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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91123
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
President and Pastor
August 21, 1975
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ:
It keeps on happening -- at accelerating pace! Another head
of state -- President Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh -- whom I have
recently visited, was slain last Friday morning at pre-dawn, in
a military coup.
Bangladesh is, politically, a new country. It emerged from
the very recent Pakistani war as probably the most poverty-
stricken and illiterate nation on earth. I learned while there
that during the last three or four days of the war, the enemy
sought out all the leaders and people of education they could
corral together, and executed them before firing squads -- so as
to leave the country almost destitute of educated people for
leadership.
President Rahman had been confined in the enemy jail as a
political prisoner. On release, he was acclaimed as a great
hero, and took over the lead of the nation. He was a "rough-and-
ready" type of man, yet I was much impressed with his abilities,
and told him so.
Governments are being overthrown at the rate of one a month
around the world now. In many cases these overthrows have
involved either men I knew, or circumstances in which I had some
indirect contact. When men I have known personally, like this,
are being mowed down in government violence, it strikes home. It
makes me realize the TIMES we are living in -- how CLOSE we are,
now, to the END OF THIS WORLD (OR AGE).
Such government overthrows have prevented my planned campaigns
in South Vietnam, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Chile. I have said
before, we must move from now on as swiftly as possible, for
nations are being continually overthrown where we have made
progress in planning campaigns.
The world picture right now is in a sort of paradox. On the
one hand, conditions of violence are worse than ever. But on
the other, the general economic worldwide recession seems to have
turned the corner. Economic conditions in the United States are
looking up for a gradual upswing, which I hope and pray will help
you co-workers.
In this Work of the living GOD, the new Foundation (the
Ambassador International Cultural Foundation -- AICF) is making
a sensational start. Several prominent members of the Japanese
Diet (their Congress) are coming to Pasadena for an important
meeting here next Wednesday night. I shall be leaving the next