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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 3, 1984
I recently read your article "Mideast War in 1984" and I was
quite impressed with the straightforward information given in it.
I am currently serving with the U
.s.
Navy 6th Fleet off of
Beirut, Lebanon, so the article was of particular interest to me.
Please keep up the excellent work you project in these articles,
and make the world aware of events happening around us.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
A.P. (U.S.S. Sims, FPO Miami, FL)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
THE UNITED STATES: DRIFTING AWAY FROM EUROPE,
SHIFTING INTO THE PACIFIC RIM WORLD
A bit more has come out on that extraordinary conference, referred to last
week in this column, which was held in Brussels from January 13-15. It
featured 200 powers-that-be on both sides of the Atlantic discussing the
future of NATO. Here is how The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, in its January
17 edition, reported on this closed-door confab:
Just- before East-West negotiators sat down in Stockholm this
week, scores of top foreign policy advisers and analysts gathered
here to forge a new strategy for the Western alliance. But they
left stunned .QY an unusually bitter transatlantic clash of
views...•
The conference was sponsored by the Georgetown University Center
for Strategic and International Studies. At a similar meeting in
1979, [ former U.s. Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger shocked
many Europeans into supporting the NATO decision to deploy a new
generation of cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe by warning
about the uncertainty of U.S. willingness to launch U.S. nuclear
forces in the defense of Europe.
Some sources indicated Mr. Kissinger had planned another "bomb
shell" by suggesting a reduction in U
.s.
troops stationed in
Europe accompanied by an increase in Western Europe defense
forces. But it was said that this proposal was deleted from his
still stern address to the group. In answer to questions, Mr.
Kissinger did say he was currently reviewing the question and
would � make proposals on
11
the Europeanization of European
defense."
Former Pentagon and C.I.A. chief James Schlesinger, in a strong
criticism of•.•West German policy...signaled a warning to that
country to assume more of the burden of its own defense. "The
U
.s.
since the war has willingly taken on the protection of
Europe," he said, but "it is a fundamental misconception of the
forces that move American democracy to believe that it has �
national interest in defending Europe" when Europeans fail to
take their own defense as seriously.
This is the second time that the Georgetown Center conference in Brussels
has produced fireworks. As referred to in the above article, Mr. Kissinger
startled the 1979 meeting when (as reported in the Sept. 18, 1979 PGR) he