Willy Brandt
1969
An ardent socialist and opponent of the Nazi party during his youth, Willy Brandt led the West German Socialist Democratic party to the Chancellorship in 1969. There he implemented the same pragmatic approach to east-west linkages that had characterized his mayorship of West Berlin. Termed Ostpolitik, under Brandt, West Germany normalized relations with the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia. While not abandoning the notion of German reunification, he acknowledged the inviolability of existing borders and went on to normalize relations with East Germany. Ultimately, his government was brought down by an internal spy scandal.
Time: Mid War
Side: USSR
Ops: 2
Removed after event: Yes
As USSR
The only reason you’d ever want to play this for the event is for VP; adding 1 influence into a 4-stability country is like drilling for oil with a toothpick, and you’d rarely want to realign, much less coup, West Germany anyway.
If France somehow is still empty on Turn 4, Willy Brandt makes a decent headline by “kicking down the door” to France and giving you access. But you should have already gotten access to France, either by forcing your way into West Germany/Italy earlier, or Decolonizing into Algeria.
As US
If you really, honestly, have nothing else to space, then you may as well space Willy Brandt. Usually I’m more than happy to give the USSR a VP and play the 2 Ops, especially since I probably used Marshall Plan to shore up West Germany a little. If it hasn’t been triggered, then Willy Brandt is equivalent to a 1 Op if you use the other Op to repair West Germany. But you don’t even really need to repair West Germany yet if Europe Scoring has come and gone.
Twilight Strategy 
I think I found a valid use for Willy-Brandt-As-An-Action-for-the-USSR yesterday: my opponent had yomped up to Opponent Reveals Headline First on the Space Race, and I wanted to Headline something such that I didn’t care whether he reacted to it or not. Brandt seemed like a reasonable choice.
Another use for this event, if the US controls France & enough countries for domination, could be to headline it to break control of WG, then play Europe scoring in your first AR to deny the domination. Of course you are giving up the first coup, but you would get 6 points out of this combo, seems worthwhile.
Personally I would not underestimate the danger of Willy for US player if West Germany is the only BG controlled in Europe – because this means that France & East Germany are also under Soviet influence and a combo like “SALT Negotiations”/”How I Learned to Stop Worrying” in headline + realignment with favorable modifiers in AR1 targeting WGermany became fully possible … 😉
Indeed – see below!
Incredibly, I had a situation in my last game where I could have got some mileage out of the “cancels NATO for West Germany” rule!
As USSR, I had taken Pol, E.Ger and Ita. The USA still had 4-0 in W.Ger and 1-0 in Fra. In order to take France, I had to use a 4 Ops card; the only one I had being the (usually innocuous) NATO, which I played, triggering the event. Later in the Mid-War I got dealt Willy B, which I used for the Ops.
Later still, I used SALT on AR7 to reclaim ABM Treaty (DEFCON raised to 4) and the USA couped to lower to DEFCON3. I then realised that if I’d played Willy to cancel NATO for W.Ger, I could have HL’d ABM to raise DEFCON to 5 and have 4 realigns of W.Ger at +1.
Absolutely gutted I missed the opportunity, and I won’t be quite so quick to dismiss this event next time!
Pingback: General Strategy: Events vs Operations | Twilight Strategy
If TDTW has been played as an event, this is a good play for the US right? Get the ops and no downsides?