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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, August 29, 1980
Page 19
tankers based on the convenient Iberian peninsula. Instead they were
refueled from bases 1,000 miles to the north in England. Reporters Evans
and Novak, who brought the incident to light in one of their syndicated
columns in late July, said "such is the bitter fruit of declining world
power."
Reduced U.S. power and prestige, added Evans and Novak, means constantly
shrinking landing rights on the territory of traditional U.S. allies.
Moving men and weapons to future trouble spots, therefore, puts the focus
on long-range airlift more than ever before, such as the need to create
a long
-'-
haul "quick reaction" capability for the �1iddle East.
Because the Arab world bitterly opposes the U.S.-engineered Camp David
separate peace between Egypt and Israel, neither Spain nor Portugal was
apparently willing to risk affronting its Arab friends by helping Wash
ington. Yet, in supplying Israel during the 1973 Yorn Kippur war, the
U.S. refueled its air transports in the Portuguese Azores. "The differ
ence between 1973 and 1980 is eight years of decline," noted Evans and
Novak.
Ideally, the Air Force should again have been able to use the
base (about 1,000 miles out in the Atlantic from the coast of
But delicate negotiations are underway between Washington and
over future American base rights in these strategic islands.
Carter decided these talks were too sensitive to risk asking
rights for the Cairo airlift.
Azores
Portugal).
Lisbon
President
landing
"When both Iberian countries rejected the routine request to refuel the
airlift by tankers flown from their territory," said Evans/Novak, "the
State and the Defense Departments were surprised, to put it mildly.
Never before had there been such a turn down; never before had bases
far to the north in England had to be used to refuel strategic airlift
in the South Atlantic."
"This sorry episode," said the two reporters, indicates "the reality of
the shrunken American eagle."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau