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Imperial Palace ( Hofbu rg) in
Vienna is the crown of the Holy
Roman Empire, dating back to the
time ofOtto the Great in the tenth
century.
lt
seems to be waiting for
one final emplacement.
Perhaps for a reason, a massive
governmental complex has recently
been completed along the banks of
theDanube River in Vienna. Called
"U.N. City," it belongs to the gov–
ernment of Austria, but was leased
in part to the United Nations as a
third U.N. headquarters. Might it
be used for other purposes in the
future?
NATO Flnlshed
The restored Roman system will
radically change big power rela–
t ions. NATO, as it presently
exists would be finished.
Moscow, in return for granting
limüed freedom to the nations of
Eastern Europe would insist tbat
the new European system be
politically independent from the
United States.
The Soviets have further rea–
son for such an arrangement. If
they could pry Western Europe
away from the United States,
they would negate Washington's
intention of stationing powerful
new nuclear weapons in Europe,
now scheduled for around 1985.
S uch a Soviet-European a r–
rangement would be coupled, no
doubt , with a mutual nonaggres–
sion treaty and vastly increased
trade. The chronically weak Soviet
economy wi ll need much help dur–
ing the 1980s. Already, during the
past decade of detente, East-West
trade in Europe has increased dra–
matically. Soviet trade with West
Germany now amounts to about $7
bill ion a year, that with France
around $4 bill ion.
West European dependence
upon East bloc energy sources are
increasingly very impor tant. By
the mid-1980s the Soviets will be
supplying thirty percent ofthe nat–
ural gas consumed in West Germa–
ny.
And now, a respectable petro–
leum research organization in
Sweden reports that Soviet engi–
neers have made t he world's
largest discovery of oil in West–
ern Siberia. As a result, total
44
Soviet oil reserves are now esti–
mated as high as 4.55
tri/lion
bar–
reis, many times greater than the
combined reserves of all Middle
East oil fields.
The nations of continental
Western Europe are almost total–
ly dependent upon Mideast and
North Afr ica oil. What a "bar–
gaining ch ip" the Soviets may
have with energy-starved West–
ern Europe if their reserves are
proveo out!
Britaln, U.S. lsolated
The future Romanized Europe will
not begood news for Britain and the
United States. Britain, along with
fellow Common Market member
Denmark, willlikely not be a part of
a new arrangement.
Britain's relationship with the
Continent is tenuous enough as it is.
A very large portion of the British
public has never quite approved of
Britain's membership in the Euro–
pean Economic Community.
The opposition Labour Party, al
its annual conference last October,
actually approved a position calling
for Britain's removal from the com–
munity, once it resumes office.
British Prime Minister Mar–
garet Thatcher is having an
extremely difficult time t rying to
turn around t he over-taxed,
hyperinftated British economy,
saddled for three decades with
socialist spending programs.
·For the past fifteen years the
United States has been going in tbe
same inward-oriented direction,
caus ing great concern among
knowledgeable continental Euro–
peans. In an interview in the
November 10-16 issue of
Le Point,
French sociologist Micbel Crozier
says t hat "today one sees [in
America] what one saw in Britain
in 1950-1955.
If
this tendency
continues it wiJI be a d isaster."
After the war, war-torn Europe
looked to the United States not
only for its military protection,
but for a societal model. Optimis–
t ic, prosperous America was the
" Promised Land."
Now, Mr. Crozier admits, "for
us there is no Jonger a model or a
promised land," adding that "sal–
vation is not across the ocean."
Writing in the
New Yorker
mag-
azine, William Pfaff stresses that
for Europeans, "American moral
authority has been seriously under–
mined, mainly as a consequence of
the Vietnam War."
Mr. Pfaff also points out that
America and Europe have steadi–
ly drifted apart over the past few
years, "that on the two sides of
the Atlantic we are societies rath–
er remote from one another, and
that the Uni ted States today has
perhaps become even more dis–
tant from Western Europe than it
was in the isolationist nineteen–
twenties and thirties."
The United States no longer
considers itself largely an out–
growth of European culture- the
Old World transplanted into the
New World . Much of this is due
to the growth of non-European
ethnic minorities within the
United States.
"Europe today," says Mr. Pfaff,
"doesn't interest Americans very
much" and America "with its ideal–
ism and moral energy no longer
interests Europeans as it did in the
forties or at the time of Woodrow
Wilson.... Jt means that Western
Europe, released from its fear of
itself, has become free again–
whether we like it or not."
Stage ls Set
Conditions are ripe now, more
than ever before since the close of
the Second World War, for a
massive end-time reshaping of the
world's political systems.
Western Europe and t he
United States are drifting apart–
leading to America's dangerous
iso1ation. At the same time, the
Soviet Union realizes it must
solve its Eastern European enig–
ma. Out of these twin develop–
ments will emerge a new- yet
ancient- political alignment.
Continue to watch these devel–
opments unfold. Watch for the
impact that the Polish Pope, John
Paul
11,
will have on the largely
Roman Catholic Eastern Euro–
pean nations as they come out
from behind the Iron Curtain.
Watch to see wbat role Austria–
that unique bridge between East
and West- will play.
Bible prophecy is racing
on!
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH