Founder's Address:

Freedom, Family and Faith: The Role of the Media in the 21st Century

 

Rev. Sun Myung Moon

 

20th Anniversary of the Washington Times Banquet
Hilton Washington Hotel, International Ballroom
Washington, DC

 
May 21, 2002

 

Distinguished guests from the United States and around the world, parliamentarians and other leaders on the invitation committee, dear staff of The Washington Times, ladies and gentlemen. I deeply appreciate your taking time from your busy schedules to attend this gathering.

We are gathered for the meaningful purposes to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Washington Times and to look back on the historical role the Times played during the rapid changes of the previous century. During these two decades The Times has grown in dedication and distinction to become one of the most influential and significant newspapers in the world today. Its reputation for integrity and truthful reporting is unmatched. When I first announced the founding of The Washington Times in 1982, many people in America ridiculed me. Some critics predicted that The Times would only become a mouthpiece for the Unification Church, or end up as a weekly newspaper read by almost no one. Others said that even if the newspaper maintained acceptable quality, it would run out of funds in only six months.

Yet year after year, for these past 20 years, The Times has steadily grown stronger and improved in its quality. The Washington Times has become one of the world's most-quoted newspapers. It regularly scoops other major news media. The newspaper's vast collection of award-winning news stories, editorial and opinion columns, illustrations, and photographs is testimony to the highest standards of journalism. First, I wish to thank God for bringing us successfully through these twenty years of accomplishment. I also wish to offer my praise to all the employees of The Washington Times for their hard work and dedication. It is through their efforts that the newspaper has achieved its well-deserved reputation for distinction in reporting and excellence. Let's give them all a big round of applause.

I would like to take a moment to explain my reasons for establishing the The Washington Times two decades ago. It was not for my own personal interest or to promote the interests of any other organization. In fact, my decision to launch The Washington Times came while I was facing trial in New York City on federal tax charges. I could have felt resentment and anger toward the United States for bringing malicious charges against me. But instead, I endeavored to serve and love this nation. Instead of seeking revenge, I turned around and tried to help save the destiny of this nation. I founded The Washington Times as an expression of my love for America and to fulfill the Will of God, who seeks to establish America in His Providence.

During the Cold War, God placed America in a position to protect worldwide freedom by blocking the attempt by communism to gain world domination. When the Washington Star closed down in 1981, this nation's capital was left with only one newspaper, the Washington Post. This meant that the capital of the Free World had a limited perspective on news, issues, and policy, which ignored the danger of communism and its threat to the entire world at that time. In the context of God's Will, there needed to be a newspaper that had the philosophical and ideological foundation to encourage and enlighten the people and leaders of America. For months, I waited with the hope that some patriotic Americans would start a newspaper in Washington to provide an alternative voice to the Post. But when it became clear that no one would do so, I decided we had to do it. Ronald Reagan had been elected president in a landslide vote. Yet while he tried to maintain a strong stand against communist expansion, there was much confusion in Washington over what America's proper response to the Soviet threat should be. The Washington Times provided leadership through thoughtful commentary and objective news and information to make clear the harsh reality of communist tyranny.

The Washington Times editorials and columns supported the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) at a time when many were trying to block this critical development. Years later, former Soviet officials admitted that it was America's determination to develop SDI that fatally weakened the resolve of the Soviet leaders. Finally, in 1989 the Berlin Wall was torn down and on Christmas Eve 1991 the Soviet empire collapsed after having held the world in fear for 74 years. I thank God that the Free World prevailed in this historical struggle, which truly was an ideological battle over acknowledging God or not. It is the principle that God works His will on Earth through human beings. I do not have the slightest doubt that God used The Washington Times to help bring an end to the most pernicious worldwide dictatorship in history and gave freedom to tens of millions of people!

In the 1980s, the Contras in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and other countries were fighting for their lives against the communist Sandinistas who were seeking to seize control of their countries, slaughtering thousands of people. While other media failed to recognize the seriousness of the situation, The Washington Times emphasized through its stories and columns the dangers of communist expansion in the hemisphere and why the freedom fighters should be supported. Once again, The Times' news and information helped the leaders in Washington stay strong in their support for the Contras. Today, many people thank God and The Washington Times for the fact that freedom and democracy are alive and well in Central America!

The mission of The Washington Times, however, was not finished with the end of the Cold War. The fall of communism did not automatically lead to world peace. Nor did it mean that the ideal society that God desires would establish itself without any further effort on our part. Accordingly, during The Washington Times' second decade it had to rise to a new challenge - that of the "Cultural War," or the fight against the degradation of values.

God desired that America maintain its traditional family and moral values, which had fallen into confusion. Secular humanism and extreme individualism and selfishness were on the rise. As a result of these, money and material goods have become "gods" to people in terms of their values. This has led to the decline of religion and the rise of secular humanism, which have led to the breakdown of families and juvenile delinquency.

We see evidence of this epidemic everywhere, especially among our youth: the AIDS epidemic, increased alcoholism and drug use among young people, teen pregnancies and even murders in the schools. These are all symptoms that our society is still very distant from God.

Thus, ten years ago, at the 10th anniversary celebration for The Times, I defined another mission for the media. This is, that the media need to promote ethics and moral values in our society. For its second ten years, I envisioned for The Washington Times the task of contributing to bringing about a moral society. Because a peaceful world is only possible based on the existence of peaceful, ideal families, The Times became a newspaper that helped people understand the importance of strong moral, family values. Even before the term "family values" became a popular phrase, every day of the week The Times was publishing articles highlighting the breakdown in values and what must be done to return to a good, moral society based on family values. The newspaper even began publishing a weekly Family Times section devoted to these issues. Today, family values have become an essential piece of the social fabric in America, even becoming part of the political landscape. We can be proud of The Washington Times' contribution that promoted and elevated family values to an essential part of society in America and the world!

The first decade of The Washington Times was marked by its fight for freedom around the world in the midst of the Cold War. The second decade was marked by the Cultural War and the emphasis on building families infused with strong moral values. Now, as we enter the third decade of The Washington Times, this is the time to emphasize and support faith, the time to emphasize and support spiritual values that are based on the faith of each individual. We must all understand clearly about God and the spiritual aspect of human life. Freedom at the world level, moral and ethical values at the family level, and faith at the individual level. These are the three great imperatives for our lives and for the media as well.

Freedom, family values, and faith are America's most fundamental spiritual virtues. The reason The Washington Times is called "America's newspaper" is that it leads the way in putting America's philosophical tradition into practice. Of course, the phrase "America's newspaper" does not mean that The Times serves only America for its own sake. Instead, it serves America as a country that offers itself in service to the world and all humanity.

Our lives are not just eighty or one hundred years on this Earth. We are born into this world through our physical parents, but we must know that ultimately God is our Parent. And after we die in this world, we continue to live in the world of the spirit. Is there any person on this Earth who can avoid going into the spirit world when they die? No matter how much money, knowledge or power he or she accumulated on Earth, everyone is destined to go into the spirit world eventually. You may have made great efforts on the Earth to accumulate money, knowledge or power, but these will not guarantee your happiness in the spirit world. You would do well to invest effort to learn about spirit world now, since God and the spirit world are at the roots of our eternal lives. In this sense, the spirit world is our hometown. How can anyone claim to be a true man or a true woman if he or she does not know God and the spirit world?

This is the time when each one of us can set his or her faith compass to God. This is not just Reverend Moon's teaching, it is the providence of God. As the third component of freedom, family and faith, this individual connection to God stems from the same root as America's founding tradition. I hope that each of you will also take up this mission of the media as your own and accept faith as the essential part of your character.

We live in an age marked externally by an explosive increase in the quantity of information. The world is overflowing with information. The development of digital communications technologies has produced a sea of information. In the past, it was difficult to get news from out of the way sources. But now there has been a revolutionary change and people can be overwhelmed with the amount of news from all around the world. It the midst of this quantity, there needs to be responsibility for the quality of people's lives. While the media can provide all the facts, they also have the responsibility to provide values to prevent confusion and to provide leadership and direction, especially today when the entire world is flooded with news and information. The Washington Times and its affiliated media properties are taking a leading role in this regard.

At the same time as the miraculous growth of The Washington Times daily newspaper over the past twenty years, other media properties have also shown spectacular development. These include the National Weekly Edition, which is distributed to subscribers in all 50 states, presenting the best from The Times daily paper. We also have Tiempos del Mundo, the Spanish language weekly newspaper now published in 18 major cities in 16 countries throughout the hemisphere. Of course, there are sister newspapers in Seoul and New York, the Segye Ilbo, and in Tokyo, Sekai Nippo. The Middle East Times presents news and information concerning that increasingly important region of the world.

Among the magazines, there are Insight, World & I, and Washington Golf Monthly. The Washington Times Internet site is also among the most popular newspaper Web sites in the country, attracting hundreds of thousands of people each week who read more than eighteen million pages of news, opinion, and commentary every month. This is well coordinated with the telecommunications industry, including cable television operations, Potomac Television, Atlantic Video, and the Good Life cable TV that is delivered to viewers in all 50 states.

The newest member of our media family is one of the oldest privately held news services in the world. United Press International, with almost a hundred years of continuous operation, provides news all throughout the world. UPI will soon unveil a major technology breakthrough. It will have the ability through an aggregated database to collect stories from all our media properties and sort them and distribute them based on content and topic to subscribers around the world.

This new era of media, with the massive distribution of news and information, requires leadership and clear guidance for the betterment of individuals based on values and on the knowledge of God and spirit world. The Washington Times and our family of media have been providing this direction for the past two decades and will continue to do so into our third decade. My hope is that each one of you as well will embody the qualities of defending freedom, promoting family values, and strengthening your faith in God so that you may become leaders of the world.

God bless you and your families, and may God bless The Washington Times.

 

 

Part II

 

Reagan and the fight for freedom

President, paper wage war on communism

 

 Article published in:

 TWO DECADES of dedication & distinction

Chronicling the first 20 years of The Washington Times.

Published in conjunction with Regnery Publishing.  2002.  pps. 51-55

 

When Ronald Reagan rejected Mikhail Gorbachev’s demand that the United States abandon the Strategic Defense Initiative and walked out of the October 1986 summit at Reykjavik, Iceland, The Washington Times praised the president for “hanging tough” on SDI. 

“At Reykjavik, Mr. Reagan talked softly and carried SDI, a big stick indeed,” observed The Times in a lead editorial.  “Bully for him.”  But, The Times warned, appeasers demanding U.S. disarmament would blame the president for furthering the Cold War in the face of Soviet nuclear concessions, such as they were. 

“Now the hard part begins.  Since the Soviets have failed to kill SDI at the summit, we may reasonably expect a propaganda barrage of enormous intensity,” The Times said.  Reagan “easily can turn the tables” by going to the American people to tell them, “as his advisers recently told him, that critical SDI components can be in place within a few years.” 

Sure enough, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and The Washington Post all took a different take, blaming Reagan for refueling Cold War tensions. 

“The summit failed and it was Star Wars’ fault,” the Los Angeles Times said, using pundits’early pejorative nickname for SDI.  Reagan threw away a chance for dramatic reduction in Euromissiles on both Soviet and U.S. sides for a missle-proof shield that “most scientists doubt . . . can be built in less than a generation, if ever, and then only at a cost of billions of dollars.” 

The New York Times praised the Soviets for promising to give up nuclear missiles in Europe and to cut arsenals by half over five years, questioning Reagan’s refusal to accept the deal in exchange for giving up SDI.  “Is there any arms control proposal that would induce him to accept real restraints on Star Wars?”  asked the “other Times,” the leading voice of the liberal establishment. 

The Post expressed similar bewilderment, praising Gorbachev’s “breathtaking arms control payment for [an end to] SDI,” questioning Reagan’s more far-reaching disarmament offer – complete elimination of nuclear arms by both sides – calling it his “no offense” plan.  “It is not clear Mr. Reagan had full advice and consent for his far-reaching ideas on no-offense – ideas which are extremely controversial inside both the American government and the Atlantic Alliance.” 

Among leading newspapers, The Washington Times was almost alone in praising Reagan editorially.  Looking back, many analysts agree Reagan’s unwavering stand on SDI was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. 

Edwin Meeese, chief White House policy adviser in the first Reagan administration and attorney general in the second, says The Times arguably was the single most important newspaper in the president’s corner as he encouraged the halt of Soviet military expansionism and the breakup of what he memorably called the Evil Empire. 

The Times made a difference, Meese says today, in its “accurate portrayal of administration policies to prevent further Soviet aggression and to roll back communism expansion by supporting freedom fighters in Poland, Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua and Grenada.” 

The support of the newspaper, as expressed on its editorial page, “was extremely valuable to the president and to those who followed his lead,” says Meese, now the Ronald Reagan distinguished fellow in public policy at the Heritage Foundation. 

Editorials and commentary in The Times backed Reagan as he pushed for aid to the rebel Contras in Nicaragua and the toppling of the Marxist Sandinista regime there; aid to El Salvador while it was under siege by Soviet-backed leftist guerrillas; support for the Solidarity movement in Poland and the anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan; economic warfare against Moscow and development of SDI. 

Rep. David Dreier of California, the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee, recalls that The Times’ “extraordinary coverage of Central America in the 1980’s especially in Nicaragua and El Salvador, gave us in Congress the encouragement we needed to help the Contras win the war” against the communist government in Nicaragua and the threat of exporting communism to El Salvador. 

“The paper had numerous stories that gave fair and balanced coverage to the democratic resistance to communism in Central America that, along with strong editorial support in the paper, bolstered us,” Dreier says. 

The liberal establishment and its media organs – particularly the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and the TV networks – roundly attacked the president for nearly every move he made under what came to be known as the Reagan Doctrine. 

“The Times found its editorial voice during the Reagan administration, and it brought a different perspective to Washington at a moment which turned out to be critical in the history of humanity,” says Sen. Phil Gramm,  the Texas Republican.  “In fact, The Times was never so persuasive as when it was making the case for freedom, and in the end, the Soviet empire collapsed when a tide of freedom swept across Eastern Europe.  Did the Times help tear down the Berlin Wall and spread freedom to millions?  You bet it did.” 

Defense buildup 

When Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died in November 1982, The Times noted that during his 18-year control of the Kremlin, “the U.S.S.R. conspicuously bypassed the United States in nuclear strike capacity and in conventional weapons, particularly submarines.” 

Editorials, as well as opinion columns on the Commentary pages, made a strong case for building naval forces and questioned whether Reagan’s initial 10 percent spending increase for defense was enough to counter the Soviets’ potent submarine capability. 

The newspaper was practically alone backing Reagan’s belief that the Soviet economy was incapable of supporting a continuing arms race and that, to secure disarmament, Washington must push Moscow toward bankruptcy by deploying a dazzling array of new weapons systems.  His goals included a 600-ship Navy, heavy funding for military research and development, and such weapons as the B-1 bomber, radar-invisible Stealth aircraft, Trident submarines and MX, cruise and intermediate-range missiles. 

The Times strongly supported Reagan’s first-term call for continued congressional backing for the MX missile system, which Democratic leaders tried to send to the junkyard.  The tide started turning in the president’s favor Aug. 31, 1983, when Soviet fighter planes shot down an unarmed passenger airliner, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, over Sakhalin island north of Japan, killing all 269 aboard.  An American congressman, Larry McDonald of Georgia, a Republican, was among the 25 American dead. 

A front-page analysis in The Times of the global repercussions from the KAL shootdown concluded: “For one day in Washington, there was rare agreement as a far-away disaster lent an uncommon aura of common purpose: For one day, almost nobody wanted to talk of U.S.-Soviet cooperation.  Everyone wanted to know why the Soviets had done it, and to figure out what the United States could do about it.” 

In ensuing weeks and months, the front page of The Times brimmed with the fallout.  The parliaments of Great Britain, Italy and West Germany promptly reaffirmed their intent to deploy Pershing II and Tomahawk cruise missiles in Europe.  The Times bannered U.S. deployment of the first 572 nuclear cruise and Pershing II missiles to Europe in November 1983 while offering editorial support for the move, crafted by Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 

Then the Soviets walked out of talks in Geneva on reducing intermediate-range nuclear missiles and, two weeks later, pulled out of START talks on decreasing long-range missiles.  Editorials in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers decried the U.S. missile buildup as a hindrance to world peace. 

How wrong history proved they were.  History proved the Reagan-Thatcher policies to be precisely what the two leaders and their advisers said they knew to be true: Moscow would be led into spending billions of rubles to maintain military dominance of Eastern Europe and its strategic position throughout the world, and the Soviet Union would be driven into bankruptcy as the U.S. economy grew through Reagan’s tax cuts and free-market trade policies. 

In a key House action on May 17, 1984, the second anniversary of The Times, the MX program narrowly survived a 218-212 vote.  And before Reagan’s eight years in office ended in January 1989, the U.S. arsenal increased by 3,000 combat aircraft, 3,700 strategic missiles and 10,000 tanks. 

Nicaragua 

Georgie Anne Geyer, a foreign correspondent with good sources whose syndicated column appears in The Times, made a solid case in 1983 that the resistance to the pro-Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua was broadly based.  The Contras weren’t made up only of “Somocistas,” or followers of former dictator Anastasio Somoza, she wrote, but included many former Sandinistas such as Eden Pastora as well as followers of the widely admired anti-Somoza editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro. 

Congress in 1981 and 1982 had approved $19 million a year in covert aid to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.  Despite howls of protest from the New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, which led a loud media chorus, Congress approved Reagan’s request for $24 million in aid through mid-1984.  But the lawmakers cut off the aid in protest of the administration’s role in overseeing the mining of Nicaraguan harbors to block Soviet and Cuban military assistance to the Sandinistas. 

When Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega traveled to Moscow seeking $200 million in aid, The Washington Times disclosed the presence of Soviet combat advisers in Nicaragua.  Arnaud de Borchgrave, the new editor in chief, with a bow to newspaper custom of a century earlier, announced on May 6, 1985, in a signed editorial on Page One: “The Washington Times will form a nonprofit, public corporation, assuming no legal prohibitions, to raise funds for Nicaragua’s freedom fighters.  To start this fund, The Washington Times will make a $100,000 contribution.  Freedom must be supported, just as the French support of the American revolution made this country possible.” 

A month later, Congress reversed itself and voted $27 million in non-lethal aid to the Contras while lifting most restrictions on CIA actions in the rebels’ behalf.  The turn-around was a historic breakthrough for Nicaragua’s return to democracy. 

Even the Los Angeles Times noted the key role of exclusive disclosures in The Washington Times: “The Washington Times was the first with administration reports that Soviet combat advisers had been spotted alongside Nicaraguan troops in areas of Contra activity.  It was also the first to publish allegations that House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill, Massachusetts Democrat, had deliberately manipulated the date of a vote on aid to the Contras in order to block the proposal.” 

Despite continued anti-Contra clamoring by many news organizations, Congress in 1986 approved another $100 million in aid.  The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations vetoed a Soviet-promoted Security Council resolution upholding a World Court decision to ban such U.S. aid. 

The Washington Post pleaded with the Senate to block the aid.  The Washington Times took the opposite view in an editorial: “Now it’s up to the Senate.  … Over the past months, we have used up a sizable pile of newsprint on these pages, urging aid to the Nicaraguan resistance forces.”  The Senate voted 54-46 to approve the aid. 

Over the next two years, The Times criticized Reagan for lack of vigor in pressuring the Sandinista regime to keep its word to hold free elections, and in persuading Congress to provide more Contra aid.  In August 1987, Wesley Pruden warned in “Pruden on Politics”: “He could be remembered best as the president who lost Central America.” 

In an editorial headlined “Reagan’s last stand,” The Times reminded the president that although he had wasted an opportunity to build enduring support for Nicaraguan freedom fighters, another chance presented itself with disclosure in The Times on its news pages that the Sandinistas planned to double the size of Nicaragua’s army with massive increases in Soviet aid. 

The revelation “proved again that the Sandinistas are a determined communist force,” The Times said, urging the president to make “a forceful address to the nation” to win passage of another multimillion-dollar Contra aid package.  Reagan blitzed Congress with a campaign for $8.1 million in emergency aid, which the lawmakers passed in a rare Sunday session on Dec. 20, 1987. 

A media offensive two months later produced a 219-211 defeat of further aid.  But the president waged another strong campaign, again with editorial support in The Times, and won a resounding 345-70 vote in the House for $48 million in humanitarian aid. 

“Seldom has there been an international issue more distorted by the nation’s press than what the Marxist government in Nicaragua was doing, and what freedom fighters were doing to counter it there,” Meese recalls. 

But of the role of The Times, he says: “The paper accurately reported the conduct of Congress in its ambivalent position of attempting to thwart Reagan administration efforts to assist Nicaraguan freedom fighters and at the same time to try to avoid blame if nations in Central and South America fell to communism.” 

In February 1989, The Times reminded a wavering President Bush that he had sought the White House on a pledge to remain true to the Contras, and should not give in to Sandinista proposals.   Just hours before Ortega went on Nicaraguan television to rejoice in the defeat of resistance troops, Bush announced he would seek humanitarian aid for the U.S.-backed forces.  The Sandinistas succumbed within a year to long-awaited elections, in which more than 55 percent of voters chose to throw them out of office. 

The Bush administration cemented the victory with $300 million in emergency aid for the new democratic government.  The United States lifted economic sanctions to help jumpstart Nicaragua’s war-ravaged economy. 

El Salvador 

The Times was equally resolute during El Salvador’s decade-long resistance against a Soviet- and Cuban-backed insurgency by communist guerrillas.  The guerrillas eventually gave up in January 1992 and signed a peace accord with the democratically elected government to end the bloodiest civil war in recent Central American history. 

Early in the first Reagan administration, editorials as well as commentary by authorities on Central America opposed the State Department’s “two-track policy” for El Salvador.  That is, continued support for the Magana government while opening negotiations with the guerillas who were trying to overturn the government. 

The Times editorialized: “It’s surrender. … Negotiations, which the guerrillas have been unable to command by military means, will cancel out [U.S. support] and give the country to the guerrillas.”  The newspaper urged Secretary of State George P. Shultz to hold a firm course following the Reagan Doctrine. 

Georgie Ann Geyer kept readers abreast of the struggle between communist and democratic forces in Central America.  A review of her columns throughout the decade shows she held U.S. foreign-policy makers accountable as they inclined to give in to leftist demands for appeasement of Soviet- and Cuban-backed Marxist revolutionaries. 

Poland and Afghanistan 

As the United States rebuffed Soviet expansionism in its own hemisphere, the growth of the Solidarity movement in Poland and Moscow’s failing invasion of Afghanistan spelled the undoing of the Soviet grip on Eastern Europe.  The Times chronicled the burgeoning political and cultural underground in Poland as Soviet occupation forces took heavy losses at the hands of Afghan guerrillas. 

Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Poland and endorsement of Solidarity on June 12, 1987, was cataclysmic.  However, another exclusive broken by The Times that Friday pushed the pope off the front page.  The headline announced a more profound blow for freedom, even before the event: “Reagan to Moscow: Tear down the Wall.” 

The Times had obtained an early draft of Reagan’s now-famous speech in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, before the White House distributed embargoed copies to the press.  At the time, the newspaper did not publish a Saturday edition, when the president’s remarks were to be reported by the rest of the media; since it had obtained the draft of the speech from unofficial sources the editors did not feel bound by the embargo, and published the first word of Reagan’s dramatic challenge to Gorbachev. 

Reagan’s ultimatum to his Soviet counterpart thus was available first to readers of The Times: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” 

Vice President George Bush, in a televised speech, urged Poles to win their freedom from Soviet control.  Two months later, millions of Poles, for the first time in 41 years, voted for economic and political reforms that spelled a stunning repudiation of communism and election of a pro-capitalist Solidarity government. 

As the successes of the Afghan resistance mounted in 1988 and 1989, The Times took Shultz to task for persuading the president to agree to the continued presence of Soviet “advisers” even after Moscow had capitulated the previous year, by signing a treaty to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan. 

The last contingent left Feb. 15, 1989, in a humiliating retreat that signaled the end of Soviet hegemony throughout Eastern Europe.  The Berlin Wall, the firm and fast monument dividing free society from slave state for 28 years, was opened the following November.   The ride was a fast one from there on. 

Soviet breakup 

Democratic opposition to the Soviet dictatorship in Russia had gained a serious foothold.  Boris Yestsin, Communist Party secretary in Moscow, was sacked in late 1987 for openly criticizing the slow pace of Gorbachev’s economic reforms. 

Yeltsin quickly became leader of the democratic movement that achieved, in March 1989, the first multi-candidate parliamentary elections in the Soviet Union since 1917, winning an at-large seat.  This turning point would force the Communist Party to give up its monopoly and allow competing parties a year later.

Tony Snow, now Sunday anchor for Fox News Channel, was editor of the editorial page of The Times when the Soviet empire began to split apart.  Snow chronicled the visits of conservative American economists to Moscow to tutor Gorbachev and his communist minions in the practical workings and benefits of private property ownership as well as a gold standard for the ruble to create a valid currency. 

Gorbachev’s tutors included several regular columnists for The Times: Robert B. Zoellick, who would become U.S. trade representative for the second President Bush; Paul Craig Roberts, an assistant Treasury secretary under Reagan; and Jude Wanniski, author of the “supply-side” economics theory advanced by Jack Kemp. 

“Mikhail Gorbachev may be the most valuable capitalist tool since Adam Smith,” Snow wrote in The Times in October 1989.  “Although his program to revive the Soviet economy has failed, perestroika has restored the profession of economics in the United States.  The Soviets, thirsty for secrets about how to produce wealth and keep a restive public peaceful, have wooed conservative American economists in hopes of learning something, anything.” 

The Times followed the political and economic tutoring of Yeltsin by other U.S. experts and occasional contributors to the Commentary pages of The Times: Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation, Richard Rahn of the U.S. Chamber of Congress and Sen. Bob Kasten, Wisconsin Republican, whose plan for precinct-level political organizing taught Yeltsin how to win elections at the grass roots. 

The stunning pace of the Soviet move toward democracy was big news in 1990 and 1991.  The republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia all declared independence.  President Bush and Gorbachev signed a trade treaty and nuclear pact in Washington as the Soviet leader proposed a 500-day economic reform plan.  But Yeltsin, who had quit the Communist Party, was elected Russia’s president by popular vote in June 1991. 

By some accounts, political Washington, which is just about all of Washington, witnessed a confluence of two revolutions in the 1980’s. 

“It’s no coincidence that the Reagan Revolution and The Washington Times came into being at relatively the same time,” says Jack Kemp, who was housing and urban development secretary in the Reagan administration.  “The Times in a very short period became not only widely circulated and even more widely mentioned, but its influence on the course of events here and around the world has been unparalleled.  The steady flow of information from The Times’ news pages and its editorial positions made it possible for the conservative cause and what I would call the ‘progressive conservative’ cause – which is conservatism with a reform agenda attached – to achieve one of the great victories of the last century.” 

Reagan himself paid tribute to news coverage and opinion columns in The Times on the occasion of the newspaper’s 10^th anniversary in May 1992, three years and four months after he left the White House.  “The American people know the truth,” the Gipper said in a videotaped message from his ranch outside Santa Barbara.  “You, my friends at The Washington Times, have told it to them.  It wasn’t always the popular thing to do.  But you were a loud and powerful voice.” 

Reagan praised The Times as a partner in his efforts to extend freedom, democracy and peace throughout the world: “Like me, you arrived in Washington at the beginning of the most momentous decade of the century.  Together, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.  And, oh yes: We won the Cold War.”

“The impact of  The Washington Times shows up every day, in that The Washington Post isn’t allowed to say things that go unchallenged.  Every time The Post covers something, it knows The Times will have a story that isn’t written from a left viewpoint and is more centrist, and therefore The Post can’t just quote liberals and not conservatives.” – Grover Norquist, Republican activist.

 

Part III

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 

Excerpt from his sermon:

Today in the Light of Dispensational History

February 23, 1977
New York, New York

 

If anybody wants to talk about human rights, then he must become a strong anti-communist, because nothing in history has violated human rights more than communism. Among communists, the phrase "human rights" has no meaning because communists deny even the right to live. To them, human life is as worthless as the life of an insect.

Human rights are important; we must preserve human rights. However, the right to live is even more important. We must secure the right to live for all people under communist regimes. This is why I am taking such an adamant stand against communism, and declaring communism as the enemy of God and of mankind. I will not yield even one inch from that position.

The communists know very well that I am their archenemy, and they are trying to destroy us. We can even find churches and government people collaborating with the communists against us. This is a sad situation. Newspapers try to paint a dark picture: "Reverend Moon is an agent of the KCIA." It's incredible, just nonsense. My life is not so small or inconsequential that I would act as a KCIA agent. My eyes and goal are not just for Korea. America is my goal; the world is my goal and target.

No president ever spoke as I did at Yankee Stadium, saying that this nation is burning and needs a fire fighter from the outside, that this nation is mortally ill and needs a doctor from the outside. I came as a fire fighter to this nation, as a doctor to this nation. At Washington Monument I said, "Leave the young people to me. I will rebuild the American youth so that they can go out to truly liberate the world." No religious leaders or political leaders in the history of America ever spoke like this. I did because I have reason to say such things.

America doesn't understand

ctually, I am deeply mistreated by America. Americans do not know me. But some day they will realize that I am truly the most notable and precious VIP that ever came to this nation. You must know that you are the people who must fight for this. No one can pull your loyalty and conviction in God and His kingdom out of your brain. No one can pull that ideology out of you. No atomic bomb, no military might, no weapon can do that. You are becoming invincible individuals now.

I am not here to please the government or the politicians; I am a prophet, a messenger of God. Whenever I have something to say, I will say it, whatever it is. I know very well that certain government people will be irritated by my remarks because they do not like to hear these things. However, I must speak the truth; no one can stop me from speaking the truth. We cannot trust anyone. We can only trust ourselves, because we have a mission ordained by God. We are not here for ourselves; we must influence the power of the nation because that is the will of God. A long time ago, I committed my life to this mission. It does not matter that there is danger around me; I have already given up my life.

Korea and America must not break apart. Once that link is broken, tragedy will come. From the current trend of history God knows very well what will happen now that liberalism is rampant and communist infiltration is so widespread. The situation is very dismal. That is why God sent me to America as His agent. God asked me to hold America, to keep America linked with Asia, to restore His blessing to all the Christian world, and then to liberate the communists. That is God's mandate.

When I declared that I would go to Moscow, I meant it. When they hear me say, "Moscow is our goal ' the communists will laugh, "How can you?" All right, they can laugh. Twenty years ago in Korea, in a small room only big enough for two or three people, with a roof that leaked, I talked about world unification. I predicted my world ministry and the sending of missionaries to 120 countries, and I predicted this crusade in America. Twenty years ago in that small room, everybody thought those were crazy ideas.

Today, compared to the size of the communists' power, the New Yorker Hotel (Unification Church World Mission Center) is like that small cubbyhole of 20 years ago. We have only a handful of people, yet we are talking about the liberation of the communists; we are talking about Moscow. I am sure most people laugh. Let them laugh now. I know one thing: In the communist world, the children of the communist leaders are on the side of God. The next generation in the Soviet Union will be on my side.

The spirit world will take care of them. The spirit world will manifest itself and show the truth to those children. Those children will fight against their own fathers; that's God's strategy. God has started that operation already. Even here in America, spiritual revelation is coming down to the leadership of this nation, even to members of Congress. Behind the scenes, truly astonishing spiritual phenomena are unfolding. The heavenly spiritual assault has begun.

What have I been doing in these last several decades? What I have done as a man in history, representing all of mankind, is to really declare victory in the name of God. Before heaven and earth I truly stand now as a victor in the name of God. No one like that has ever existed in history.

I had to suffer the most

could have avoided suffering, but I knew the Principle. According to that Principle, I have to suffer more than any other individual here on earth. Throughout thousands of years of history, men have committed innumerable dirty, impossible sins. In order to liberate the people of the world from the sins of history, I have had to go down to the very bottom of the sinful world.

 

Part IV

Excerpt from:

INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE    AND WORK OF THE
REV. AND MRS. SUN MYUNG MOON

by Dr. Bo Hi Pak

World Convention of the
Federation of Island Nations for World Peace

June 17, 1996, Tokyo, Japan

 

Rev. Moon's analysis of communism and the Victory-Over-Communism movement

ith this as background, you may know that Reverend Moon all his life was an ardent opponent of communism; in particular he had been concerned about the danger to the free world of Soviet expansionism. Reverend Moon is not opposed to communism because of its socialist system, but because of its fundamental atheistic view of life. It is a power against God and denies the very existence of God.

Until its demise, therefore, Rev. Moon looked at communism as the single worst problem which humanity faced. He often compared Christianity and communism. Christ came 2,000 years ago and gave the world a powerful message about truth and love. Christianity has become the world's largest religion, accepted by one-quarter of the world's population. But it took 2,000 years!

Communism, on the other hand, was only born in the last century and yet it came to enslave more people than are now Christian. In the short span of little more that half a century, Marxism-Leninism spread like a forest fire in that time, engulfing more than 1.5 billion people, taking one nation after another, and spreading over the entire globe.

He asked, "What is communism and where does its power come from?" Communism is more than a political system, more than a social system, more than an economic system. Communism is an ideology, a system of thought or godless religion.

David Satter, a former Moscow correspondent for The Financial Times, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on May 23, 1983 a commentary entitled, "Soviet Threat is One of Ideas More than Arms." I would like to quote from that article: "Communism cannot be defeated militarily and its adherents cannot be bribed into giving it up. It can be defeated in only one way: by being confronted with an idea that is better."

No one knows the true nature of communism better than Rev. Moon. He gave birth to a better idea, called Godism or a God-centered worldview. By 1960, Rev. Moon had developed a powerful international Victory-Over-Communism movement based on this God-centered worldview which does two essential things: (1) it totally exposes the lies and deceptions of communism, and (2) it presents a clear counterproposal to the communist views. In other words, the Godism worldview offers a complete solution to communism. History will record Rev. Moon as the only one who proclaimed Victory-Over-Communism, instead of merely anti-communism.

Rev. Moon's prediction of the fall of communism

n 1985, in Geneva at an international scholarly conference, Rev. Moon proclaimed the end of the Soviet Union within five years! No one believed what he was saying. The Soviet Union, at that time, seemed to be at the height of its power. As you know, however, the collapse of the Berlin Wall came November 9, 1989, which was the prelude to the downfall of the communist empire. And the Soviet empire itself came to an end on Christmas Day 1991.

We are all fortunate to now live in the post-Cold War era, but let me elaborate further about the decisive contributions Rev. Moon made to help bring about the demise of the communist empire.

Rev. Moon, whose worldwide movement is headquartered in New York, has always believed that a strong America is the key to defeat communism, in particular, strong presidential leadership.

Rev. Moon's prediction of the Reagan landslide

n 1980, Reverend Moon stood up and supported the election of Ronald Reagan as 40th President of the United States. He saw it as the will of God. At that time I was president of the newspaper he founded in New York, The News World. Rev. Moon asked me to go to see candidate Ronald Reagan in Ohio and give him his blessing and prediction that his victory would be the will of God. It was a moving experience between the two of us in Ohio where I conveyed Rev. Moon's message to the future President. I recalled candidate Reagan humbly saying at that time, "I wish I could have as much confidence in Ronald Reagan as Rev. Moon does."

When election day came, Nov. 4, 1980, Rev. Moon asked me to print his prediction in The News World newspaper. He said, "Print, 'Reagan Landslide' in huge banner headlines!"

At that time, everyone thought it was a little crazy. No one dared to say such a thing. Everybody thought the race was too close to call. But I took it as my faith. This is the newspaper we printed: "Reagan Landslide!" We delivered this newspaper to Ronald Reagan on election day morning. He was overjoyed. He took the newspaper with him to a press conference which was televised all over the country.

On election day, the American people were befuddled. They saw the headline "Reagan Landslide" prominently on TV. "Did he win already?" they wondered. "No, I have not even voted yet. Did I sleep too long? What's happening here?" They interpreted "Reagan Landslide" as fact only because the print identifying it as The News World's prediction was too small to be visible on the TV screen. I tell you this was a magnificent strategy. Everybody likes the winner. They would like to join a winner. The American people were psychologically prepared for a "Reagan Landslide" even before they went to the polls.

That evening by 11 pm, the "Reagan Landslide" had become a reality. I held a press conference in New York. The press corps was almost crazy. People were shouting at me all over the place, "How did you know it would be a Reagan landslide? How many people did you call to make this prediction? 1,000? 5,000? 10,000?"

 

 

I said, "No, I called only one person." "What? One person? Who did you call?" the press asked. "I called Rev. Moon." "Rev. Moon? Do you mean this was Rev. Moon's prediction?" I responded, "By all means, it was Rev. Moon's prediction." People then asked, "How did he know?" "I heard he made only one telephone call, too." "Who did he call?" "I understand he called God." "You mean he called God, the Almighty?" "Yes," I said. Everyone shouted then, "Could you kindly give us God's telephone number?" I said, "I'm sorry. It was a hotline."

It was an amazing story. The News World became the premier national newspaper overnight. You have no idea how moved and inspired I was that night. I cried tears of joy. I had never experienced such an exciting press conference in my life.

The founding of The Washington Times

his was not however the only contribution Rev. Moon has made. Probably the more significant ongoing contribution would be the founding of The Washington Times in Washington, D.C., as the second daily newspaper in the nation's capital, with a distinct conservative outlook - or more correctly, God-centered outlook. Could you imagine what Washington would have been like with only one daily? This is our headquarters. This is our famous newsroom. And this is our printing plant.

The Washington Times has continuously published for the past 14 years at an aggregate investment of well over one billion dollars! It was indeed a most precious investment for freedom. It is now a must-read for all opinion-makers not only in Washington but all over the United States, and indeed ranks among the great newspapers of the world! And, it maintained a staunch opposition to communism and Soviet expansionism until the collapse of the Soviet empire.

The Hon. Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said upon his inauguration, The Washington Times "has the real interests of America at heart."

The Strategic Defense Initiative

hrough The Washington Times and other organizations he founded, Rev. Moon staunchly supported President Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as "Star Wars," to protect the United States from Soviet nuclear missiles through space-based defense. This is a Washington Times political cartoon from that time entitled "Space Shield." As you well know, one of the critical factors behind the collapse of the USSR was its sheer inability to compete with the United States in this area of cutting-edge technology. Ultimately, President Reagan's pursuit of SDI was a kind of trump card, upon which the Soviets could only throw up their arms in defeat. Yet Reagan could not do it until The Washington Times swayed public opinion decisively towards support of SDI.

Reagan thanked Rev. Moon

hen Reagan's term was almost over, he invited me, as the President and Publisher of The Washington Times, to the Oval Office in the White House. As can be seen in this picture, he firmly shook my hand in appreciation and said, "Dr. Pak, no one appreciates the value of The Washington Times more than I. Without The Washington Times, my Reagan Doctrine would have been a failure. It could not have triumphed over the Brezhnev Doctrine. Would you kindly convey my deep thanks and appreciation to Rev. Moon, the founder of The Washington Times, who made this most precious investment for freedom?" At this point, may I invite you to give one warm round of applause for President Reagan?

George Bush and the end of communism

he Washington Times also supported the 1988 election of George Bush as the 41st president of the United States. Today, we should give more appreciation to those great heroes, Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, as the liberators of the communist empire. But in my heart, behind the scenes, who produced these two heroes? It was Rev. Moon and God.

Rev. and Mrs. Moon's visit to Moscow

ev. and Mrs. Moon boldly entered Moscow in April 1990 and had a one-on-one meeting in the Kremlin with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. This was another miracle to have occurred. Rev. Moon conveyed his support to Gorbachev of his policies of glasnost and perestroika. I was there to translate that extraordinary meeting. Rev. Moon persuaded Gorbachev to allow religious freedom, to allow God to enter the Soviet Union. In my opinion, this meeting was crucially important in the sight of God. It was, in a way, the beginning of a peaceful process of the demise of the Soviet empire. Rev. Moon indeed motivated Gorbachev in the direction of peaceful reform. The greatest miracle that occurred in this century was the liberation of the Soviet Union without nuclear war. The threat of nuclear war was the single greatest concern of Rev. Moon. He said, "Thank God, not a single nuclear weapon was used against mankind since 1945." Clearly, it was God who dismantled the Evil Empire.

Rev. and Mrs. Moon's visit to Pyongyang

fter that meeting with President Gorbachev, Rev. Moon told me, "Now I must meet with Kim Il Sung." I was shocked. It was a sheer impossibility. Yet Rev. Moon said, "God will lead me to Pyongyang." Why was he so determined to see Kim Il Sung? Because he saw the end of the Soviet Union coming, Rev. Moon's concern shifted to another part of the world, the Korean Peninsula, a potential powderkeg. He saw his next mission: to prevent the outbreak of another war on the Korean Peninsula. He decided to go to Pyongyang to meet with President Kim Il Sung to reassure him that even if the Soviet state perished, that would not mean the end of North Korea. He did not want that isolated country to feel trapped and miscalculate. Knowing the tragedy of the 1950s, Rev. Moon indeed wants to prevent at any cost another outbreak of hostilities on the Korean peninsula.

On Nov. 30, 1991, I escorted Rev. and Mrs. Moon on a special flight to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Six days later, the world's foremost anticommunist, Rev. Moon, embraced with President Kim Il Sung and sat down with the world's foremost communist dictator in the presidential palace. I was there as the entire world was shocked by this news. Yet for me, it was probably the greatest, warmest, most hospitable peace-making event ever on the face of the earth. Simply I want to say, Rev. Moon prevented another Korean War by assuring President Kim he would be a friend and brother, and look after his well-being.

This is a memorial photo of Rev. and Mrs. Moon and President Kim. Notice they are holding hands like brothers. This was very unusual in that country, particularly with President Kim. The next photo is my wife and myself.

Kim Il Sung passed away on July 8, 1994. Mr. Antonio Betancourt and I went to Pyongyang to represent Rev. and Mrs. Moon and mourn the late president. I was proud to be part of this humanitarian gesture and to convey the condolences of Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon. I was the only outside mourner to be received by top leader, Secretary Kim Jong Il, heir of his father, President Kim Il Sung. This time though I hold his hand. Today, Rev. Moon is a world leader whom North Korea can trust. For this reason, Rev. Moon played the pivotal role in bringing about the nuclear agreement between the United States and North Korea in October 1994. This has been and will remain the greatest task - maintaining peace in this part of the world, Northeast Asia.

 

Part V

CAUSA

 

Reverend Moon understood that the United States of America had a crucial role in the struggle against communism. America possessed the resources to confront communism, but it lacked the vision and willpower to fulfill its responsibility. When Reverend Moon arrived in the United States in 1972, he quickly realized that the American youth were caught in a morass of moral and ideological confusion, provoked by the controversy surrounding the American presence in Vietnam. Wherever he spoke, he reminded Americans of the vision of its founding fathers and called on civic and religious leaders to awaken to the ideological and geopolitical threat of communism.

In a 21-city speaking tour in 1973, Reverend Moon preached that God had chosen the United States as the nation to stand up against communism. He repeated this message in several addresses before the U.S. Congress. Yet most Americans turned a deaf ear. Reverend Moon sadly accepted that the responsibility for addressing Marxism -Leninism would now fall primarily upon his shoulders. He founded CAUSA as one part of a multi-faceted effort to combat the communist threat.

In early 1980, under the direction of Reverend Moon, Dr. Bo Hi Pak, Antonio Betancourt and Antonio Rodriguez Carmona, later editor of Noticias del Mundo, traveled throughout Latin America and met various heads of state. These included presidents Rodrigo Carazo Odio of Costa Rica, Aparicio Mendez of Uruguay, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador, Jorge Blanco of the Dominican Republic, Rios Montt of Guatemala, Roberto Suazo Cordovo of Honduras, and Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay. Despite their varying political views, all of these Latin American heads of state expressed an interest in hearing an ideological response to Marxism.

Heartened by the genuine interest expressed by Latin American governmental, religious, and civic leaders, Reverend Moon established CAUSA International. The first nation to express an interest in the CAUSA program was Bolivia. The first CAUSA seminar took place there in December 1980.

Before the CAUSA staff left for Bolivia, Reverend Moon instructed them about the attitude of the lecturer. He emphasized the importance of prayer: "If you give a lecture for two hours, you should pray for six hours beforehand. Then, when you stand to give the lecture you will know that God is with you. What you say should be pleasing to God. If God is pleased, then I am pleased. You go to do the work of God."

At the close of the workshop, the participants were spiritually and intellectually renewed. They were eager to teach the CAUSA lectures themselves. The Bolivian officials who came to the closing ceremony were impressed to see the forty-five young people, many with Marxist tendencies prior to the seminar, transformed in their views on communism and awakened to the reality of God. CAUSA programs expanded rapidly throughout Latin America, and eventually to North America, Europe and Africa. Hundreds of seminars were conducted during the 1980s.

CAUSA developed social service projects, in collaboration with the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF). In 1982, CAUSA distributed food for victims of severe flooding in the jungle areas of northeastern Bolivia. CAUSA also assisted in the building of schools and orphanages in Bolivia and in Honduras.

CAUSA International began holding seminars for North American audiences in 1983 and for Europeans in 1984. CAUSA activities jumped in 1984, the year many Christian ministers became concerned over the government's prosecution of Reverend Moon, which they saw as a violation of religious freedom. Reverend Moon emphasized that Marxism Leninism posed an even greater threat to religious freedom, and encouraged the ministers to attend CAUSA seminars. In 1985 the CAUSA Ministerial Alliance (CMA) was created to reach out to members of the clergy.

Beginning in December 1985, CAUSA began to conduct seminars for state legislators, mayors and city councilmen. Early program attendees had the opportunity to hear such dignitaries as Senators Jeremiah Denton, Al Gore, Jesse Helms and Charles Grassley; Congressmen Mark Siljander and John McCain; National Security Council member Constantine Menges; National Education Association President Mary Hatwood Futrell ;and White House spokespersons Mona Charen and Larry Tracy. On several occasions conference participants were invited to the White House for special briefings. The American Leadership Conferences (ALC), as they came to be known, were officially established in 1986 with abipartisan invitational committee composed of state legislators from more than forty states. More than 10,000 prominent political, civic and religious leaders attended these programs between 1986 and 1992.

In 1987, to commemorate the two-hundred the anniversary of the drafting of the United States Constitution, Reverend Moon founded the American Constitution Committee (ACC). The ACC established a network of offices in all fifty states with the mandate to implement the CAUSA teachings on a practical level. On the seventieth anniversary of the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, the ACC conducted demonstrations in every state memorializing and mourning the 150,000,000 victims of communism. By the end of 1989, approximately 250,000 leaders from thirty-three nations had attended CAUSA programs in the United States. Over ten million people had signed CAUSA petitions affirming the existence of God and rejecting atheistic communism.

CAUSA's opposition to communism is based on an ethic of concern for the people in communist-dominated lands. Hence, CAUSA was prepared to play an active role in guiding the USSR into a post-communist future.  On April 11, 1990 Reverend and Mrs. Moon met with USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev. In their private discussions, Reverend Moon urged President Gorbachev to allow full religious and economic freedom for the people of the USSR. A notable result of the meeting was that the USSR leadership encouraged Soviet legislators to attend American Leadership Conferences. In December 1990 and February 1991, some 80 Soviet legislators, along with 60 cabinet ministers and members of parliament from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia , attended ALC seminars. Attendees included Mayor Gabor Demsky of Budapest and Sergei Lushchikov, then the Soviet Minister of Justice. Participants heard lectures on CAUSA's critique and counter-proposal to communism as well as an orientation on the underpinnings of Western democracy.

From April 30-May 2, 1991, the ALC sponsored a World Leadership Conference, an unprecedented seminar/fact-finding tour in Washington, D.C. for approximately 200 high-ranking government officials and political leaders representing official delegations from all 15 republics of the Soviet Union. This was the only time during the final years of the Soviet Union that any person, government or private organization brought together representatives from all 15 Soviet republics. In attendance were 26 deputies of the USSR Supreme Soviet and some 75 deputies of the soviets of various republics, as well as republic vice-presidents, cabinet ministers, and ambassadors. The delegation had meetings with federal officials in Washington, D.C. and with city and state officials and business leaders in New York City.

Reverend Moon began to reach out quietly to North Korea in the late 1980's. Despite a 1987 assassination plot that was uncovered by the FBI, he continued friendly overtures to Pyongyang. In November 1991, Reverend Moon traveled to Pyongyang and met with North Korean President Kim Il Sung.

Following this, in May and June of 1992, Reverend Moon proposed and sponsored a good-will mission to Pyongyang. The 40-person delegation, headed by former Congressman Richard Ichord, targeted the cooling of abusive language toward the U.S. and South Korea as the principal goal of their visit. The delegation met with Kim Young Sun, architect of Pyongyang's foreign policy, and with President Kim Il Sung himself, who hosted the delegation at a luncheon and spent more than three hours responding to their questions.   A few days later, as a consequence of the delegation, North Korea cancelled its annual anti-American demonstrations, which had  been scheduled to begin on June 25th. They have remained suspended ever since.

                    CAUSA IN THE POST-COMMUNIST ERA

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the American Leadership Conference continues to hold seminars for state legislators and religious and civic leaders; however, their major focus is no longer communism but rather strengthening the family and ethical values. The ALC in conjunction with the Washington Times Foundation sponsored a special conference on the United Nations in 1995. It conducted conferences for Latin American youth under the banner of the World Leadership Conference in 1996.

Reverend Moon's efforts in the struggle against communist expansionism expended more than capital. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Unification Church missionaries were sent clandestinely to every Eastern European country. In the USSR they were imprisoned and later expelled. In Czechoslovakia and Poland they were jailed for up to six years. Several were executed after the communist takeover of Ethiopia. CAUSA film-maker Lee Shapiro, who had produced "Nicaragua was Our Home," an award-winning documentary on Sandinista atrocities, was shot to death by Soviet soldiers in 1987 while filming with the Afghan resistance.

 

Website:

The Role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the Downfall of Communism