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THEWORLDIN
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Tension and Turmoil to Escalate!
Grave challenges confront the United States and the entire Free World.
Here is a rundown of what to expect.
T
HIS IS
no " Happy New
Year" for leaders in
Washington and other
Free World capitals. On many
widely scattered fronts, the
challenges ahead will be great,
especially for President Ron–
ald Reagan, Secretary of
State Alexander M. Haig
Jr.
(see cover) and others in the
Reagan administration.
During the past year a neutra1-
ist pacifist movement surged from
a lmost nowhere to become a
potent political force in Western
Europe. In October during two
weeken'ds of demonstrations, lead–
ers of the movement called out
more than 850,000 protesters into
the streets of five capital cities.
Europe's new neutralists are
specifically determined to scuttle
a NATO agreement , reached in
December, 1979, at the time of
the Soviet intervention in Afghan–
istan, to deploy a new generation
of nuclear missiles on European
soi l.
The Soviets, with their organs of
propaganda and disinformation, are
making the most of it. The Kremlin
is carefully cultivating public fear
by launching "peace offensives"
aimed at preventi ng t he U .S.–
NATO counterforce from being
deployed.
.
This "peace offensive" reached
an almost embarrassing plateau (to
all but commi tted neutralists )
October 3 1 when Soviet President
Leonid
l.
Brezhnev promised West
Germans that their country would
be spared from a nuclear attack if
they refuse to deploy U .S.
medium-range missiles on their
soil.
European Front Collapsing?
World tensions, both poli tical
and economic, a re certain to
i
ncrease in E urope, as the
unresolved issues of 1981 carry
over into the new year.
Mueh of the movement, though
naive, seems genuine, based large–
ly on a g rowing fear of Europe's
future.
" J
declare with fu ll responsibili–
ty," said
Mr.
Brezhnev, "that the
Soviet Union under no circum-
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January
1982
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