Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 1, 1983
PAGE 7
already emplaced SS-20 and older European-targeted missiles--until parity
in nuclear warheads is reached.
Official reaction throughout Western Europe was very positive, while un
official reaction behind the Iron Curtain was just the opposite.
In his Los Angeles address the President spoke of the "challenge that his
tory has left us" in the United States and the Western world--how to "defend
freedom and preserve peace." He stressed again "the great moral struggle
between democracy and its enemies, between the spirit of freedom and those
who fear freedom.•••"
Regarding arms negotiations with Moscow Mr. Reagan stressed the importance
of firm resolve and patience. "The ideology of the Soviets," he said,
"can't permit them to leave any weakness unprobed and any vacuum unfilled."
He added that "generosity in negotiations runs counter to the basic
militancy of Marxist-Leninist philosophy."
He continued: "Only if the
Soviets recognize the West's determination to modernize its own military
forces will they see an incentive to negotiate a verifiable agreement
establishing equal lower levels" of nuclear weapons.
The President said calls for a simplistic "nuclear freeze" not only "locks
the U.S. into obsolescence" in view of Moscow's far greater recent arms
buildup and renewal, but implies that the U.S. national will is divided.
"If we appear to be divided," the Soviets, said Mr. Reagan, "will dig in
their heels," hoping they will not have to give up any of their advantages.
The President described the pressure for a nuclear freeze very succinctly;
quoting the late journalist H. L. Mencken: "For every problem there is one
answer that is simple, neat--and wrong."
The President certainly had the bulk of the audience behind him. In the
question-and-answer period following the speech, a newsman complained that
new White House guidelines to plug news leaks were restrictive.
The
President replied that "the press must recognize it, too, has a responsi
bility for the welfare of the nation." The audience erupted in.! thunderous
ovation--indicative of the public's growing impatience with the attitude of
the news media.
Standing outside the hotel afterward, Dr. Hoeh and I overheard one gentle
man tell a friend: "It's good to have a Commander-in-Chief once again."
President Reagan has his hands full convincing the nation of the dangers
which confront them such as in the Central America/Caribbean region-
America's "soft underbelly."
Even though the public generally supports
him, his chief adversaries are the opinion molders in the news media,
education and "mainstream" religion, to say nothing of members of Congress,
who are predominantly liberal (and secular) in outlook.
Opinion polls
indicate that only about 20% of the general public professes to being
liberal.
In another recent address, this time to evangelical ministers in Florida
Mr. Reagan described the world's principle East-West power struggle in not
just a facts-and-figures argument about warheads and throw-weight, but in
its underlying moral equation--something anathema to the majority of his
domestic critics. The following is a description of the President's speech