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THE HEADS OF GOVERNMENT
of the seven leading free world industrial nations gathered for their annual summit in June
1979, this time in Tokyo. Around the table. clockwise from lower left, are: Prime Minister Helmut Schmidt of West Germany;
Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira of Japan; Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti of Ita/y; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of
Britain; Presiden! Valery Giscard d 'Estaing of France; President Carter of the United States; and Prime Miñister Joe Clark of
Canada. The summit participants failed to come to grips with the challenge of surging world oil prices, shrinking away from
taking politically tough decisions. Franz Josef Strauss cal/ed the summit "an ineffective foothi/1."
London's
Financia! Times,
com–
menting recently about Strauss's no–
torious "lack of ora torical sclf-con–
trol," said this: " Herr Strauss in full
oratorical flight is a wonder- scat–
tering ironic abuse like shrapnel
amid opponents too shocked for a
fast response. (Herr Strauss's de–
livery, the Bundestag calculates, av–
erages 311 syllables in 20 seconds
against a parliamentary average of
288.)"
"Exciting" is perhaps too mild a
term to describe the campaign to
come.
Die Zeit
predicts that the
Strau~s-Schmid t
ba ttle will be a
"pitiless confronta tion." The
Neue
Ruhr Zeitung
says of the CDU
¡es
u
and its new flag-bearer : "Its new
Matador will discipline it for the
1980 Bundestag election, and with it ,
carry on an election with the utmost
tenacity."
The first round of this política!
slugfest, in fact, has already begun.
The
PLAIN TRUTH September 1979 .
l n a drama tic move, Chancellor
Schmidt, a Lutheran by profession,
paid an informal visit to Pope John
Paul II at the Yatican on July 9. l t
was an obvious attempt to curry
Yatican support for his Social Demo–
cratic Party. Traditionally, Yatican
sympathies have sided with the
Christian Democratic parties in
Western Europe, which trace their
origins to the Yatican policy of help–
ing stem a threatened Communist
tide in the early years after World
War II.
One issue certain to come up in the
campaign is the question of West
Germany's military defense. The So–
viet Union, which holds the German
armed forces, or
Bundeswehr,
in high
regard, wants to negotiate substan–
tial cuts in its size in the ongoing
East-West mutual force reduction
talks in Yienna. Stopping off in Mos–
cow recently en route to Tokyo,
Chancellor Schmidt indicated his
willingness to consider a sizable cut–
back.
Strauss, who more than any man
can lay claim to being the architect
of the
Bundeswehr,
is certain to voice
his opinion on this issue and others
loud and clear!
Between now and October 1980,
Plain Truth
readers should keep a
close eye not only on the election
campaign in America, but on the
more exciting- and perhaps more
pivotal-one in West Germany. As
The Plain Truth
said in its Septem–
ber 1968 issue: "To a great many
people- especially to Bavarians–
Strauss seems to possess the answers.
He is swift, decisive, tenacious- un–
predictable, powerful. He gets things
done. He is surrounded by an aura of
power- a mysterious presence that
cannot be denied, whether liked or
disliked. It remains to be seen just
where that power will take Germa–
ny."
o
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