Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidtwas a German statesman and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974 to 1982...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth23 December 1918
weapons ships want
Admirals and Generals always want more ships and more weapons and they take the arguments where they can find them.
spiritual years building-up
The Alliance and NATO is two different things. France is a member of the Alliance. NATO is an organization not mentioned in the North Atlantic Treaty, has been built up in the course of history, in the course of history France has left that organization. Normally the Alliance has been lead by consent, building up consensus on important issues of questions, in many instances over the last 30 years that I have followed events closely. In many, many cases was being done under the spiritual guidance of the American President, that is true, but sometimes also at the guidance of others.
military war fighting
Some of the American military obviously were thinking in terms of fighting a nuclear war. I was opposed to that.
leader political speech
Political leaders normally act by making convincing speeches.
classic
I've never been a classic Gaulist! Not a Gaulist at all.
believe nuclear gone
What I do see, for instance, is that the French are not very happy with the ... I am happy but they are not and I understand why they are not happy. They still believe in some nuclear strategic formulas which they have inherited from General De Gaulle and they have started the process of rethinking, they haven't gone very far.
iran years games
In those years,'80 was the, at the turn of '79/'80 you had the invasion of Afghanistan. It was the period in which the Americans attempt to liberate, to, to liberate the hostages in Iran and all these, all these things, the atmosphere was freezing - boycott of the Olympic Games and all that.
quality weapons fields
The catch word is equilibrium again, informed the field what are conventional weapons or nuclear weapons of different qualities. You cannot make up for a actual or perceived disequilibrium in the conventional field by having more nuclear weapons.
president president-ronald-reagan
President [Ronald] Reagan told me he would negotiate and negotiate and negotiate with the Soviets, and I believed him.
men nuclear world
Ronad Reagan might go down to history as a man who in the end of this administration brought about the first nuclear arms reduction treaty, the first arms reduction treaty at all in the modern world, and this is quite something.
cities growth agendas
Population growth and the proliferation of mega-cities around the world redefines the entire global security agenda.
hate thinking ideas
I hate the idea that someone think the destruction of Chicago as strategic affair, the destruction of Hamburg as a tactical one.
war military men
Leonid Breznev was an old man and despite his own military experience in World War II, he on the other hand was not very close to the military.
military important president
President [Ronald] Reagan never has tried to become an expert on military matters. He never has endeavored to learn the most important details in that field, which lead to a situation in which his aides played a much greater roles than aides would have played under President Ford or let us say in the whole Nixon-Ford-Kissinger era.