by Herbert W. Armstrong

FEW SEEM to realize it. But when President Carter said recently the situation with Russia is more serious than at any time since World War II, he made the understatement of the century.

We are in fact, at the very brink of NUCLEAR WORLD WAR III! It is not going to happen – but let me tell you the situation the U.S. government has bungled its way into.

It is very evident that President Carter has never UNDERSTOOD Russian communist philosophy and basic point of view. All their thinking is from this viewpoint. It’s the place where their “camera” is set. They do not see things as we see them. They do not think as we think.

Let me give you a brief summary. I have said before that more than 50 years ago, I studied thoroughly a so-called “home study course” in communist philosophy and thinking. How could it have been available to me and not to a man who rose to become PRESIDENT?

It all began with two men, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They were citizens of Germany. They, even as I myself have, saw that this world’s governments and economic systems were wrong. But they did not really know GOD – they hatched an atheistic society – and they did not have UNDERSTANDING, as God has given me, of the BIBLE!

Their “camera” was set to view the world as MAN views it. They could discern much that was WRONG. But their “camera” was not focused on GOD, and they did not see GOD’S answers to this world’s evils.

So, as usually happens in human thinking shut off from God, they had a warped view. They envisioned a world of communism. They saw that the world’s religions were the “opium of the people,” so their minds saw no farther than to ABOLISH religion – not to seek the TRUE God and His teaching.

Then came along Vladimir Lenin, a Russian citizen, who had studied and accepted enthusiastically and even fanatically the atheistic ideas of Marx and Engels. Lenin turned those theoretical philosophies into a workable NEW form of GOVERNMENT, eliminating ownership of private property – all of which would be owned by the State (the Politburo group at the helm) – and eliminating religion. To accomplish such sweeping changes necessitated a CAMPAIGN OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, a most essential factor. The PEOPLE had to be induced by education to give up their property and their religion – the two things closest to their hearts.

Vladimir Lenin must be accounted to have possessed the qualities of GREATNESS (not holiness, which he abhorred) or RIGHTNESS! It was during World War I, in 1917, that Lenin led his band of fanatically dedicated men, including, originally, Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. The latter defected to South America.

It all started with an inner core, the original founders of the Communist Party.

Lenin’s idea was not to conquer the minds – that is, the pocketbooks and the hearts – of the Russian people alone, but those of the WHOLE WORLD.

As Jesus Christ is to rule the WHOLE WORLD at His now soon coming, Satan moved men of the human GREATNESS of men like Marx and Lenin to attempt to beat Christ to it!

Therefore, the Communist PARTY was formed, not merely as the one political party to be allowed in Russia — but an INTERNATIONAL PARTY active in all nations!

Before World War II the Communist Party in the United States was making great headway. They began infiltrating the colleges and universities. If they could not “convert” professors, they worked on students who would become teachers later. Thus they were recruiting TEACHERS to teach their doctrine all over the United States.

And don’t think they were overlooking Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and Germany where the idea was first hatched. They also sowed the seeds in China, and left it for the Chinese Communists, like Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) and present Vice Chairman Tan Zhen-lin, to organize a Chinese Communist Party and put the second of the three largest nations on earth under communism.

However, the Chinese communism is different, and Vice Chairman Tan told me it is the Russians who have departed from the original, pure communism. But you will see a very large statue of Lenin, along with the late Mao, in Peking (Beijing). Communism has also made big inroads in Southeast Asia. They almost took over both Singapore and Indonesia (fifth most populous nation), which just barely escaped communism only a few years ago.

The GOAL is to bring the WHOLE WORLD under communism. The Russians admit conditions in their country are not yet perfect – but they saw the real benefits of communism cannot be experienced and enjoyed until the whole world has become communist.

Now as to Russian Communist strategy. They admit they cannot conquer all nations without one final all-out military war. To them that is the LAST RESORT, but that is the primary reason for keeping the Soviet Union military strength at either No. 1 or No. 2 in the world.

Their first approach however is EDUCATION. It is not alone education in communism. It is, first, education on the EVILS of other systems (which are many). Second is on the advantages of communism.

Then comes guerrilla warfare. This was used in South Vietnam, and U.S. military forces were untrained and no match for that kind of war. AMERICA DID NOT WIN – she pulled out! The Communists have taken what American soldiers fought and died to protect! I wonder WHEN America will WAKE UP!

Among Communist teachings, which I read in the U.S. Communist Party study course (about 50 years ago), are that the END justifies any means. Communists are taught to lie, to misrepresent, to lie under oath, to use any pretense or deception to win a point.

YOU’D BE SURPRISED if you knew how many Russian Communists are kept as full-time spies in the United Nations building in New York! Or for that matter, even as full-time career diplomats in the State Department in Washington. The man who approved and issued my press pass at the San Francisco Conference in 1945, a leader in the State Department, was later tried for being a Communist agent.

So much for that brief sketch of the history and methods of Communism.

But WHAT NOW? In what manner are we sitting on a whole flock of smoking hydrogen bombs?

President Carter first put a grain embargo on Russia. Of course that hurt somewhat, but they expected that, and decided the results were worth it. Next he has virtually boycotted the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Russia this summer. Sure, that hurt too – but as I said before, they took that as a calculated risk. The United Nations passed a resolution against them. But they have felt the stakes are high enough to be worth it. Now the oil-rich Arab nations passed a resolution against them. But I can hear Mr. Brezhnev saying with a smile, “Well, how many divisions do the Arab nations have?”

Where the DANGER lies is this: President Carter has said that the Persian Gulf is an American VITAL INTEREST. He has threatened even military action if the Russians violate it by moving into the Persian Gulf.

Look at a map. Most all oil-producing Arab nations export their oil through the Persian Gulf! Whoever controls the Persian Gulf controls the world’s OIL!

Those stakes are pretty high! The Kremlin knows it! How far will they gamble?

Look at the record. Under President John Kennedy the United States used military force to BLOCKADE CUBA! Moscow knew that was only the first step. A President who dared do that was COMMITTED to go FARTHER if the Russians engaged U.S. blockading ships. And THAT would have been a war in the U.S. area of the world!

What have I always said? 1) The Russians DO NOT want a nuclear all-out war with the United States yet! So the Russians backed off, for, 2) they will back off in face of an equal or superior military force. THAT’S THE ONLY LANGUAGE THEY UNDERSTAND!

Recently in President Carter’s administration, it became known the Russians had armed military men in Cuba. Mr. Carter warned them – a sort of slap on the wrist. They only smiled and left their troops – and they are STILL THERE! There are other times recently when Mr. Carter has talked, and DONE NOTHING.

You may be sure the Russians are weighing all this carefully. IF they proceed now through Pakistan into the Persian Gulf, would the United States fight? Frankly I doubt it. In any war short of NUCLEAR power, we cannot match the Russians in the Persian Gulf – in their backyard!

Yet if the Russians do go ahead, the only kind of war we can match them in is ALL-OUT NUCLEAR WAR. The United States should start by blasting both Moscow and Leningrad with H-bombs! It would be that or the U.S. hangs her head in shame before the world.

WE ARE JUST THAT CLOSE THIS MINUTE TO A WAR THAT COULD ERASE ALL HUMAN LIFE FROM THIS PLANET. For no matter what the United States can do, the Soviet Union can rain nuclear bombs and destroy New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and many other cities in between!

WHAT WILL THE KREMLIN NOW DECIDE?

Knowing their policies as I do, I think they will simply stay where they are – make Afghanistan 100 percent solid – even withdraw some troops, and bide their time. As I said before, THEY ARE IN NO HURRY. They are not on a tight time schedule. But I DO NOT expect them to move all of their troops back out of Afghanistan!