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The
PLAIN TRUTH
August-September 1970
the months of high-level, closed-door negotJatwns between
the representatives of the two governments before the public
signing took place.
The next few months will tell just how significant the
new pact is. Sorne political ana1ysts believe West Germany's
newly won trade advantage in Eastern Europe will undermine
Moscow's dominance in the area and lead to agonizing
second thoughts within the Kremlin.
One thing is for certain: Europe - and the world -
will never be the same again.
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Vatican lnterest in European Unity
Look for the Vatican to exert more in.Buence m
European affairs.
Yugoslavia and tbe Vatican have resumed full diplomatic
relations - a move that could lead to further ties between
the Vatican and Eastern Europe.
The resumption, aonounced by both sides on August 15,
ends an 18-year-old rift between the two states. It is expected
that Yugoslav President Tito will pay a visit to Pope Paul VI
later in the year to further cement the new relationship.
Another politically significant move iovolving the
Vatican occurred earlier this summer.
In a dispatch from Vatican City July 18, Reuters
reported that the Vatican asked to establish diplomatic rela–
tions with the European Common Market. The request, a
Vatican press spokesman said, "is in harmony with the interest
which the Holy
See
has always had in this community."
Pope Paul VI has repeatedly expressed his personal
interest in European unity.
Earlier the same week, Pope Paul assured visiting West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt of the Vatican's full moral
support of the idea of a United Europe. Brandt was on a
two-day official visit to the Vatican.
The Pope, encouraging European political unity, stated,
"We note with pleasure that the German Government con–
tributes actively to the achievement of this aim."
Vatican influence over Europeao affairs is destined to
grow in the mooths ahead.
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Jordan - Arab Trouble Spot
The Arab nation to watch in the next few months is
Jordan, source of most anti-Israel guerrilla activity. Young
King Hussein wears the least stable crown of all major Arab
leaders. His small nation is a hotbed of interna! conflict
coupled with international meddling.
More than two-thirds of all inhabitants of Jordan are
refugees. Sorne come from the area which in 1949 became
Israel. The others .Bed the area of West Jordan during the
wars of 1956 and 1967. Refugee camps house more than
600,000 Palestiniaos. Sorne 30% of all people in Jordao are
unemployed.
Palestiniaa commandos and guerrilla fighters in Jordan
- a force totally independent of Hussein's control - now
oumber 20,000. Also stationed on Jordanian territory are
11,000-15,000 Soviet-equipped Iraqi troops and anywhere
from 2,000 to 5,000 Syrian regulars.
The main counterbalancing force is the Royal Jordanian
Army. Totalling 55,000, it is not nearly as supportive of
Hussein as the number indicates. Its ranks are said to 'be
rife with disloyal elements, with many NCO's and officers
outright anti-monarchists.
Question is: l-Iow long can Hussein and the nation of
Jordan, as we now know it, last?
Five days of anarchy in Juoe nearly toppled Hussein.
The shaky truce between the government and the guerrillas
could break clown at any moment.
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Behind Moscow's Move into Middle East
Keep an eye on the steady growth of Russian power in
the Middle East.
The Soviet Union now has almost as many "advisors"
throughout the Arab world as the United States had in South
Vietnam in 1963.
Why the big Soviet push
110w?
This much is apparent: Kremlin strategists know there
is deep division within the United States over the war in
Vietnam and Cambodia. To them, America appears as a
troubled nation, plagued with mounting interna! cdses.
As a result, reports the editor of the
fet'llsalem Post,
the
Soviets "acted in the Middle East in the belief there would
be a widespread reluctance by the United States to answer
their moves."
What is the USSR
~up
to? Primarily this: The Soviets
want to drive Western influence from the Arab world. They
would like to exercise eventual control over the oil of Saudi
Arabia, Iran and the Persian Gulf on which Western Europe
and Japan depend so heavily.
The Soviets grasp full well the strategic as well as
economic importance of the Middle East. Reports former
U. S. Undersecretary of State George Ball:
"What vitally relates to the power balance and thus to
the maintenance of world peace is the strategic location of
the area.. . .
In marked contrast to Vietnam,
the Middle East
does líe near the center of world power - just below Central
and Western Europe - and what happens in the U.A.R.
and Israel would have a profound effect on millions of people
in the industrially advanced countries."
Western European countries are becoming uneasy about
Soviet inlluence in the Mediterranean. The West German
Foreign Minister, Walter Scheel, has called for a bigger role
for European States in dealing with Middle East affairs.
Israelí Foreign mioister Abba Eban told a delegation of
West German officials recently in Jerusalem that aid to Israel
"should not be regarded as the exclusive responsibility of
the United States," for "if Soviet supremacy is established
in the Mediterranean, the security of Europe will be under–
mined."