the German nation. West German conservatives remained implacably opposed to the Eastern Treaties for their renunciation of the former German territories in the East. They also believed that Brandt’s new foreign policy had weakened West Germany’s ties to the West.
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