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Wi/1 we Ever have
"Our
Generation of
Peace"?
"P EACE -
a generation of peace"
- was President Nixon's theme
on his election-ycar barnstorm–
ing tour of tbe United Statcs in the fall
of
1970.
"We have not had a generation of
peace in this century," said Mr. Nixon,
"but we shall have a generation of
peacc."
How long is a generation? Webster's
dictionary says "usually 33 years" -
three to a century. What are ou.r actual
chances for thirty-three ycars of
world
peace?
T rends- P ast, Preseot and
Fu
ture
In
America's six generations of exis–
tence, there were two
SllfJposed
gener–
ations of peace
(1815
to
1846, 1865
to
1898).
But they werc actually marred
by the bloodsbed of constant Indian
wars. Add to that thc divisive recrimi–
nations both before ( due to differences
over States' rights, thc tariff, and
slavery) and afte.r (carpetbagging) the
bloody American civil war.
Now look at the past around the
world. "The period from
1496
B.C.,"
according to
Collie1J! E11cyclopedia
"to
A. D.
1861
shows
227
years of peace to
3130 of war."
The number of wars per decade has
grown steadily since 1900. There have
been betweeo 50 and 70 wars since
1945,
depending on your defioition of
war. In
1966,
the then Dcfense Secre–
tary McNamata counted
164
"ínter-
by
Charles V. Dorothy
nationally signiftcant outbreaks of
vw–
lence" in thc hrief
1958-1966
time
span. Eighty-two nations were involved.
An American sociologist counted 1200
examples
of thc broadcr term " interna!
war" between
1946
and
1959.
At the present moment there are
about 30 wars, conflicts, .tnd insurgencie;
in the world. Ten are in Asia, ten in
A frica (bloody intcrtri bal civil wars),
fivc in the Middlc East, and five in
Lat ín Arnerica. Sincc battles are nol
fought each day, thcy aren't in your
daily news, but those
40
or more
nations involved are still armed camps.
Ncarly all these wars are in under–
developed lands.
The ominous thrcat
to
future world
pcace was rcported by Geoffrey Kemp
of the arms control project at the Mas–
sachusetts Institutc of T cchnology. He
said, "At a conscrv;ltivc estímate, about
one-qlfarter
of the sovereign states on
planet Earth were engaged in inter-state
or intra-statc conAict involving the use
of regular armed forces
as the
1970'J
be
Kan .
"Add to this impressive figure those
states that have used military power
either to enforce or to protect their
interests
Ot"e'· the
fJt/Jt
decade,
and those
that are preparing for highly probable
confl ict in the near future, and thc total
number of countries rises to over 70, or
more than half lhe sovereign slales in
lhe !l'orld."
Spending on war will be as mucb in
the
1970's
as in the prcvious
70
)'ettr!i
Each major world war costs about fi.vc
times as much in money as the previous
one. There has never been an arms race
in history such as we now have that
has not led to thc
me
of those stock–
pi led weapons.
The chances
historicttll)'
and
wn·entl)
are not as bright as we wish they werc.
Hopes for a man-made generation of
peace at prcsent appear to be mostly
"pie-in-the-sky" thougbts.
Ts
there a bcttcr, more effective way?
A Plan to Count On
"There is a plan,'' as Sir Winston
Churchill said, "being worked out here
below"
ll'hich u e can corml on.
This
plan, when wc understand it, promiscs
not one, but many gc:nerations of peace.
And peace that is
Sllre/
The success
of
this plan doesn't dcpend upon thc abili–
ties of mc::n
but upon the
e:o.iJt,
IICt
of a living God.
Articles bringing you advance knowl–
edge of this p lan appear on
a
regular
basis in TOMORROW'S WORLO magazine
- researchrd and edited by the Gradu–
ate School of Theology of Ambassador
College. lt's written in easy-to-under–
stand, straight-from-the-shouJder lan–
guage.
It
shows WHY a lasting man–
made peace is an utter imposs ibility -
and WHY, in spite of this, therc is still
good 11ettJ
ahead!
Over one half million now enjoy this
magazine monthly. You can too. Write
for your subscription toda
y
-
it's frce,
uf course ! O