Gerhard Schröder picked up the phone after winning the vote of confidence in the Bundeswehr's anti-terrorist mission in 2001 with just two votes more than was necessary. The chancellor, who had risked his office for unreserved solidarity with the US after 9/11, called Wolfgang Ischinger, the ambassador in Washington. It was important to the chancellor, Ischinger later recalled, that the White House knew the risk he had taken.

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