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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 21, 1983
PAGE 8
ON THE WORLD SCENE
1983--WATCH OUT! The new year has started off with a flurry of diplomatic
activity. Just this past week two extremely significant high-level visits
took place almost simultaneously.
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko visited Bonn, West Germany in an
undisguised attempt to split the Western Alliance. Mr. Gromyko alternately
wooed the Germans and warned them of dire consequences should they go along
with the NATO plan to deploy new intermediate-range missiles by the end of
the year.
Moscow, in effeet, has already cast its vote in the upcoming (March 6)
elections in the Federal Republic. The Soviets want to see the new conser
vative government of Helmut Kohl, which backs the NATO decision, turned
out. Mr. Gromyko's three-hour-long private conference with Social Demo
cratic candidate, Hans Jochen Vogel, shows where the Kremlin's sympathies
lie. Herr Vogel appears to have abandoned former Socialist Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt's support for the NATO plan (in fact, Schmidt initiated it).
Watch for fireworks in Western Europe over the missile issue during the
next several months. Observers are even calling 1983 the "Year of the Mis
sile" in Europe. If European governments wilt under Soviet pressure, the
greatest crisis in NATO's 34 years will result. If the new missiles are not
deployed, the mood in America will shift against the "soft Europeans."
"Why should we continue to defend them," will be the hue and cry in the U.S.
Congress.
At the same time, Japan's new Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone, visited
the United States in an attempt to diffuse a burgeoning trade war between
the two Pacific rim powers. He also promised that Japan would do more to
help the U.S. defend the Northwestern Pacific region against growing Soviet
power.
In an interview given to the WASHINGTON POST, Mr. Nakasone boldly stated
his belief that Japan should become an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" capa
ble of stopping the penetration south of Soviet long-range strategic "Back
fire" bombers. He also proposed that the Japanese Navy be increased in
strength so that should Japan ever be directly attacked (not just the
U.S.), the Navy would be able to block the four straits in and out of the
Japan Sea through which ships of the Soviet Far East fleet must pass.
(Nakasone also expressed concern that some of the missiles that the Soviets
may remove from Europe may be retargeted against Japan.)
The Soviets reacted strongly to the Nakasone "unsinkable aircraft carrier"
statement as well as to announced plans by Japan to deploy 48 American F-16
fighter-bombers in northern Japan by 1985. The Soviet news agency TASS
said that "in the present nuclear age there can be no unsinkable aircraft
carrier." TASS further warned that Nakasone's "aircraft carrier" strategy
would "make Japan a likely target for a retaliatory strike" which could be a
bigger disaster than took place 37 years ago. The U.S. State Department
denounced the obvious reference to the destruction of Hiroshima and Naga
saki in 1945 as an attempt to intimidate Japan.
The growing ability of the Soviet Union to influence events in Europe and
Asia at the expense of America and its allies shows how far the global