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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 27, 1984
PAGE 7
one of the
Interestingly,
AWESOME FUTURE
asked for both.
best literature responses in the past five years.
there were slightly more requests for the booklet YOUR
than for
DID GOD
CREATE A
DEVIL?
I
although most readers
Only the semiannual letters offering the books TOMORROW--WHAT IT WILL BE
LIKE and THE MISSING DIMENSION IN SEX drew higher percentages of response.
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
ON THE WORLD SCENE
EUROPE CAUGHT BETWEEN THE SUPERPOWERS
Dateline: Stockholm, Sweden
The first phase of the 35-nation Conference on Confidence- and Security
building Measures and Disarmament in Europe is over.
The chill between
East and West and its two leading superpowers, the Soviet Union and the
United States, is as cold as the weather outside the Kulturhuset conference
building in the center of this Nordic capital.
The conference was convened to deal with rather small and technical items,
such as the notification of troop maneuvers on both sides of the Iron
Curtain. It is hoped that such so-called "confidence-building measures,"
if agreed upon by the delegations that are to carry out the task over the
next two to three years, can lead to implementing solutions to more signif
icant East-West issues.
The way the conference started, however, one wondered what the delegations,
locked into their conflicting national interests, would be able to achieve.
The best example was the shockingly blunt and accusatory speech delivered
on the second day of the conference by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei
Gromyko.
The top-ranking Soviet official, his country's foreign minister
for 27 years, accused the Reagan Administration of "thinking in terms of
war and acting accordingly."
Mr. Gromyko's speech was littered with references to the Reagan Administra
tion's "maniacal plans," its "pathological obsession," its "piratical acts
of terrorism" in Grenada and "criminal and dishonest methods" elsewhere.
He also claimed that the "U.S. war machine" is "sowing death and destruc
tion" in Lebanon. With regard to Europe, Mr. Gromyko added that "milita
rism, enmity and war hysteria are being exported to Western Europe along
with the missiles"--a reference to the new Pershing II and cruise missiles
being delivered by the United States to its West European allies.
Overall, it was hardly the speech to encourage confidence-building meas
ures. The tone of Mr. Gromyko's remarks showed that the Kremlin had totally
rejected the olive branch extended to it by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on
the eve of the CSDE meeting.
Stalemate Encourages Atlantic Rift
With the Cold War on again (and it was not thawed out in the subsequent
five-hour private meeting between Mr. Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State
George Shultz), the nations of both Western and Eastern Europe find them
selves being squeezed uncomfortably between the two superpowers.