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Originally Posted by Skybird
Nations and people are not the same. Some constitutions seem to imply that, and democracy claims that, in a way, but it simply is wishful thinking only. Nations are monsters living a life of their own - and often without the people living in them being aware of it.
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That's a very European attitude to have. Thankfully this way of thinking is not as prevalent on this side of the pond.
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While indeed the ordinary, "private" people in most countries probably indeed meant it honest when congratulating the Germans, politically the issue was another story.
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That doesn't really matter. Politics, at least American politics, is all about public perception and if the people feel a certain way about an issue then right or wrong the politicians must soon follow or risk being tossed out on their ears come the next election. Unless, of course the people can be led to believe that their government has a life of it's own and nothing they can do will change it. Maybe that dependence on public perception is what makes our leaders so "pragmatic" to use your term.
Also, if I were you I wouldn't be so quick to view the people from allied countries as being uniformly on the side of the Germans when it came to reunification. In 1989 there were still plenty of WW2 vets alive who had first hand memories of the darker side of the German psyche, and while I generally agree with the concept of not blaming the present German generations for the sins of their grandfathers, German resurgence was going to be viewed with a certain amount of trepidation and that would be reflected in their national leaders, mostly veterans of WW2 themselves.