Sarah Paine

Why?

Because that unified Germany would eclipse theirs economically.

They didn't want that to happen.

So...

Kohl and Bush divide up the tasks.

Kohl is going to reassure the Soviet Union that Germany's not going to be belligerent or do horrible things.

And Kohl's going to work on the financial unification.

Because the Soviets are thinking in terms of military unification, you know, where you deploy your troops, that determines things.

Uh-uh, wrong instrument of national power.

Precisely because the Soviets didn't understand finance, that's why they're in such a mess.

Whereas the Germans do.

What they're going to do is get East Germany on the West German Deutschmark.

And at that point, they will control all the money and they will control decisions.

But the Russians aren't going to see that coming.

Meanwhile, Bush is supposed to work the alliances with Germany.

particularly Britain and France in the West, there were all sorts of meetings that were coming up, and Bush's job is to delay those meetings for as long as possible so German unification can proceed as far as possible.

And the two of them,

are doing a tag team diplomacy with Gorbachev that he just can't keep up with given that his own home economy has got this double digit shrinkage rates.

So here's how they go.

As the trades get bigger, the amount of money you pay Gorbachev gets bigger.