Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003221848
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BONN, WEST GERMANY                                 LENGTH: Medium

ENVOY SAYS U.S. WILL LET SOVIET TROOPS STAY

In one of the strongest statements yet of American support for a single German state, the diplomat told reporters that although Washington hopes a united Germany will remain part of NATO, membership in the Western alliance is not a condition for American support.

"The speed of the unification process does not worry us," said the official, who insisted on anonymity but said he was speaking for the American government. A united Germany should belong to NATO, he said, "but that's a decision the Germans themselves have to make."

The American statement - part of a diplomatic effort to persuade the German public that the United States is not trying to hang on to its authority as a victorious World War II power - comes as the two Germanys have begun focusing on the mechanics of unification.

The rise of a single German state was "slowed down considerably" by the controversy over Kohl's reluctance to guarantee the German-Polish border, the U.S. official said. But now that Kohl has reversed himself and affirmed the existing border, the United States believes that the unity talks between the two Germanys and the four World War II powers-the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France-will proceed smoothly.

The so-called "Two Plus Four" talks will resume next month in East Berlin, and Washington now believes that the Soviets will accept German membership in NATO and back off from their insistence that a united Germany be neutral.

"Give them some face-saving," the diplomat said. "One of the key things in this is to not make the Soviets humiliate themselves."