Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 27, 1982
PAGE S
The French are leading the pack in opposing American policy vis-a-vis the
massive pipeline project, which Moscow Radio calls "the deal of the cen
tury." The West Germans, the Italians and even the British, however, are
not far behind. In fact, the pipeline row is engendering a remarkable
degree of European unity. .
"For the first time," reported the French daily
LE MONDE, "Europeans, including the British, feel !. solidarity stronger
with each other than anything linking them to the United States."
Suddenly, experts on both sides of the Atlantic are talking about the on
coming death of the alliance. Europeans say that it was bound to happen
sooner or later. That it is happening now, they claim, is a result of
President Reagan's so-called "cowboy shoot-from-the-hip mentality" toward
the Soviet Union. What does Reagan really want, they ask? Is he out to
declare economic warfare against the Soviet Union? Did he really mean it,
when he said in London in June that the West should take advantage of Soviet
economic weaknesses and embark upon a global "march of freedom and democ
racy" in order to "leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history"?
European leaders at the June 9-10 NATO summit were said to have been stunned
at the President's "hard-line" views toward the Soviets, conveyed at a
closed-door meeting at the end of the conference. Mr. Reagan repeatedly
said that he felt that Moscow should not be helped in any way economically
as long as it still insisted on undermining Western interests around the
world, such as supporting various "national liberation" movements. One
diplomat quoted the President as saying of the Soviets: "They may not be
fighting us, but they certainly are at war with us."
Mr. Reagan's remarks so startled the assembled heads-of-states and their
delegations that NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns immediately adjourned
the session which had been paralyzed by numbing silence. {European leaders
should have been prepared for such a Reagan bombast, he having told them
earlier at the Versailles economic summit:
"If we push the Soviets they
will collapse. When will we get another opportunity like this in our life
time?")
While Europeans claim they are put off by such "cold war rhetoric," Amer
ican officials say that this is precisely the point: That Europeans have
been so lulled by detente that they no longer understand that there still is
a "war going on" between the free world and the Communist world. According
to Washington's viewpoint, it makes no sense for the free world to continue
to expand trade with the Communists, especially by offering government-sub
sidized low-interest loans. (The pipeline is being financed at less than
eight percent interest.) This makes even less sense now, goes this argu
ment, given the huge indebtedness of the East bloc. The lender is in danger
of becoming the slave of the borrower. If trade is to be conducted, keep it
to the minimum--and strictly cash only. (Mr. Reagan thus defends his grain
sales.) In sum, let the Soviets feel the pinch a bit. Just maybe they'll
have to think twice about their huge arms build-up and support of worldwide
revolution.
In case the Europeans are not impressed by these arguments, the U.S. is pre
pared to push another approach. There is growing evidence that preliminary
drudge-work on the pipeline under harsh arctic winter conditions is being
done by forced labor, including political and religious prisoners and for
mer South Vietnamese army officers undergoing "re-education" and whose
services offset Vietnam
1
s $1.6 billion war debt to the U.S.S.R.
Some
severe critics of the project even dub it the "Gulag Pipeline."