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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, July 11, 1980
Page 25
only really bright hope in this otherwise very bleak world in
which we live. It is such a wonderful blessing to know God's
Truth and to participate in the training which He has provided.
--Ken R. (Austin, TX)
I am 86 and God has mercifully kept me well. I am thankful He
called me out of the false church and has given me a portion of
His Holy Spirit.
--Miss M.F. (Venice, FL)
ON THE WORLD SCENE
BEHIND SCHMIDT'S TRIP TO MOSCOW: Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's mission to
Moscow in late June, remarked U.S. News & World Report in its July 7
issue, "demonstrates beyond all doubt West Germany's emergence as a new
political force in the world arena.... West Germany," it adds, "is playing
a more aggressive and trail-marking role in the Western Alliance, in the
European Economic Community and in its relations with the United States
...this nation is flexing its muscles and has transformed itself into a
potent international leader.••."
Not that Herr Schmidt's trip itself accomplished that much--the Soviets
budged not an inch on the Afghanistan issue, despite blunt words from
Herr Schmidt urging a Soviet tr9op pullout. In fact the effect of
Schmidt's impressively straight talk on Afghanistan and other East-West
issues may well have been diluted by the parallel signing of a big trade
agreement between the two countries.
President Carter gave his blessing to Schmidt's Moscow junket once he had
been convinced that it would not enhance Soviet desires to split the
Western Alliance. Nevertheless, Washington claimed that now was hardly
the time for a mammoth $12 billion deal to sell the Soviets steel pipe
line in exchange for natural gas. The Germans countered that pipes are
not in the same category as sophisticated computers. Besides, West
German steel companies could use the business.
the Germans and other West Europeans are generally fed up with Mr. Car
ter's weak attempts to "punish" the Soviets by cutting back on trade with
Moscow. The Daily Telegraph of London, in an article written by David
Shears says this of the growing Atlantic rift, especially that between
Wpshington and Bonn:
hGerman diplomats, for their part, single out Mr. Brzezinski, the White
House national security adviser as the scapegoat. They claim to get along
quite well with the State Department but they blame 'that Pole in the
White House' for most of the recent misunderstandings. They talk about
Mr. Brzezinski in such scathing terms that one sometimes wonders who is
their real enemY,:-the White House
2E.
the Kreiiiiin? For these Germans,�
some of them very close to Herr Schmidt and doubtless reflecting his
views, never use such language about Mr. Brezhnev.
"Specifically, they accuse Mr. Brzezinski of drafting the now famous
'Carter letter' which sent Chancellor Schmidt practically through the
roof earlier this month. It urged him to stick closely to the NATO line