Chapter 24
Bewitched By the Bear
"When we are weak, boast of strength. . . .
when we are strong, feign weakness. . . .
We advance through retreat . . .
They disarm, we build."
— Vladimir Lenin

One of the statements that we quoted from President Benson was, "Let us not be deceived in the sifting days ahead." Part of that sifting may come from our long-time cold-war enemy, the Soviet Union. In Chapter Four of this book we discussed the sameness of communism and socialism, and some of the deceptive means by which we are lead to believe the wolves in sheep clothing. And because we have mingled ourselves in with the deceptive flock, our ignorance has brought an indictment upon this nation, and the elders of this Church in particular. When God’s people are unrepentant and continue to transgress His laws, He takes measures to bring them to humility. And it does not take a scriptural scholar to realize that God uses the enemy of proud and sinful Israel to bring them to obedience. It happened time-and-time again to the ancient Israelites and Nephites. This chapter may help show how that might be accomplished today upon modern Israel.

The Glasnost/Perestroika Deception
The Glasnost/Perestroika movement by the Soviet Union is nothing new. These claims of desiring free enterprise for their people, freedom for the oppressed, democratic forms of government, and cooperation with the United States and Western Europe, have all been presented before — at least five different times. The first was in 1921 under Lenin; the second was in 1936 under Joseph Stalin; the third was again with Stalin, in 1941; the fourth was in 1956 under Khrushchev; and the fifth was under Brezhnev in 1970. Now we have a sixth sponsored by Mr. Gorbachev, which began in 1985.

During each of these periods, the Soviets told the West a lot of good stories, and made commendable promises which America and other Western countries bought at face value. The first Glasnost under Lenin was called "The New Economic Plan." Lenin was able to convinced the West that Russia was turning to democracy and a free economic system, and he begged moneys for support. Glasnost number one lasted until 1929 when over eight million Russian people went to the firing squad or to prison camps.

The second, with Stalin’s leadership, also claimed economic change along capitalistic lines, with free elections, etc. As with Lenin, massive amounts of aid went to Stalin. This second period ended suddenly in 1938 by a purge called "The Great Terror."

The third Glasnost, 1941-45, occurred because Hitler double-crossed Stalin, and he said that they wanted to do a lot of trade with the U.S. He also requested aid. Sure enough we sent him and the Soviet people about $10 billion. After the war, the Soviets annexed the three Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and parts of Poland, Romania, Prussia, Finland, and most of eastern Europe. And again, internal purging occurred and over one hundred million people stood before the guns or were imprisoned in camps.

Then came Glasnost number four. Khrushchev talked about economic and political reforms, free market, restoration of democracy, etc. And of course, western aid went pouring into the Soviet economy. Glasnost four ended in 1959, however, with the Soviet-backed communist takeover in Cuba, the shooting down of the American U-2 plane, and the erection of the Berlin wall.

Under Brezhnev, we have the fifth claim of economic reform, the desire to become capitalist with a free market, the ending of world revolution, etc. Their goal was to get America to sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which we did in 1973. We did not put up a missile defense, but true-to-form, the Soviets violated that treaty. We now sit defenseless, and they sit with all the weapons. This Glasnost started losing impetus when the Soviet-backed North Vietnamese invaded South Vietnam, with the resumption of covert activities abroad, and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-80.

With the Glasnost/Perestroika tactic, the Soviet government has sucked billions of dollars from the treasuries of the gullible governments of Western Europe, and in particular, the United States. Those funds have been used to build and stock pile a tremendous amount of arms instead of producing and distributing foodstuffs to their people. Their intimidating threat was intimated as: "If you do not help us, our people will starve and it will be your fault." So we bought it. We are now in Glasnost number six. We are sending them billion of dollars in aid. And we are still buying it the sixth time around.

President Bush now wants to send $24 billion in aid to Russia to help bolster up their, supposedly, poor economy. The Soviets still have an active space program, an aggressive military build up, but cannot transport food across the country. That seems odd. Why can’t they divert some of their military spending to feed their own people? What is their real goal? Is it to suck more money from the American taxpayer (money which we must borrow at high interest rates to send to them) while they continue to build arms at our expense.

When Secretary of State James Baker visited Russia, he asked to see a community called Arzonos 16. Some call it "the city that never was." He was told that it did not exist. (It is not listed on any maps). On Paul Harvey news, however, Mr. Harvey announced that Arzonos 16 had been found. It is surrounded by forest and barbed wire. It is a community of 81,000 people of which 25,000 work on nuclear weapons. It is where the Soviets built their first hydrogen bomb.

The Soviet military is well acquainted with the ancient philosophy of Sun Tsu, a Chinese military strategist who, in about 500 BC, wrote a book called "The Art of War." Some consider it the military bible for the Soviet military. In it Sun Tsu said, "The most consummate art is to subdue your enemies without having to fight them on the field. Destroy by all means the weapons supplies of your opponents. . . . All warfare is based on deception."

Another writer which has greatly influenced the Soviet mind, is Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli was an Italian historian and statesman (1469-1527). He was a master diplomat, seeking his objective values which supported his own theories. He made his facts to be as he wished them, rather than as he knew them to be. Shakespeare, reflecting English thought, uses his name as the superlative for craft and murderous treachery. Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, his most popular work, has been a staple in the deceptive political and military diets of Europe since the fifteen hundreds. Throughout this book one can find very strange moral contradictions. One of the things Machiavelli said in that very small but powerfully influential work was: "For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances as though they were realities . . . and are often more influenced by the things that seem, than by those that are."

A NATO Commander’s Warning
The goal of the Soviets is world conquest. It always has been, and it still it today. As General Bernard W. Rogers, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander (Europe, 1979-87) said, "The Soviet goal remains world domination." And from another former NATO Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Walter Walker, we get the following warning:

"I consider it my duty, as a former NATO Commander-in-Chief, to tell you of the extremely dangerous threats that lie ahead. It is because I know for certain that we are now in a period of the greatest strategic deception, perhaps in all history, that I feel I should not allow this occasion to pass without warning you of the future that lies ahead in the next decade. I say most emphatically that the Cold War is not yet over, but only in a state of remission. To give you examples: in spite of the numbers of Soviet citizens still queuing for food, the Soviet Union is continuing to provide arms not only to Iraq, but to the communist regime in Afghanistan and to its satellites, such as Cuba and Libya.

The man in the street has not been told that the Soviet Union is still devoting a vast proportion of its resources to sustain a military machine capable of threatening the West. As an example, their Navy is engaged at present in a major rebuilding program. It has launched the 65,000 ton Tiblisi - its first major carrier. The [Western] public is unaware that Gorbachev is launching one new nuclear submarine every six weeks. Amid all his difficulties, Gorbachev has now increased the Soviet military budget by 37% at the insistence of the Generals and KGB masters. This represents 40% of the country’s GNP. On the same day that he made this increase, our Defense Secretary announced that 40,000 British troops, a quarter of the entire British Army, would be axed. A suicidal decision. The Soviet military threat has NOT evaporated. The neutralization of NATO has long been one of the Soviet’s prime glasnost deception goals. Production of tanks continues unabated, replacing old tanks, and they have also introduced several new helicopters, a huge transporter, a fighter designed to kill other helicopters, and a sophisticated anti-tank helicopter. Despite the collapse of the Soviet economy — the Kremlin - under pressure from the military — is actually increasing the military budget by $42 billion to more than $160 billion. In contrast, only $7.5 billion is being earmarked for education, and a mere $4.5 billion for health. In spite of the signing of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty on the 19th of November 1990, the Soviets have already moved about 17,000 tanks plus much more equipment [i.e., 70,000 units in toto] to the other side of the Ural mountains — beyond the geographical area of the Treaty. And some Soviet aircraft from Hungary were repainted in Soviet naval colors, also outside the Treaty. The hard truth is that the dreaded KGB is being strengthened and expanded. Last year the American FBI apprehended 30 foreign spies, 28 of whom were KGB, a new record. Today the KGB employs one and a half million people and six million informers. And despite the Soviet economic crisis, the KGB has received a 20% increase in its latest budget. I leave you with the stark fact that unless we stand fast and stop the rot, the demonstrable truth is that, contrary to the Kremlin’s self-serving pose of humility, the Soviet Union is not "on the verge of collapse." Western defense, on the other hand, is." (The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Phoenix, Arizona; Special Issue, November 1991, pp. 21-22.)

The leadership of the Soviet Union have never honored their peace and disarmament treaties. Why? Because they have a dream. And that dream, as stated before, is world conquest. And one of their tactics is to lull the sleeping Western world into a greater stupor than they have ever known. Along that line then, here are a few statements from Mr. Lenin who has set the style for Soviet deception: "Telling the truth is a bourgeois prejudice. Deception, on the other hand, is often justified by the goal. . . . When we are weak, boast of strength . . . when we are strong, feign weakness. . . . We advance through retreat. . . . They disarm, we build."

To build their arms, the Soviets need steel, and in The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, May 1990, it is pointed out that the majority if the Soviet steel goes to the military. In quoting that report we learn:

"In 1959, the Senator John F. Kennedy was struck by a discrepancy between the Soviet output of steel (i.e., 54.9 million metric tons) and the small amount of that steel used for cars and other consumer goods. Kennedy concluded that the vast lion’s share of that steel (i.e., probably over 90%) was going into military production, and that was at a time when less than 1% of US steel production was going into military weapons production. In 1989, the Soviets produced 160 million metric tons of steel . . . but they only produced 1,217,000 cars, using less than 5% of total Soviet steel output. Other consumer products and new construction are only estimated to use another 5% or so of the Soviet steel production. QUESTION: Where is the rest of the Soviet steel production (i.e., about 144 million metric tons per year) going? ANSWER: Into the building of the biggest military machine in history."

Soviet Military Supremacy
Now let us get into some comparison figures for military buildup, or disarmament, whichever the case may be, for both the United States and the Soviet Union. The following chart is a partial list as presented by Howard Phillip’s Issues and Strategies Bulletin, Vienna, Virginia. It is based on U.S. Defense Department and intelligence statistics showing the superiority of the Soviet military might compared to the U.S. in 1990 (As presented in The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, May 1990, pp. 12-13).

The following comparisons are shown as: US=United States / SU=Soviet Union (The figures for the United States being shown first).

ABM (Anti-Ballistic Mis.): 0 — 8,000
Aircraft (Attack): US-2,813 / SU-8,250
Aircraft (Interceptor): US-18/SU-2,200
Aircraft (Tactical Nuclear Delivery Type): US-2,813 / SU-8,250
Ballistic Missile (Sub.): US-37 / SU-70
Ballistic Missile (Short-Range Tactical): US-100 / SU-1,600
Chemical Weapons, tons: US-0 / SU-50,000
Combat Divisions: US-31 / SU-214
Cruise Missile (Sub.): US-101 / SU-256
Cruise Mis. (Sea-Launch): US-400-600 / SU-3,000-6,000
ICBM’s (Warheads):US-2,450 / SU-7,000-8,200
ICBM’s (Counterforce): US-2,000 / SU-6,140-7,372
ICBM Test per Year: US-10 / SU-150
Intercontinental Delivery Vehicles: US-1,900 / SU-2,920
Navy Battle Ships: US-546 / SU-914
Personnel Carriers (Armored): US-33,000 / SU-78,600
Predominant Average Age of Strategic Systems, years: US-20 / SU-4
SAM’s (Surface-to-Air Missile): US-0 / SU-13,000
Satellites for Detecting Submerged Subs., systems: US-0 / SU-2
SLBM’s Intercontinental: US-0 / SU-738
Space Launches per Year: US-10 / SU-circa. 100
Space Launch Sites (Military Mission Type): US-10 / SU-150+
Tanks: US-22,224 / SU-70,000

The weapons production for the years of 1988-1990 also show a vast deficiency for the United States in comparison to the Soviet production. The following is just a small listing to show the reader how far we are falling behind. Remembering our discussion on the Disarmament Treaty of 1961, we know that it is by design.

The figures comparisons below are structured as those above (US=United States / SU=Soviet Union):

Armored Vehicles: US-2,325 / SU-15,950
Bombers (All of the U.S. were Produced in 1988, None in 89-90): US-23 / SU-215
Helicopters: US-920 / SU-700
ICBM’s: US-33 / SU-415
Major Warships: US-14 / SU-29
SLBM’s: US-103 / SU-215
SRBM’s: US-0 / US-1,950
Submarines: US-14 / SU-29
Tanks: US-2,190 / SU-6,500

What Does It All Mean?
All of the overtures of freedom (as we are told in the West) in such countries as Poland, Romania, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc., are deceptions. The communists — now being referred to by the Soviets as socialists — are still in control in those countries. The Soviet military is still present, and their secret police are still in force, although they have changed their names in many cases. The government in Russia is restructuring. It may be changing the names of organizations and principles, under the guise of throwing out the old, but in reality, the Soviet leadership is still on the same road they have been traveling since 1917. The vehicle they travel in gets a new name and a new paint job, but it is still the same vehicle. In Chapter Four we quoted a statement by Dimitry Manuilsky which was made at the Lenin School of Political Warfare in Moscow, 1931. He said,

"War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack. . . . To win we shall need the element of surprise. The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movements on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clenched fist!" (Quoted by W. Cleon Skousen, The Naked Communist. pp. 208, 235.)

As Lenin said, "When we are strong, feign weakness." When the enemy seems to be weak, the threat seems to diminish. This type of philosophy dupes the western world, especially the trusting Americans, and they let their guard down. In the Fall of 1991, President Bush announced a military cutback unparalleled in American history. Within hours he had grounded all of our SAC bombers, took all of our nuclear missiles off of alert and off of our submarines, etc. On January 25, 1992, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin announced that all of their nuclear missiles were not aimed at the U.S. anymore. And on this same date our President announced he was ordering our manufacturers to discontinue the production of the W-88 nuclear warheads. In March of 1993, as this book goes to press, President Clinton is closing down 30 military bases in the United States, saying that the cold war is over. Yet on the news we also hear that the "hard-liners" in Russia are still in charge, and the U.S. Defence Department is wondering who has control of the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

Of course, we all hope and pray for the best; but what might all this add up to? At the risk of being overly pessimistic (in light of history), this author feels that the American eagle has been plucked, is now in a military stew, and ready to be devoured by the bear. If the reader actually has any doubts of what it really means, he is encouraged to go back and re-read Chapters 3-5, 14, and 20.

Because of our nature, we Americans will not strike first, or take an offensive stance — only defensive. The Soviets, on the other hand, will do whatever is expedient to achieve their goal. They will even sacrifice a few countries (pretending to give them freedom) to win a larger hand. Remember, they are the chess champions of the world. They are willing to lose a few players to capture the king. Let us remember what was quoted in a previous chapter, that is: "Men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true."

There is a heavy and ominous atmosphere hanging over the political world today. It may be good to remember what the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians, "For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." (1 Thes. 5:3.)

". . . if ye are prepared ye shall not fear."
— D&C 38:30.