Polish Fears of German Reunification

Once the Soviet Union and its East European Allies formed a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in May 1955, the Communist states formed a seemingly impenetrable block of land behind an "Iron Curtain." However, numerous conflicts continued to affect the member states of the Warsaw Pact. Poland and East Germany, for example, continued to engage in border disputes over the reestablished territorial boundaries following World War II. While the Soviet Union attempted to mitigate these relationships, the tense relationship between Poland and East Germany continued. In this CIA intelligence assessment of the possibility of an East and West German reunification from 1971 (nearly twenty years before it became a reality), the ongoing conflicts between these neighboring states provides an insight into the internal divides of the Warsaw Pact.