The GDR’s Relations With China,North Vietnam And North Korea (1960-1977)

The German Democratic Republic,abbreviated as the GDR or East Germany,was among the most developed socialist countries in the former Eastern Europe. Since its foundation,the GDR’s foreign policy was deeply influenced by the former Soviet Union. However,through its weak power,the GDR could always influence Soviet Union’s foreign policy to realize its own interests. In the early1960s,with the spread of the Sino-Soviet Split in the socialist camp,there came to be sharp ideological disputes between China,North Vietnam and North Korea on one side,and the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc countries on the other side,while still having common ground with the GDR in a series of issues.Besides,the GDR’s relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea also reflected the dilemma between the national interests and ideology among the relations of the former socialist camp states.From1960to1977,GDR’s policy towards China,North Vietnam and North Korea gradually transformed itself from the "China centeredness" in the1950s to the "Vietnam Centeredness" in the1970s.The Soviet Union tried to drag the GDR into the serving the Soviet interests in the latter’s relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea.But this could not cover and prevent its client state from seeking for its own interests.The GDR’s policy towards China,North Vietnam and North Korea depends on three important factors:1.Whether or not the GDR could reap benefits from its relations with the three countries,esp.in the field of German Problem.2.Whether or not the SED could mobilize the East German citizens,reinforce its legitimacy and control over the East German society.3.The relations of the target country with the Soviet Union could not completely break down or fall into open confrontation.The dissertation is mainly based on the declassified archival sources from the foreign ministry archive, party archive and secret police archive of the GDR,as well as the foreign ministry archive and the local archives of China,the published Vietnamese archive sources,sources from the other former Soviet-bloc countries, newspapers and the memoirs,chronicles of the concerned people,and is divides into four chapters.Chapter One mainly discusses the basic framework of the GDR’s foreign policy making and the influence of the Soviet Union and the socialist camp in the GDR’s foreign policy and GDR’s relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea in the1950s. The author proposes that from the middle of the1950s to the middle of the1960s,the GDR could always on the contrary influence the Soviet policy through its weakness and achieved its own objectives according to the national interests.As the famous hypothesis goes:the GDR tail wailed the Soviet dog. The Socialist camp was deemed by the SED as an important cornerstone in the GDR’s struggle for the international recognition.In the relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea during the1950s,there was an obvious "China-centeredness"in GDR’s foreign policy.Chapter Two sheds light on the collaboration and efforts to achieve a better bilateral relation between the GDR and China,North Vietnam,North Korea in the shadow of the enlarged ideological disputes in the communist world from1960to1966. The German Problem was an important field in the searching of chances of collaboration between the GDR and the three countries,although there were still differences in latter’s attitude towards the German Problem.The relations with China were getting worse and worse during this period,but the GDR could still play the China card to check and balance the Soviet-West German Rapprochement in the middle1960s.Meanwhile, the GDR became more and more involved in the Vietnam affairs through its policy of containing China influence and assisting North Vietnam in the escalation of the Vietnam War. Generally speaking, this period saw a growing disengagement of the East German foreign policy from the "China Centeredness" in the1950s. Chapter Three mainly examines the crisis and chances which characterized the East German relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea from1966to1970. Since the outbreak of the Great Cultural Revolution of Proletariats in China in the summer of1966,the Sino-GDR inter-party and state relations almost completely broke down.Meanwhile, there came to be a deterioration of the Sino-North Korean and Sino-North Vietnamese relations in the shadow of China’s Cultural Revolution,which brought rare chances for the GDR to develop its relations with North Vietnam and North Korea. As a result,the North Vietnam and North Korean halted its disputes with the GDR in the field of ideology,stressing the importance of the development of bilateral relations. The GDR strengthened its economic aid towards North Vietnam and North Korea.Through a series of exchange visit in high level and exchange of opinions towards some significant issues,GDR’s relations with North Vietnam and North Korea were greatly enhanced.Chapter Four discusses the GDR relations with China,North Vietnam and North Korea since the beginning of the1970s in the background of the great changes of the Cold War structure in the Asia-Pacific and the whole world. Despite the temporary Sino-GDR rapprochement in the early1970s,China gradually give up its past attitude towards the German Problem,established normal diplomatic relations with Federal Republic of Germany(FRG) and objected to the GDR’s policy of "Two Germany,Two Nation" which in fact fell into agreement with the West German’s policy of not recognizing the GDR as a sovereign state according to the international law.In accordance with the Soviet Union,the analysis reports of the GDR paid more attention to the "Nationalism" tendency inside North Korea and North Vietnam,and believed it could brought negative influence to the relations among the socialist countries.However,in the actual operation,the GDR foreign policy towards North Korea and North Vietnam was far more flexible and realistic.Especially in its relations with North Vietnam and the United Vietnam as a whole,the GDR developed a comprehensive bilateral partnership which surpassed the its relations with China and North Korea by far. After the unification of Vietnam, the two sides signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in December,1977,in which the Reunification of Germany was not any more mentioned.The Treaty indeed recognised the GDR’s German Policy and eliminated the disputes in the problem of unification.Vietnam finally came to be the center of GDR’s foreign policy towards this region.