Die Generale, Teil 2

Kurzinhalt (Deutsch)

Vom Truppenführer über den Oberkommandierenden bis zum früheren Staatsoberhaupt: Lebensbilanzen für eine Koalition der Vernunft.

In höchsten Kommandofunktionen haben sie Einsicht gehabt in Pläne und Entwicklungen der NATO-Allianz, und sie haben Einsichten gewonnen. Mit Courage und Kompetenz stellen sie sich heute einem neuen Feind – der Überrüstung mit ihren unabsehbaren Folgen.

Bohrende Fragen und entschiedene Antworten verantwortungsbewusster Männer, die nicht anders konnten, als ihrem Leben eine Wende zu geben: von traditionellen Militärs zu Strategen des Friedens.

Filmstab

Regie

• Walter Heynowski
• Gerhard Scheumann

Kamera

• Peter Hellmich
• Horst Donth

Schnitt

• Ilse Radtke

Musik

• Udo Zimmermann

Ton

• Eberhard Schwarz

Redaktion

• Wolfgang von Polentz

Kurzinhalt (Englisch)

In highest positions they know the plans and developments of NATO and they gain insights. Important questions and answers of responsible men, who changed their lives: from tradi-tional military men to strategists of peace.

"You could not have a military career in those 35 years without getting involved with NATO." The Frenchman's comment applies to all eight Generals. The Greek and the Dutchman underwent training at the US Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, reserved for specially qualified officers from the NATO countries. The Italien reached the highest office which an European is allowed to hold in NATO: as Deputy of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) he was responsible for all nuclear affairs.Their high military ranks afford the Generals deep insight. The most important perception they made was that atomic weapons are not weapons in the traditional sense but tools of mass destruction whose use cannot be justified on any account.

Former connepts of strategy and tactics lose all meaning in the atomic age, for "it makes no sense being able to destroy the world twenty times". The human race has a new enemy, which leaves no place for the friend-or-foe stereotyp of Cold War days: the arms race. In a nuclear exchange, should there ever be one, the adversaries will mutually destroy each other and life on this planet will be wiped out. The Generals ask penetrating questions. Why is the highest secrecy grade in NATO "For American Eyes Only"? What role does this leave Europe? Why did the deployment of Pershing and Cruise continue to destabilize the situation on our continent? The German drew a radical and determined conclusion. what does first strike capability mean? What might follow in the wake of President capability mean? What might follow in the wake of President Reagang's Strategic Defence Initiative? The Generals pose questions to themselves, too: Who has changed - NATO or its former officers? The answers vary, yet on this they all agree: the age of nuclear technology can no longer gamble with war as an extension of politics. But does that mean Clausewitz has lost his relevance? It is the Greek who muses about the myth of Prometheus and what it means to humanity today. And the Dutchman, whose commitment to peace and disarmament is inspired by his Christianity, insits that he "would plant a tree tomorrow so as to pick its fruit some day". They do not leave their public without hope, these "Generals for Peace and Disarmament".