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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 9, 1984
I wanted you to know that your program made me realize that God
does exist.
When the radio message ended, the plane arrived.
The pilot had a big thermos of hot coffee and sandwiches. I sure
felt great. He thought I was going to be mad because he was so
late. I told him about the radio message and we both stood there
and thanked God.
ON THE WORLD SCENE
E.K. (Dona Ana, NM)
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
EUROPE'S GRIM DILEMMA: "DIVORCE" FROM AMERICA LOOMS AHEAD,
BUT HOW WILL EUROPE PROTECT ITSELF?
Coming across our desks every week in the News Bureau is a steady stream of
articles in which leading personalities in both America and Western Europe
are calling for changes, some of them quite radical, in transatlantic rela
tions. The significance is not always in what is said or proposed, but that
so many influential figures are now contributing to this dialogue. For ex
ample, here is what Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a former top Kennedy Admini
stration aide, wrote in the WALL STREET JOURNAL of March 5, 1984, in the
article, "NATO: Time for a Divorce?"
The conference organized by Aspen Institute Berlin tackled the
topic "Where is the U.S.A. Heading?"... Present were parlia
mentarians, journalists and professors from half a dozen West
European countries...and an amiably disharmonious American
group, ranging from the far right (three fervent Reaganites) to
the liberal left.
The veteran conference-goer becomes wearily familiar with the
litany of mutual complaint at these Euro-American shows.... But
in the past, recrimination went on within hearty agreement on
assessments and purposes.
For the first time, I had the
altogether disquieting feeling that the consen�itself may be
breaking down....
As confidence in the judgment of the U.S. wanes, the Europeans
give a stronger impression than ever before of looking for a way
out. A State Department official perceptively observed, "Euro
peans want to escape dependence on an America they can't under
stand and that doesn't seem to want to understand them." At the
same time, Europeans...have no doubt about the indispensability
of American nuclear protection.
They are not unilateral
disarmers, and the need for nuclear deterrence limits their
ability to escape dependence. Still they cherish the dream of
independence.
The movement toward European autonomy is gathering strength.
Britain's Margaret Thatcher visits Budapest and Moscow, ...con
demns the American invasion of Grenada.
Helmut Kohl of West
Germany, another conservative head of government, multiplies
contacts and arrangements with communist East Germany. David
Owen, the leader of Britain's new Social Democratic Party, calls
on Europe to take control of its own security policy and free its
defense from U.S. domination. Europe, Mr. Owen notes, already