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Garner Ted Armstrong
Will
Germany
Fill
theBreach?
O
f all the trends in the world
today, possibly the most im–
portan! is the continued wan–
ing of American strength , the
diminution
ot
U. S. power, the lack of
U. S. resolve. The
Unit~d
States today
is in a position of retreat around the
globe. lts guiding watchwords seem to
be "give up," "give it back," "sell it,"
"retreat," "withdraw," "back down."
Meanwhi le, under the guise of being
antl-imperialist and anticolonialist, the
Soviet Union is in the process of build–
ing the greatest colonial empire the
world has ever known-across Africa,
in Southeast Asia, and elsewhere
around the globe. Soviet power and
prestige are on the rise, seemingly in
direct proportion to the sorry decline of
American power and influence.
With the United States crippled in its
abi lity to cope with the situation, who–
if anyone-is going to step into the gap
to meet the growing Soviet challenge?
The answer may come as a surprise to
many: West Germany will ; Western Eu–
rope will.
Even as Germany lay in the rubble of
total collapse immediately following
World War
11 ,
The Plain Truth
magazine
and
The World Tomorrow
broadcast
predicted that the German nation
would emerge, phoenixlike, from the
ashes of defeat to become a major
economic and military power in the
Western world. Many in the late 1940s
and early 1950s scoffed at those pre–
dictions as they remembered the news–
reels and newspaper photos of the
unbelievable destruction of city alter
city throughout defeated Germany.
But Germany
has
risen and today
38
stands as one
ot
the major powers on
the tace
ot
the earth-the most pow–
erful nation in Europe. Al the head of
the nine-nation European Economic
Community, it is a clear economic rival
to the United States.
But-as many European leaders have
repeatedly told meover the years-West–
ern Europe, though an economic, indus–
trial and trading giant, remains a political
dwarf.When itcomes to the reallybig top–
ics
ot
global import-the SALT talks, for
example-it seems that Europe'svoice is
seldom heard.
But now, with the pol itical stakes
ever greater in the world, and with U.S.
power waning everywhere while Soviet
power continues to rise, many leaders
on the Continent are beginning to real–
ize that Europe can no longer afford to
remain on the sidelines. Moreover,
they realize that only through an etfec–
tive pooling of its joint resources will
the dwarf ever become the giant it
needs to be.
Recently the European community
held another of its periodic summit
meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark. As
it was in progress, an important article
appeared in the London
Oaily Te/e–
graph
with the tille " Europe in Need of
a Pi lo!." lt was authored by Julian
Critchley, a Conservative Member of
Britain's Parliament and a vice-chair–
man of the party's defense committee.
Critchley noted that there are three
routes that would lead toward com–
pleting the process of a United Europe:
1) unity through conquest , which has
been tried time and time again without
permanent success;
2)
unity through
economic integration , the present
route which has had only limited suc–
cess in certain areas; or 3) unity in the
tace of a common enemy.
Today, that common enemy is in–
creasingly present in the form of the
enormous Soviet military threat all
along free Europe's eastern flank.
"Fear." asserts Critchley, " could be
the cement " for European unity.
Critchley also addresses the ques–
tion of leadership. "ls there a modern
Bismarck in Europe?" he asks. ls there
a leader who could orchestrate the
unity of all of Europe in much the same
way that Germany's " lron Chancellor"
brought about German unity in the
nineteenth century? Critchley suggests
that this " modern Bismarck," like his
namesake, "may well be German, for it
is the Federal Republic [of Germany]
which has become the most powerful
nation within the Community.. .. lf the
Common Market is ever to become a
super-state and not just a super-mar–
ket," he predicts, " it will be the result
of German leadership. ' '
The Soviet threat to Europe is grow–
ing , and Europeans are tinding it hard
to ignore. And now, with uncertainty
over U. S. resolve and even America's
reliability as an ally in time
ot
war, Eu–
ropeans are being torced to take a
hard look at their own defense. "Could
Europe," Critchley speculates, " by as–
suming a greater share in its own de–
tense, recommence its journey on the
path to unity?' '
For over tour decades,
The Plain
Truth
has predicted the eventual emer–
gence
ot
a superpower " United States
ot
Europe," led by Germany. That day
appears to be drawing closer.
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH
June/July 1978