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PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 9, 1984
ass�rt their common identity, and yet wisdom suggests a series of
small steps rather than any grand design. The anxiety is close
to the surface. The very duration of the missile deployments
[for the next five years] guarantees further troubles....
These fears and disagreements have made Western European
statesmen eager to revive the dormarit'"I.de"arc,f a more autonomous
Western European---aefense w°"'f'thin the alliance-:- -There is another
reason: The European Economic Community is bogged down in petty
discussions about money and milk, its institutions are paralyzed
and all its members� the need� take some initiative proving
that the ideal of� unitea"E:urope � not dead. But there remain
formidable obstacles to a common defense, especially in the
nuclear field.
The modernization of the French and British nuclear deterrents
wi11 add many warheads, but they remain national forces whose
capacity to deter Soviet attacks, especially conventional ones,
on the rest of Europe is dubious.... The creation of a common
nuclear deterrent for Western Europe would require not only a
dramatic French shift from national independence to collective
dec�sion-making but also� willingness to let� have not just
the right of veto but� finger� the nuclear trigger. No Western
European government, and especially not the West German one, �
ready for this.
Julian Critchley, a Conservative MP in Britain, and a vice-chairman of his
party's defense committee wrote the following in the February 27, 1984
issue of THE DAILY TELEGRAPH in an article entitled "As Atlantic Cousins
Drift Apart Will Defence Interests Go West?"
Tucked away inside "The Living Planet," the book of David
Attenborough's television series, is the statement that Europe
and America are drawing apart at the rate of "several centimetres
a year." This is, of course, a geological, not a political,
judgment and refers to the theory of continental drift, although
as much--or more--might well be said by political scientists.
It was only recently that Mr. Larry Eagleburger, the third
ranking official in the State Department, said to Congressmen in
Washington that what must happen is "a shift of the centre of
gravity of Unite�a�foreign policy from the transatlantic
relationship towards the Pacific basin and particularly Japan...
Are� really drifting apart?...
We in Europe have, on the one hand, long been terrified lest the
Americans go home and abandon
us:
on the other even more terri
fied lest they come to our aid and blow us up in the process....
We [Europeans] lack leadership.... But possibly the most
important speech has been that of President Mitterrand....
Speaking in the Hague earlier this month, he made it clear that
Europe cannot and should not break away from its American ally,
but he went on to point out that there are key problems in the
defence debate which are primarily Euro-centric.