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ties to visit friends and relatives in
East Germany.
Forty years after World War 11
this growing
Euro-neutralism
be–
devils both the superpowers. The
churning peace marches and dem–
onstrations that swept Europe in
the early 1980s signaled the
unthinkable: a part of the new gen–
eration of Europeans view Wash–
ington as much a threat to world
peace as the Soviet Union! Mos–
cow, bogged down in Afghanistan,
watchful of the Chinese border,
wants a breathing spell in Europe.
alliance, the Berlín Airlift-all
were backed by Washington's once
ample treasury and the moral sup–
port of Great Britain.
So the question is: 40 years after
World War II, what has happened
to overshadow these Anglo-Ameri–
can achievements?
Why this strange ambiguity
plaguing Washington and London's
relations with the Continent? Why
were Denmark and Eire so quick to
condemn Britain during the Falk–
lands War, for example?
Why is it that 40 years after the
Decline?
Yes. No one can dis–
pute that the English-speaking
democracies have tumbled a long
way since those glory days of 1945
when the Queen of the Netherlands
could publicly state, "Every time
my people see a Canadian soldier,
they stand around and cheer."
Times have indeed changed. I n
France, Britain's Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher recently fin–
ished third in a poli of leaders
French people strongly dislike,
behind such notables as Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini and Libya's
Muammar Kadafi!
Obviously this is not
1945. But, 40 years after
V-E Day, even a former
U.S. Secretary of State
wonders if the United
States is "incapable of
mastering events." Brit–
ish parliamentarian
Enoch PowelJ sadly char–
acterizes tbe leader of the
Western alliance, the
United States, as "huge
and powerful still, but
purposeless
and ineffe.c–
tual ... wallowing like
sorne dismasted man-of–
war, in tbe trough of
world events."
May 1945- Field Marshal Berna rd L. Montgomery (right) reads the surrender pact ending
fighting in Denmark, northern Germany and Holland, during ceremony at bis headquarters in
Germany. German representa tives (left to right): Rear Admiral Wagner and Admira! von
Friedeburg, commander in chief of the German navy. British officer stands in background.
So the real question is
this: Has anything bap–
pened to the Americans
and British
themselves
since 1945 to bring them
to this state of atfairs? Is
the respected-and ma–
ligned- Soviet dissident
and exile Alexander Solz–
henitsyn right? Are there
T his contrasts, in sorne Europeans'
minds, with Washington's vigorous
rhetoric that shattered détente.
Sorne Americans find it hard to
understand Europe's desperate de–
sire to relax tensions along ·the I ron
Curtain. They fail to understand
that Europeans stand to lose the
most in a nuclear or even a conven–
tional war. They are the meat in the
sandwich, and they know it. Euro–
peans are also anxious to preserve
the economic powerhouse built up
from the ashes of World War II.
" But built with the help of
American and British blood and
treasure!" sorne might retort. True.
The Marshall Plan, the NATO
16
English-speaking democr acies
played such a key role in the liber–
ation of Europe that they often
meet with such a mixed reception
today?
Strange Ambivalence
Why this ambivalence straining the
Atlantic alliance? l s it just Euro–
pean ingratitude and creeping com–
munism as sorne shortsighted U.S.
policymakers charge? Or is this
sense of drift in the West linked to
more subtle unseen factors, invis–
ible causes that also tie in with the
decline in world stature of the
English-speaking nations these past
20 years?
spiritua/ factors
at work
in the lives of nations? Is the decline
in Anglo-American world influence,
their diminished stature in world
leadership, somehow strangely tied
in with the more or less general pros–
perity and affiuence of the past 40
years?
If
so, how?
Secular Prophets
On J an uary 7, 1960, President
Eisenhower's State of the Union
message struck perceptively at the
root cause of future American
decline in stature and world
influence. H e warned his country–
men:
"A great nation can for a time
without noticeable damage to itself
The PLAIN TRUTH