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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 22, 1982
PAGE 9
ent, uncertain, untrue. There is something "between the lines"
in what you write.
T.L. (Mississauga, Canada)
I have never in my life read the Bible or had any interest in the
Church whatsoever until I started reading The PLAIN TRUTH
magazine.
You seem to make sense to me--something other
religious programs didn't do. Whoever initiated The PLAIN TRUTH
magazine, thank them on my behalf.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
E.B. (Willowdale, Canada)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
COMMUNIST NOOSE ON CENTRAL AMERICA DRAWS TIGHTER Because events in Poland
have dominated recent headlines, not enough attention has been paid to the
deteriorating security interests of the United States much closer to home,
in Central America.
The Soviet Union and its number one proxy, Cuba, are turning pro-communist
Nicaragua into the military powerhouse of Central America. This trend con
firms the worst fears of U.S. officials when the Marxist Sandinista revolu
tionaries overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza in July, 1979.
In a series of recent statements, Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
and other top White House officials have decried the "drift toward totali
tarianism" of the current Nicaraguan regime. "The hours are growing rather
short," said Mr. Haig, to prevent Nicaragua from becoming another Cuban
styled dictatorship.
Warnings from Washington have failed so far to impress either the Nicara
guans or the Cubans. They know full well that, in the aftermath of Vietnam
and given the suspicion toward U.S. power even among more-or-less friendly
governments in Latin America, the U.S. is extremely unlikely to intervene
militarily to counter the buildup. The very most that would occur would be
a naval blockade of Cuban and Soviet arms shipments to Nicaragua. Even this
would be a last resort, and the Nicaraguans hope that the new ocean-going
Soviet navy would help break it.
Nicaragua's buildup is thus proceeding without regard to U.S. "warnings."
The country's regular army has expanded from the 8,000 men during the time
of Somoza (the alleged repressive militarist) to between 22,000 and 33,000
today. The goal is a 50,000 man regular army supported by 200,000 reserv
ists--a force of enormous size for Central America, far outdistancing the
armies of Nicaragua's worried neighbors. In fact, it would be the biggest
army in all of Latin America, after that of Brazil.
The Nicaraguans claim they need the huge army to protect the country from
raids by ex-Somoza followers located nearby in Honduras and as far away as
Florida. However, the size and composition of the other branches of the
Nicaraguan military structure clearly show that the Soviets and Cubans in
tend to use Nicaragua as an aggressive springboard to topple one country
after another in Central America--all in the name, of course, of "national
liberation."