Germany: MT notes on NATO and the West ("NATO - whither") ["At centre of our concerns is FRG, its greater weight and its reduced willingness to accept, intolerance of defence responsibility"] [released Feb 2020]

Document type:	Declassified documents
Source:	Thatcher MSS (Churchill Archive Centre): THCR5/1/9/18A/11 f40
Editorial comments:	Dating deeply uncertain. MT herself hazarded "May 1989 or 1990", perhaps relating to the NATO summits of May 1989 and July 1990. But the document does not look like something composed for delivery to a foreign audience, with its expression of concern about the US as well as Germany. Therefore, it has been listed at the time of the Jan 1990 Chequers seminar, which considered the themes she was debating here. Powell's note of the seminar may be read here. Only the intrinsic interest of the document makes it worth publishing without clearer dating. Read all documents from the 1990 release of MT's party and personal papers. Charles Powell write up of the lunchtime section of these notes can be read here.
Importance ranking:	Major
Word count:	2pp
Themes:	Conservatism, Leadership, British relations with the US, British relations with the Soviet Union, British relations with France, British relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, German unification, 1989-90, Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (USSR & successor states), Foreign policy (Western Europe - non-EU), Foreign policy (Central & Eastern Europe), Defence (general), Defence (arms control)