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dom sacrificed their lives, while
with our right hand we maintained
an undisturbed economy in which
the fortunate stay-at-homes could
frolic and make a lot of money"
(pp. 565-566).
The dubious doctrine hit home
to millions of Americans through
television. The mass media in–
creased their hold on the public
throughout the 1960s and Mar ines
in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam
made great theater for the evening
news. America's campuses erupted.
By 1968 President Johnson was
goaded into quitting after his first
full term.
Vietnam traumatized the United
States. Jt debased the tone and quali–
ty of public life. lt was an easy step
to the security-phobia mentality that
lay at the heart of the Watergate
break-in
and
the resulting cover-up.
While America writhed in interna!
agonies, President Richard Nixon
and Secretary of State Henry Kis–
singer optimistically proclaimed
1973 as the " Year of Europe," a
chance to mend fences with the half–
continent America had helped so
much to rebuild.
By now mi ll ions of Europeans,
with fading memories of the C-47s
and Operation Vittles, but vivid
memories of B-52s and Operation
Rolling Thunder pommeling Viet–
nam, began to question the U.S.
claim to moral leadership. The well–
publicized race riots and assassina–
tions of the decade didn't help. Also,
the U.S. economy began to slip
beyond the power of government
fine-tuning, especially after the
OPEC oil embargo of 1973-74.
Ironically then, 1973, the "Year
of Europe," became, instead, the
"Year of Watergate."
Then carne the presidential elec–
tion of 1976. President Jimmy Car–
ter, sincere and energetic but a
Washington outsider, found it nearly
impossible to translate moral high–
mindedness into effective policy. As
the economy skidded, the electorate
struck back in 1980. Ronald Reagan
promised to reverse the image of
American impotence symbolized dra–
matically by the hostage crisis in
lran.
Europeans who sniped at what
they perceived as President Carter's
indecisiveness over neutron bombs
and the placing of missiles in
18
Europe, received another jolt from
the new administration. The saber–
rattling of the early 1980s helped
trigger monstrous peace marches
and antinuclear rallies in Westero
Europe.
The U.S. invasion of Grenada in
1983 did little to alter European
perceptions. Anything that could
heat up world tensions and jar the
present "cold peace" in Europe dis–
turbs the Continent greatly.
The Number
40
How do thoughtful Europeans view
the United States
now,
40 years
after World War Il?
Christopher Bertram, political
editor of the West German weekly
Die Zeit
and former director of
London's International Institute for
Wby is it that 40 years
after the English–
speaking
de~ocracies
played such a key
role in the liberation of
Europe that they
often meet with such a
mixed reception today?
Strategic Studies, comments:
" The United States today is mil–
itarily stronger than for many
years, so why should there be doubt
over America's superpower status?
The answer is that
it
takes more
than military strength to qua/ify.
What d istinguishes a superpower is
its willingness and ability to design
and maintain a framework of inter–
national order that not only serves
its own interests, but also accom–
modates the interests of the large
majority of weaker countries.
lt
is
the commitment not only to its own
well-being, but to that of the inter–
national community as a whole.
"There was a time when the
United States was a superpower in
the true sense: confident not only in
its strength but also in its abili ty to
build, together with others, a world
of shared duties and rights, and to
be ready to carry the major burden
in this enterprise"
(Toronto ·Star,
December 2, 1984) .
The Anglo-Americans who res–
cued Westero Europe in the Great
Crusade of 1944-45, the people
who sponsored the Berlin Airlift
· and have been pivota! in the NATO
alliance, no longer give granitelike
stability to the Western world.
How different was May 8, 1945.
The United States and Britain were
then emulated models of service
and strength, possessors of "the
right stuff." Britain, though
drained economically by the hor–
rors of war, gallantly maintained a
military presence around the world
into the 1960s. But, as Christopher
Bertram has pointed out, military
and economic factors
a/one
are not
supreme in world affai rs. It took
the architect of the Marshall Plan,
Harry S. Trumao, to point out the
truth on Apri l 3, 1951:
"God
has
brought us to our present position
of power and strength!"
Britons and Americans were by
no means righteous nations in
194 5, bu t nei ther were they
plagued with abortion, homosexual–
ity, white-collar crime, income tax
cheats, teen suicide, divorce, drug
addiction, pornography, obscenity
and televised trivia.
"Righteousness exalts a nation,"
we read in Proverbs 14:34 (Revised
Authorized Version) . But the same
God who rescued the United
States, Britain and many other
nations in World War 11, so that
this message you regularly read in
the pages
qf The Plain Truth
could
go forth-this same God has a
stern warning for our people.
It
is time we realized the biblical
importance of the number
40
on
this 40th anniversary of V-E Day.
In the Bible the_ number
40
signi–
fies the end of a period of testing!
(See Judges 3:1 1; 5:31, last part;
8:28; and Matthew 4:2; Acts 7:30,
36.) Our peoples have been tested
and are found wanting. We have
gone the way of selfishness. We
have sinned by transgressing God's
law, which is the way to peace.
Britain and America had better
wake up quickly, before it is too
late, and repent of national sins-or
we will be hurled from our summit
of power and sent into national cap–
tivity till we do learn our lesson,
break off our sins and turn to the
God who alone gives peace and
joy. o
The
PLAIN TRUTH