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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 29, 1983
PAGE 8
I have just started to tithe. I was so impressed after reading
"You Can Solve Your Financial Worries" in the March issue of The
PLAIN TRUTH. Here is my first payment. Thanks.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
SPECIAL REpOR'l'
"THE FIRE IN AMERICA'S FRONT YARD"--
M.G. (Milwaukee, WI)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
WILL CONGRESS COOPERATE IN PUTTING IT OUT?
Wednesday night, April 28, Mr. Reagan took the extraordinary step of con
vening a rare joint session of Congress--during prime television air time-
to tell the nation's lawmakers that the national security of all the
Americas is at stake in the mounting chaos in Central America. Earlier in
the day he had remarked that "there's a fire started and burning in
America's front yard."
By going on television, the President took his case directly to the
American people--far more conservative than their largely liberal law
makers--in hopes they would put pressure on their representatives to sup
port the President's combination economic and military aid package for the
troubled region. Mr. Reagan again showed why he is called "the Great Com
municator." His points rang loud, clear and to those with ears to hear-�
frightening. Here are some principle excerpts from the first part of his
address.
Central America is much closer to the United States than many of
the world trouble spots that concern us•.•. El Salvador is nearer
to Texas than Texas is to Massachusetts. Nicaragua is just as
close to Miami, San Antonio, San Diego and Tucson as those cities
are to Washington where we are gathered tonight.
But nearness on the map does not even begin to tell the strategic
importance of Central America, bordering as it does on the Carib
bean--our lifeline to the outside world. Two-thirds of all our
foreign trade and petroleum pass through the Panama Canal and the
Caribbean. In a European crisis, at least half of our supplies
for NATO would go through these areas by sea. It is well to re
member that in early 1942 a handful of Hitler's submarines sank
more tonnage there than in all of the Atlantic Ocean. And they
did this without a single naval base anywhere in the area.
Today, the situation is different. Cuba is a host to a Soviet
combat brigade, a submarine base capable of servicing Soviet sub
marines•••• We are all aware of the Libyan cargo planes refuel
ing in Brazil a few days ago on their way to..•Nicaragua [carry
ing military supplies]....
Last month, speaking on national
television, I showed an aerial photo of an airfield being built
on the island of Grenada. Well, if that airfield had been com
pleted, those planes could have refueled there and completed
their journey. If the Nazis during World War II and the Soviets
today could recogni�the Caribbean and Centrar - Arnerica"as vital
to our interests, should not we also?