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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 12, 1985
PAGE 11
son win a scholarship at Princeton. "I've advised him to stay on
there," says Murshed.
"No other country offers such scope to
talent. I'm told I would be a second-class citizen if I went
there--but I'd still go."•••
Nowhere is Uncle Sam portrayed in more menacing tones than in
neighboring Latin America•••• Twenty-eight of 77 anti-u.s. ter
rorist acts last year came in Latin America--the most of any re
gion in the world. "Another Vietnam awaits you," warned leftist
guerrillas in El Salvador after murdering 13 people, four of them
U.S. Marines, at a sidewalk cafe. Hostility is spreading across
a region saddled with a 300-billion-dollar debt that forces na
tions to export almost 28 billion dollars annually to foreign
banks. Says Lucio Garcia del Solar, Argentina's ambassador to
the U.S.: "That is a greater danger to the security interests of
the U.S. than guerrilla wars in Central America••••
Americans are helpful, friendly, kind, cheerful, brave, clean,
strong, generous and sometimes even reverent. So why doesn't
everybody love us?
Because Americans are arrogant, ignorant,
immature, suspicious, loud, smug and--above all--rich. Conflict
ing views about Americans are disturbing not only to people
abroad but to Americans themselves••••
Americans' ignorance of foreign languages is a crippling factor
in dealing with other nations, according to the U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, Vernon Walters. "The failure to communi
cate with foreigners in their own language prevents them from un
derstanding us as we really are," says Walters, who is fluent in
eight tongues. "It makes it difficult for us to project our real
purposes to other people."•••
It is respect, rather than love, that many Americans want from
the world. Ambassador Walters of the United Nations sums up a
lifetime of global travels: "If one seeks only to be loved, one
cannot do the difficult things that must be done to pursue human
freedom. I think, on balance, I would prefer that the world re
spect more than merely like us. If we could have both, it would
be even better.
The U.S. NEWS special concluded with an interview with British journalist
Paul Johnson, who explained why "there's a certain quiet glee" over U.S.
troubles:
Q. Mr. Johnson, why do you think the world has such a love-hate
relationship with the United States?
A. America is the richest, the most powerful country in the
world. People in the West know in their hearts they're very de
pendent on America and are, in their rational moods, grateful.
But, if you're dependent on someone you tend to resent them. So
when America gets into a bit of difficulty, as over the hostage
crisis in Lebanon, there's a certain quiet glee.
Q. But in some parts of the world, dislike of America goes be
yond envy--