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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 15, 1982
PAGE 7
The coming months will not rest easily upon the head of the new Soviet
leader. The simmering crisis in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland, will
not go away. Mr. Andropov will have to call upon all of his knowledge and
experience concerning that part of the Soviet Empire in order to deal with
the challenges to come.
Polish authorities have felt that the situation in their country is calm
enough so that they could release Lech Walesa, the former head of the banned
Solidarity labor union, from custody. But looming uneasily over the hori
zon is the return visit, next June, of Pope John Paul II to Poland. What
will happen in the wake of this event?
The biggest impact of the change of power could be upon events in Western
Europe. A tough, unresilient boss in the Kremlin could spur attempts on the
part of the nations of Western Europe to unite.
Leaders in Western Europe are beginning to get that "hemmed-in" feeling.
On the one side, the Soviet Union is determined to press ahead with its
military dominance and political leverage. On the other side, the conti
nental Europeans see the United States and Britain beginning to falter in
their commitments to the nuclear defense deterence of the West.
In America's off-year election on November 2, so-called "nuclear freeze"
propositions won in eight of the nine states where they were on the ballot.
Thus increased pressure is on President Reagan to slow down the improvement
of America's nuclear arsenal {upon which the defense of Western Europe de
pends) and to engage in hasty arms negotiations with the Soviets.
In
Britain the calls for nuclear disarmament within the ranks of the Labor
Party and the Church of England are growing by the week.
Thus, the switch in the political power at the top in the Soviet Union is
contributing to the eventual imperative of Western Europe to unite as a
separate, biblically-prophesied political, religious and military "third
superpower" in this end-time age.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau