Personal
from Herbert W. Armstrong

THE WORLD right now stands on the brink of the FINAL, NUCLEAR WAR! There has never yet been a NUCLEAR war! Do you grasp the gravity of the world situation at this minute?

World leaders all know the probability that a nuclear war between the United States and Russia can very likely ERASE ALL MANKIND FROM THE EARTH! It means the END of human existence!

Where is this world at the moment – as I write, February 1, 1980? For more than 90 days the United States has been so absorbed with the plight of the 50 hostages in Iran, the government has not realized that the REAL DANGER has been Russia all the time. Of course the REAL DANGER is something else of which the Washington politicians are still unaware. Yet it is now MOVING!

President Carter warned the Soviets against invading Afghanistan. He called Leonid Brezhnev personally on the HOT LINE! Mr. Brezhnev considered Mr. Carter to be a weak President who would do nothing. Soviet troops, up to 100,000, poured into Afghanistan.

Mr. Carter began to do something. He put into effect a grain embargo against Russia. He threatened to boycott the Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Moscow this summer. To the Russians these games are a big government project. All other countries may enter only AMATEUR athletes. In Russia the system is different. The government runs EVERYTHING, even athletics. Though the Soviets call their athletes amateurs, they are actually in government employ and in real fact are PROS! Then Mr. Carter set a deadline for boycotting the Olympic Games – February 20. But even the AAU has approved the boycott, and it is now a certainty.

Washington has gotten a resolution through the United Nations against Russia. But they laugh at that wrist-slap. Nothing but equal or stronger MILITARY FORCE speaks their language! Sanctions, resolutions – they laugh at them!

But now Mr. Carter has said that entrance of the Soviet military forces into the Persian Gulf means war!

Now WAIT A MINUTE! Mr. Brezhnev and his fellows at the Kremlin will THINK THAT ONE OVER! So must Mr. Carter’s administration!

1) The United States does not want to fight a nuclear war with Russia. Russia does not want to fight a nuclear war with the United States. They could destroy each other!

2) The United States does not have the conventional nonnuclear military ability to fight Russia in her own backyard – the Persian Gulf – so far from the United States. American forces would either LOSE or be forced to turn such war into a NUCLEAR war! The Kremlin, of course, knows that also.

3) President Carter has DRAWN THE LINE. If the Soviet crosses it – it is WAR! (Or else a TOTAL loss of face and prestige in the world for the United States.) Now what will the Soviets DO? It’s their move! Will they decide Mr. Carter is too weak to back up his threat of WAR, and decide they may go ahead and get away with it? I do not think so. I think that is a chance the Kremlin will not take. I think, as I wrote before, the Russian Bear will slow down its pace, go ahead and make its intervention in Afghanistan solid and complete, perhaps even withdrawing some troops, and also keep poised, READY to invade Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, or France, AS A threat in a stepped-up WAR OF NERVES!

Now the IMPORTANT consideration is WHAT IS HAPPENING IN EUROPE?

The President has sent two high emissaries to try to swing European nations (NATO members) over to the U.S. side – to boycott the Olympics and refuse to sell Russia grain. These two emissaries have met a very cold shoulder – except in Britain. Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, prime minister, has said: “We are WITH you. We stand together with you!” to the United States.

But, for example, how does Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Bonn look at the picture? Russian forces are right at his eastern border, and more being massed there. They could cross over in massive force within 30 minutes with no notice! West Germany, along with other European nations, has no military force capable of defending against such Russian attack. The European nations have relied on U.S. military might to PROTECT THEM from the Russians who are right at their eastern frontier, and now massing heavy troops there! It seems NATO has about fallen into discard.

Mr. Schmidt has taken a course that is humiliating for a German who fought in Hitler’s army to take. He is unwilling to stand up with the United States against Russia if Soviet forces cross President Carter’s line at the Persian Gulf.

The same attitude is taken in France, Italy, Austria and Belgium. But as I said, that is a humiliating stand for European leaders to take. They take it because in this chess power play Russia has massed forces threatening West European nations, as well as threatening to enter and control the Persian Gulf. And the Persian Gulf control would give the Russians CONTROL OF MOST OF THE WORLD’S OIL!

Now do not for a moment suppose that West European leaders are going to take this humiliating stand, refusing to line up against Russia, without countermeasures!

You may be sure the West European leaders are conferring hurriedly and secretly about how and how soon they may UNITE and provide a united EUROPEAN MILITARY FORCE so they can DEFEND THEMSELVES! And so they will no longer have to give in meekly to Russia! And WHO WILL THEY BLAME for their humiliation and their necessity NOW to have a UNITED EUROPE, with a united GOVERNMENT, a COMMON CURRENCY, and a COMMON MILITARY FORCE AS GREAT OR GREATER THAN EITHER THE U.S.S.R. OR THE U.S.A.? They will blame the United States!

And when they are strong enough to assert themselves, Bible prophecy reveals a man will rise to take the helm in Europe and will first attack Britain for standing firm with the United States, and then they will return a lot of hydrogen bombs the U.S. has stored now in Europe!

SO SAYS ALMIGHTY GOD IN HIS WORD! They can unite ONLY through the Vatican. It will be a CHURCH-STATE union. It won’t last long, but will create HAVOC unprecedented!