Basic HTML Version
PAGE 10
ON THE WORLD SCENE
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 11, 1985
YALTA'S FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY HIGHLIGHTS: DIVIDED EUROPE'S
UNFINISHED BUSINESS; HABSBURG NOSTALGIA IN HUNGARY
In less than a month, European nations will take note of the fortieth anni
versary of the Yalta conference, the big-power meeting that, more than any
other (such as Teheran in 1943 and Potsdam in 1945), sealed the present
state of affairs on the continent. In the next few weeks there will probab
ly be a number of articles in the news media about Europe's quest to over
come its forty years of division. The first major article along this line
appeared in the Winter 1984/85 issue of FOREIGN AFFAIRS, entitled "The Fu
ture of Yalta," written by former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew
Brzezinski. He condensed his far-sighted comments in the December 27 NEW
YORK TIMES, from which the following excerpts are taken:
The coming year will mark the 40th anniversary of Yalta--the
fateful Crimean meeting of Feb. 4-11, 1945, when the Allied Big
Three completed the process of conceding Eastern Europe to Sta
lin. Yalta continues to symbolize the unfinished struggle for
Eurooe's future. By now it should be clear that this struggle is
unlikely to be resolved unless an active role is assumed _EY Eu
rope itself.
It should be equally clear that there must be a better option for
Europe and America than a partitioned Europe that perpetuates the
American-Soviet collision or a disunited Europe, divorced from
America, acquiescing piecemeal to Soviet domination over Eurasia.
There is such an option: the emergence of� politically� vi
tal Europe less dependent militarily on America, encouraged in
that direction by an America guided by historic vision, leading
eventually to� fundamentally altered relationship with Eastern
Europe and Russia.
But that objective, so essential to Europe's restoration, cannot
be accomplished as an American victory over Russia. Nor will it
be achieved by an explicit Russian acceptance, through a negoti
ated agreement, of Eastern Europe's emancipation from Russian
vassalage. Moscow will not yield voluntarily. A wider Europe
can emerge only as a consequence of a deliberately but subtly in
duced process of change that can neither be quickly detected nor
easily resisted••••
The time has come to rethink the relationship between Western se
curity and political change in Europe as a whole•••• America is
needed in Europe to deter Russia not only from military aggres
sion but frem political intimidation. That is obvious and it
justifies the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the American
military presence on the Continent. But what� must change is
an American military presence that reduces the incentive for the
Europeans to unite politically yet simultaneously increases the
incentive for the Russians to stay put militarily in Central and
in Eastern Europe.
Ultimately, America, in NATO, should be responsible primarily for
offsetting Soviet strategic power, thus deterring a Soviet attack