|
Association for the Unity of Latin America (AULA)
In November 1984 Reverend Moon founded the Association for the Unity of Latin America (AULA) in Cartagena, Colombia with leaders of various Latin American countries. AULA was founded to promote cooperation and unity among the nations of Latin America. Under the leadership of career diplomat Ambassador Jose Maria Chaves, AULA emphasized the need for greater cooperation among Latin American countries in addressing terrorism, human rights violations, poverty, and authoritarian rule, all of which contributed to communism's expansion.
AULA also helped to further the discourse that led to the creation of the powerful regional customs union MERCOSUR. AULA sponsored the drafting of a constitution for Latin America by constitutional scholars from Latin America and the United States. Moon argued that unless greater economic unity and cooperation existed among the Latin American nations the developed world could continue to play one Latin American nation off against another in political and economic dealings. Such disadvantageous arrangements engendered resentment and continuing division between the North and South. They also prolonged the existence of socioeconomic conditions that could foster support for communism. Inspired by Bolivar's vision of one America, AULA emphasized that unity must move on from a regional level to reach all of Latin America and eventually the entire hemisphere.
The American Leadership Conference
In December 1985 CAUSA began to conduct seminars for state legislators, mayors, and city councilmen in the United States. Over the years, program attendees heard not only from Senators and Congressmen but also from National Security Council member Constantine Menges, National Education Association (NEA) President Mary Hatwood Futrell and White House spokespersons Mona Charen and Larry Tracy. On a few occasions conference participants were invited to the White House for special briefings.
The American Leadership Conference (ALC), an outgrowth of the initial conference for state legislators, was officially created in 1986. ALC had a bi-partisan invitational committee of some forty state legislators and an advisory board composed of former U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and Governors. By 1989 the American Leadership Conference hadwon widespread recognition as a uniquely beneficial program for civic and political leaders. Its programs were attended by thousands of state legislators and every legislator in the United States was provided with a video that summarized the message and work of the ALC. More than 10,000 federal, state, and municipal leaders and prominent community activists participated in American Leadership Conferences between 1986 and 1992.
In 1987 Moon founded the American Constitution Committee (ACC) to support the field efforts of ALC. In a series of American Leadership Conferences in Washington, Miami, San Francisco, and Denver, ACC conference participants were invited to reflect on and commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the drafting of the United States Constitution. By 1988 ACC had set up offices in all fifty states of the Union. The state and regional offices provided local leadership and served as a vehicle through which ALC attendees could apply the principles and ideals of ALC to practical community- and state-level projects and programs. In November 1987, on the seventieth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, the ACC conducted public ceremonies in every state to honor and mourn the 150,000,000 victims killed under communist rule.
CAUSA Europe and Other Initiatives
CAUSA also became active in Europe in 1984. A French language CAUSA seminar was conducted in Washington D.C. in May 1984 for French officials. Following that program several Frenchmen who had served in the French Résistance during the Second World War conducted a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington cemetery, recognizing the sacrifice made by members of the American military to liberate France. The wreath laying ceremony included the participation of a United States Marine Corps Honor Guard and American veterans of World War II. This seminar inspired a proliferation of CAUSA seminars throughout France and then all of Western Europe.
***
By the end of 1989 approximately 250,000 leaders worldwide from thirty-three nations had attended CAUSA programs. Videos of the entire CAUSA lecture series were broadcasted nationally in some countries in Latin America.
Those Who Gave Their Lives
Reverend Moon's education programs on communism reached the highest echelons of leadership in developed countries. CAUSA also sponsored numerous programs in some of the most impoverished, war-torn parts of the world. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, following the example of Reverend Moon who had himself spent four and a half years as a missionary in a communist country, Unification Church missionaries began to work underground in every Eastern European country. In the USSR, the Church's missionaries were imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, and later deported. Church members were jailed for up to six years in Czechoslovakia and one female missionary died in prison under very questionable circumstances. Several Unification members were executed after the communist takeover of Ethiopia because of their Church affiliation.
In October 1987 CAUSA filmmaker Lee Shapiro lost his life in Afghanistan. He had been personally commended by President Ronald Reagan for his film Nicaragua was our Home, an award-winning PBS documentary detailing the atrocities committed by the Sandinistas against the Miskito Indians. Prior to its PBS airing, the White House had a chance to preview the film in November 1985. The President then wrote the following words to Shapiro in a personal letter of encouragement:
The terrible suffering of the Miskito Indians at the hands of the Sandinista junta in Managua is a story that deserves to be better known. Your film brings to life the heartbreaking reality of this cruel persecution. Those who saw your film when it was shown here found it to be not only informative but a deeply moving experience. I am happy to learn that millions of Americans will soon have the opportunity to share that experience.
|
Shapiro's film received very favorable reviews in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and TV Guide and it won a 1985 CINE Golden Eagle Award and a 1986 ANGEL award. The film was aired nationally on PBS just a few days prior to a presidential request to Congress for lethal and non-lethal aid to support the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters. That resolution passed.
Shapiro went on after this film to begin his second documentary tentatively entitled Against the Empire, which was meant to document the efforts of the Afghan Mujahadeen to resist the Soviet occupation of theirhomeland. At approximately 7 a.m. on October 9, 1987 Lee Shapiro and Jim Lindelof, an American friend who was assisting him with the documentary, were traveling with an Afghan military unit that came under attack from four Soviet helicopter gunships. Both of them were shot from the air by the Soviets. Lindelof was killed instantly; Shapiro, badly wounded, was finished off by a Soviet soldier when the gunship landed and confiscated Shapiro's body, film and camera have still not been recovered.
Dr. Martin Bauer, UC Missionary to the Dominican Republic and later the President of CAUSA in that country, was also shot to death under mysterious circumstances in October 1985. In the struggle against communism more than twelve Unificationists paid the ultimate price in the 1970s and 1980s.
Chapter Endnotes
1 The World Anticommunist League (WACL) had national chapters in most countries in the Free World. It was largely funded and supported by the Republic of China (Taiwan) where the international headquarters were located.
2 This was not the case for other countries. For example, in the United States, there were few ties, if any, between WACL and CAUSA International.
3 There are undoubtedly those who are offended by the view that America is a Christian nation. For example, one can argue that this can be used to pressure other Americans to feel that they do not belong. Reverend Moon refers to America's mission in providential terms. He believes for example that the thirteen stripes on America's flag are symbolic of Jesus and his twelve disciples. True Christians, he would argue, would be able to live with people of all faiths and respect their beliefs.
4 The significance of the timing of this decision is further discovered in the next chapter.
5 Such, for example, was The Washington Times' coverage of the defection of the No. 5 man in the KGB, Vitaly Yurchenko, which The Washington Post initially did not even cover. This was also true for the Times' early front-page coverage, versus the Post's virtual disregard, of the Soviet sailor who in 1985 twice jumped ship into the Mississippi River to defect, a feat which ultimately threatened the U.S.-U.S.S.R. summit.
6 "The Network," The Washington Times, April 8-12, 1985.
7 Arnaud de Borchgrave, "Editorial," The Washington Times, May 6, 1985, p. A1.
8 "Paper to Aid Nicaraguan Rebels," The New York Times, May 7, 1985, p. A14. "US Ex-Officials Lead ‘Contra' Fund Drive," The Washington Post, May 9, 1985, p. A34; Ed. Rogers, "Simon to Direct Nicaragua Fund," The Washington Times, May 8, 1985, p. A1.
9 A Tribute (Washington, D.C.: The Washington Times, May 8, 1985, p. A1.
10 The U.S. House reversed its April 24 position and passed on June 12, 1985, a bill for Contra non-lethal aid. The U.S. Senate reaffirmed on June 6 and June20, 1985 its prior support for Contra humanitarian aid. A compromise between the chambers, allowing $27 million in nonmilitary aid to the Contras, was reached on July 26, 1985 with final approval and submission to the White House on August 1, 1985.
11 Tom Nugent, "Daniel Graham: Sheriff of the 'High Frontier,'" The Washington Times, November 1, 1983, pp. B1-2. Note: other organizations founded by Reverend Moon also supported SDI with videotapes and sponsored Graham's appearance before gatherings of American political leaders and grassroots activists.
12 "Editorial: Let's defend America," The Washington Times, March 25, 1983, p. A11; Tom Carhart, "Time for High Frontier," The Washington Times, March 25, 1983, p. A11; "Editorial: ABM: Security vs. Serenity," The Washington Times, October 21, 1985, p. A9; "Editorial: Hanging tough," The Washington Times, October 13, 1986, p. A9; "Editorial: Budget essentials," The Washington Times, October 14, 1986, p. A11; "Editorial: Not dead, only sleeping," The Washington Times, October 15, 1986, p. A9; "Editorial: SDI in the near term," The Washington Times, October 16, 1986, p. A11.
13 "Editorial: Let's defend America." The Washington Times, March 25, 1983, p. A11.
14 "Editorial: Nuclear Facts, Science Fictions," The New York Times, March 27, 1983, p. E 18; "Editorial: The War Over Star Wards," The New York Times, October 15, 1986, p. A 26; "Editorial: In the Reagan World, With No Missiles," The New York Times, October 19, 1986, p. 22; "Editorial: In the Real World, with the Bomb," The New York Times, October 19, 1986, p. 22.
15 "Editorial: Nuclear Facts, Science Fictions," The New York Times, March 27, 1983, p. E 18; "Editorial: The War Over Star Wards," The New York Times, October 15, 1986, p. A 26.
16 Bundy, McGeorge, George Kennan, Robert McNamara and Gerald Smith, "Reykjavik's Grounds for Hope," The New York Times, October 19, 1985, p. 23.
17 Jeremiah O'Leary, "Gorbachev Arrival set for December 7," The Washington Times, November 13, 1987, p. A 5; Jeremiah O'Leary and Gene Grabowski, "Gorbachev may address Congress," The Washington Times, November 17, 1987, .p. A 4. The role of The Washington Times in leading the editorial campaign and stopping the planned address was encapsulated by the Times'Editor-in-Chief, Arnaud de Borchgrave in a December 4, 1987 speech before the American Leadership Conference.
18 "Moonie Tunes, Too," Overthrow 4, no. 2 (June/July 1982) p. 1.
19 See for example, Louis Wolf and Fred Clarkson "Arnaud de Borchgrave boards Moon's Ship," CovertAction 24 (Summer 1985), pp. 34-35.
20 Anne Reilly Donn, "What Managers can learn from Manager Reagan," Fortune, September 15, 1986, p. 38; Alex Jones, "Washington Times and Its Conservative Niche," The New York Times, May 26, 1985, p. 44.
21 Hugh Sidney, "Let's do it," Time, October 28, 1985, p.37.
22 Oscar Arias, Address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, J.W. Marriott Hotl, Washington D.C. April 14, 1988. Cited in A Tribute (Washington D.C.: The Washington Times, 1990).
23 Cited in A Tribute.
|
