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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 9, 1985
We can easily enough imagine how our reporters [of today] might
have covered the [second world] war•••• We would first and fore
most have had, of course, the interviews:
"ABC ( or NBC or CBS) takes you now to the bunker of Mr. Adolf
Hitler, where our correspondent has succeeded in obtaining an
exclusive interview. First of all Charles, •••! wonder if you can
find out•••Mr. Hitler's feelings concerning the way this war has
been reported so far? Has the press been fair, in his opinion?
"No? I can't quite understand that, Charles•••• We try to pre
sent both sides of this war as fairly and accurately as possible,
without prejudice toward either side••••
"Very well, thank you, Charles--and thank Mr. Hitler•.•• Back to
our veteran correspondent, who has followed the American troops
since D-Day and the advance into the German heartland. Give us
an update, can you, Don, on how this advance has gone since yes
terday? It has, we understand, been very rough."
"Oh, it has indeed--but not, I'm afraid, only for the men in
uniform.
Yesterday the American combat unit with which I'm
traveling hurled grenades into a house where civilians were liv
ing. When I asked the officer in charge the reason, he said that
German sniper and bazooka fire had come from that very house.
"Now, we have heard this excuse very often before and I don't
want to question the motives of our officers. But the fact is,
.the American army has left a trail of destruction behind it and
shelled houses indiscriminately merely because they housed
snipers firing on them. And this morning, Ted, I visited with a
young German woman whose 12-year-old child looked at me with
large fearful eyes.
"'Why have your soldiers come to do this to us?' she asked me,
pointing to her son. I had no answers for her, Ted. And neither
does any U.S. reporter. It's a question we Americans are going
to have to ask ourselves for a long time to come."•••
"In our last few moments we go back for a wrapup to our correspon
dent in Berlin, who has succeeded in obtaining an interview with
Mr. Hitler and his colleagues again. Before we get into that,
I'm sure our viewers would like to know, Charles, what it is that
enabled you to get these busy men to grant interviews?"
"There is a simple answer to that, Ted. We have, over time,
developed a good working relationship with the Nazi high command.
They know, if they want to get their message across to the United
States, they have to turn to us. Trust and reciprocity--those
are the bottom lines here, Ted."
"And did Mr. Hitler happen to have any message to get across
today, Charles?" "He did indeed, Ted. Some of our colleagues and
I were invited to lunch at the bunker today. There he told me-
and I relay it to you now--that he speaks for his colleagues in
Tokyo, as well as himself, in saying that there is no enmity in