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[p. 174] European Army: EDC

The admittance of West Germany into the military pact system had already been agreed in a treaty of 22nd November 1949 between the High Commissioners of the Western powers and Adenauer. In September 1950 the foreign ministers of the Western allies reaffirmed this project at their conference in New York, resolving to allow West Germany to establish its first troop units. Thus the remilitarisation of West Germany was essentially agreed. Following the New York conference, the ‘Amt Blank’ (Blank’s Office) was formed in West Germany, the forerunner of the later West German War Department.
At the same time, numerous military and revanchist associations evolved in West Germany. Former Hitler generals, such as Guderian, Halder, von Manteuffel and Speidel, as well as the former SS-Generals Hauser and Steiner, publicly demanded the invalidation of the Nuremberg verdicts; in return they would join the Americans in the fight against the communists.
On 15th February 1951, negotiations on the establishment of a ‘European Army’, later to be known as the project of the European Defence Community (EDC) (see p. 146), began in Paris, with delegates from West Germany.
The Bundestag passed the law on the Federal Border Guard in March 1951. During this time, as many as 140,000 men – disguised as policemen – were already under arms. They, like the planned Federal Border Guard, were the reserve squad for what would later become the West German army, most of whose officers and corporals had fought with the fascists.