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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 17, 1984
through prayer I've found your works are scriptural. There have
been many unanswered questions in my mind that you shed light
upon.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
H.B. (Farmington, MI)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
CHERNENKO TAKES OVER; LEBANON DEBACLE SHOWS UP
AMERICA--AGAIN--AS A "PAPER TIGER"
It didn't take long for the changeover at the top of the Soviet Union to
take place following the long-expected death of Yuri Andropov. The new
leader is 72-year-old Konstantin Chernenko, the oldest of the Soviet
Union's chain of rulers (Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov
before him). Of all the published profiles of Mr. Chernenko and the role he
is expected to play, the following article from the February 14 WALL STREET
JOURNAL appeared to be the best.
Konstantin Chernenko, ...72 years old, isn't seen as an innovator.
Indeed, he is viewed by some U.S. analysts as a plodding leader
of the Soviet old guard, a drab bureaucrat who rose to prominence
as an assistant to former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. His
selection as Soviet Communist Party leader represents� holding
action� the Soviet leadership against serious problems at home
and abroad....
The Soviets could have introduced new uncertainty for the U.S. by
picking a younger leader with a mandate for change. Instead they
settled on a man who helped run the Soviet collective leadership
in recent years and whose main attribute is that he isn't likely
to rock the boat.
Mr. Chernenko may prove to be only� transitional leader. He is
old, even by the standards of the Soviet leadership, and he re
portedly suffered at least a mild health problem last year.
Moreover, many analysts expect that Mr. Chernenko won't win the
other two top posts held by Yuri Andropov--chairman of the
Supreme Soviet and chairman of the Defense Council--so that
leadership will be shared. For all these reasons, the Chernenko
era is likely to be a time in which the next generatTon of Soviet
leaders prepares to� the country....
The elevation of Mr. Chernenko is a victory for the bureaucratic
apparatus created by Mr. Brezhnev and a testimony to its
recuperative strengths after the reform efforts of the Andropov
period.
Mr. Chernenko will be welcomed by party elite that
prospered under Mr. Brezhnev, but man x U.S. analysts believe it's
<;>nly � temporary victory for � dying el1 te.
Mr. Chernenko
inherits leadership of a reg'Iine that many U.S. officials believe
is in serious trouble. Despite Mr. Andropov's efforts to make
workers more productive, the Soviet economy remains burdened by
severe structural problems. Abroad, Mr. Andropov's major for
eign-policy initiative--his attempt to stop deployment of U.S.
cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe--was a failure....