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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 5, 1982
PAGE 7
A few issues back, the influential U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT ran an article
"Where Are America's Allies?," a piece detailing the reluctance on the part
of the leaders of the nations of Western Europe to follow the U.S. lead in
levying sanctions against the Soviet Union and the military government of
Poland in the aftermath of the December 13, 1981 crackdown in Poland.
Far more interesting than the article was the reaction of readers to the
article. Of the five letters printed two weeks later, four of them were
extremely critical of the European countries. Here are excerpts from three
of the letters to show the depth of feeling of the letter writers:
-- It seems the only time we have allies in Europe is when they
want us to shed our blood to save their necks or feed them to get
their socialistic governments out of a hole. Who needs enemies
when you have good allies like France, Germany, England and
Italy?
I am certain that our ally France will always be there when
she needs us.
-- After being drawn into two European wars at the expense of
American lives, money and natural resources, and rebuilding their
economies, we seem to be unappreciated and unwanted. Let us
close our bases, return our troops and equipment to this
country••••
The same issue of U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT contained a pro-con debate over
the question, "Pull U.S. Troops Out of Europe?"
The "pro" interviewee
responded that it was at least time to threaten the Europeans with a troop
pullout in order to wake them up to doing more for their own defense.
To the question: "If we withdraw, is there a danger of a nationalistic West
Germany rearming, with no NATO control over use of its troops?" the answer:
"That is a disturbing possibility, but very unlikely, since, if anything,
West German political and social trends are in the opposite direction••.•"
The "con" argument by former U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Komer was
clear and direct: To pull U.S. troops out of Europe would be the height of
folly. He said:
Western Europe is the greatest prize in the East-West struggle.
It has the greatest concentration of economic, technological and
industrial power on earth. Its gross national product is greater
than ours and far greater than Russia's. That economic strength,
added to what Russia already has, would transform the Soviet
Union into a super superpower•••• The idea of throwing the baby
out with the bath water just to express our frustration or make
some political point is simply criminal.
The folly of such thinking was also brought out by the editor of THE NEW
REPUBLIC article, quoted at the beginning of this column, who added:
The foolishness of such a policy is almost too obvious to state.
If we allow Western Europe to fall under Soviet sway or even to be