Closing remarks by Dr. Pak made at the International Security Council Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on September 10, 1985. The conference, chaired by General Michael S. Davison, USA (Ret.), former Commander-inChief, United States Army Europe, dealt with the issue, "NATO's Southern Flank and the Security of the Middle East. "

Since this is the final evening, I want to be as entertaining as possible, even though I am not an entertainer. I want to tell a joke, which might or might not work. But even if the joke is not funny, please laugh loudly. Otherwise, I will tell more jokes until you do laugh

Some time ago there was a loyalty contest among communist leaders. Gorbachev, Castro, and Ortega all brought their best men to the Soviet Union to try their loyalty, and the site they chose for the competition was a pond full of hungry alligators. Gorbachev ordered his man to jump in. Without hesitation the man obeyed and jumped into the alligator pond whereupon he was devoured in a few seconds. "See how loyal my man is," Gorbachev boasted.

Next Fidel Castro ordered his man to come forward. "Jump in," he commanded, and the man swiftly obeyed and in an instant he too was completely consumed by the alligators.

Now it was Daniel Omega's turn and he ordered his man to jump in. Without hesitation the man jumped in the water, but instead of being eaten alive he began swimming in a circle and the alligators followed him. He continued to swim around and nothing happened. Everyone was astonished. They told him to come out, saying he could live, and they asked him, "What did you do to persuade the alligators not to eat you?"

The man replied, "Sir, I just kept shouting as loud as I could that there is freedom and democracy in Nicaragua. Even the alligators could not swallow that one!"

There is a similar story about Rome. I do not know much about the history of the Roman empire, but you all know that in Rome lies the Coliseum, where entertainment events were held and the emperors and Roman citizens enjoyed watching Christians being eaten by lions. Well, on one such occasion a Christian man was brought into the ring, and a hungry lion came out and began to chase him.

But the Christian man did not run away, and as soon as the lion came near he embraced it, whispered something in its ear and it lost its appetite and went away. The emperor was absolutely furious. How could it be, he wondered. An even hungrier lion came out the second time and the same thing happened. The Christian embraced the lion, whispered in its ear and the lion lost its appetite. The third time the emperor ordered two lions, and the hungriest two were brought out to chase the man. But the same thing happened.

Now, according to the law, if this happened three times, the man was entitled to live. The emperor said, "Come and tell us what you said to the lions and then you will be freed." The Christian then said, "Sir, I simply told the lions that after their big dinner, they would have to listen to a long speech!" Nobody likes to listen to a long speech, especially the people in this audience. However, too bad! You already ate your dinner!

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you that I am very proud of this conference. For me it was a tremendous education. I have never been so inspired anywhere as I have been here, because this conference represents hope, constructive hope for survival and hope for freedom. I am deeply satisfied with the conference as a whole, especially the committee findings and recommendations.

I understand that the proposed text of the Lisbon Declaration on European Security is being drafted. Probably by tomorrow it will be examined by the speakers, chairmen, and co-chairmen and, if they agree, the declaration will be published to allow the greater public to enjoy and share our findings. I am sure it will be a monumental achievement that will indeed send a positive signal to the world and make an impact in the world's capitals, east and west. I thank you for your deliberations. I believe that after this conference Europe will never be the same.

I especially want to thank Gen. Davison. As chairman of the conference he has demonstrated his distinguished leadership and professional acumen. You may be retired from active military duty, Mr. Chairman, but you are still in your prime in fulfilling your political and patriotic duty, from which you will never retire. Even if you get the urge to retire, the ISC will not let you. Please join me in giving a big round of applause to our chairman, Gen. Davison.

I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all the committee chairmen, plenary speakers and rapporteurs for your hard work. Please be assured that your investment has paid off and will have a lasting impact on the future security of Europe and the free world.

Speaking of investment, we at CAUSA International feel we have made the most valuable investment-an investment in freedom. As Mr. Mel Lasky commented so poignantly, "After freedom is gone, is there any other investment that you can keep?" What a true statement that is. There is no better investment than an investment in freedom, so we are deeply honored to sponsor this conference.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am normally an alpha and omega man. At the opening I say welcome, and at the closing I say good-bye. However, this conference inspired me so much that I want to do things differently this time. I want to make some honest, frank observations. If my observations disturb your peace somehow, please forgive me, but this is what democracy is all about. I am very glad you already had dinner at least.

During these last two days, one key phrase kept pounding in my head. It was the phrase "the battle of ideas" that Dr. Leopold Labedz used. I said at the opening of this conference that we are at war, and that this war is indeed a battle of ideas, a battle of ideologies, a battle of value systems. Communism knows this well. As Dr. Labedz noted, communism uses an indirect approach, short of hot war, and has been tremendously successful all along.

The West has not yet discovered how to deal with their indirect, ideological aggression. We have yet to find a good weapon to fight with. Communism knows how to conquer a man's mind, and once the mind has been conquered, there is nothing else left to conquer.

That is what the Vietnam War was all about. We did not suffer a military defeat but an ideological one. The Vietnam War was not lost in Saigon. It was lost in Washington, D.C. The people in this audience know that the United States had the military power to finish that war in three weeks, and yet the communists ideologically assaulted America, using an indirect approach, until she became confused and demoralized and unable to carry on the fight.

The United States abandoned many billions of dollars worth of weapons in South Vietnam. When there is no clear purpose and will to fight, no clear winning ideology or winning strategy, even billions of dollars worth of military armament will not do any good. In order to combat communism, we must fight with the same weapon they use: ideology. This is the battle of ideas.

A false ideology must be subjugated by a superior one. We must fight fire with fire. There is no other way we can fight and win. Mr. David Satter, one-time Moscow correspondent to The Wall StreetJournal, wrote in an article on May 23, 1983:

As absurd as communist ideology may appear, it provides a consistent view of history to adherents that makes even the simplest citizen feel as though his life has meaning. 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.

Where will we find such an idea? That is the question today. For me, the better idea is the idea of freedom under God. Freedom without moral principle will certainly create anarchy within a society. Freedom with responsibility is real freedom. Responsibility will never come about until human beings uphold certain absolute moral principles or codes to which our every action on earth is accountable.

An absolute moral code comes from an absolute being, and that absolute being is God. Communism is the embodiment of absolute materialism. There is no absolute moral code in communism simply because there is no God. Everything is relative. Men set the values. In communism, men take the place of God. When Lenin said that only labor that contributes to the social revolution has value, it became their moral code, and all other labors had no value. Only people who participate in the communist revolution are human beings. All others have no human value and deserve to be exterminated. Anything that advocates and furthers the communist revolution is moral. Everything else is an obstacle to the communist revolution and an enemy of the state. They remove obstacles efficiently and ruthlessly, killing people by the millions.

Stalin once said, "One man's death is a tragedy; a million men's deaths, that is a statistic." According to Le Figaro magazine in Paris, communism has been responsible for the deaths of 150 million human beings during its 68-year experiment. In order to kill 150 million people in 68 years, they had to average 44 people every 10 minutes. So, for the 10 minutes I have been talking to you, 44 innocent men, women, and children have been put to death in the name of the communist utopia.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this conference Mr. Lasky taught me brilliantly about the theory of moral equivalence. I was flabbergasted and completely shocked to learn of the attitude of so-called moral equivalence, which views the United States and the Soviet Union equally as imperialistic exploiters and aggressors. When the United States liberated Grenada, The Washington Post editorialists condemned the United States as the aggressor. Their opinion was that this had been in no way different from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Nothing could be further from the truth. One action was taken for the cause of freedom, the other for the sake of tyranny. One was for liberation, the other for enslavement. One was moral, the other immoral. One was day, the other night. How could anybody ever manage to mix up the reasons for the American revolution and the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship that Arnaud de Borchgrave so clearly pointed out this afternoon? How could these two actions be considered equal?

Unless we come to realize that history is not a class struggle but a struggle between good and evil, and that communism today represents the worst kind of evil, we have no cause. The Soviet Union as the leader of communism is the evil empire that President Reagan once rightly called it. Yes, it is my conviction that freedom is our cause, a cause bigger than our lives. Freedom under God is the cause to live and die for.

That is what the American Revolution was all about. Freedom under God was the cause the American forefathers were willing to live and die for. The final sentence of the Declaration of Independence reads, "[W]e mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor"-and when they signed their names beneath that sentence, they meant it. They knew too well the consequences of failure. As Benjamin Franklin said, "We must hang together or surely we will hang separately."

That very spirit and commitment brought America independence, freedom, and prosperity, and today I believe that nothing less than Ben Franklin's commitment to freedom will save our world from communist domination. As it stands, the West has already been defeated psychologically. The leaders of Western nations are bending over backwards to please the Red bear, trying desperately to befriend him, granting one concession after another in order not to suffer the beast's wrath.

I tell you, it is heartbreaking. If we continue in this way, Western civilization is doomed, just as surely as the sun always sets in the west. What is even more tragically ironic and pitiful is that we know the West has the power to win this war. The ISC's Brussels Declaration concluded that the United States and its allies have more than enough power and potential power to achieve the goal of genuine peace with freedom.

The only thing we are lacking is confidence, the sort of self-confidence mentioned by Mr. Julian Becker, a faith in ourselves and a commitment to the cause of freedom. The greatest lesson we must learn is contained in the simple story of the Wizard of Oz. What the heartless tin man, the cowardly lion, and the brainless scarecrow ultimately came to realize was that all along they had the heart, courage, and wisdom they needed. They simply did not know it.

In the West we must realize that we have been endowed by God with heart, courage, and wisdom. We cannot be like an ostrich that sticks its head in the sand, thinking that no one will see it. Communism can never be defeated by ignoring it. If we think we can survive under the mercy of communism, our day of doom is assured. Our survival comes only when we stand and fight, as good old John Wayne did all the time.

Furthermore, communism in the 20th century is becoming more and more of a paper tiger. Their ideology is bankrupt; it does not work. The Soviet Union continues its "march to nowhere," as Forties magazine put it once in a cover story. They have nothing to offer. Scientific socialism has become a 19th-century superstition: no utopia, no paradise.

The excitement of the communist revolution has worn off, which is why they are exploiting the weaknesses of the West and more and more have to rely on state-sponsored terrorism, bluff, and intimidation. The Soviet economy is dying and corruption is rampant. Soviet leaders are desperate. Somehow, some way, they want to finish cutting into the jugular vein of the United States and complete the Sovietization of the world. They lost their dream a long time ago.

Only our greed and selfishness can somehow cause the Sovietization of the world. They know this and they also know their days are numbered. On the other hand, we have so much to offer. The strongest commodities we have to export are freedom, democracy, the free market system-and God. Above all we need to export love to love-hungry people. The communist leaders built their society on hatred and distrust, and the people are miserably lonely. If we are men and women of compassion, our goal must be to liberate Moscow, even if we have to lay down our lives to accomplish it.

After all, the American forefathers did. Why can't we? The Bible says there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your fellow man. I tell you the policy of containment will never bring victory; the policy of freedom on the offensive or peace through strength alone shall win.

I do not think we have much choice. This is a mandate from God for the sake of humanity, our sacred duty as freedom-loving people, and we will either take up the challenge or be doomed.

In conclusion, I want to summarize all that I have said in just two words: Great Awakening. A Great Awakening of the West must come about. I learned two important words in Spanish, and they are hoy and ahora. The time is now or it will be too late. To accomplish our goal we need the following understanding:

We are at war. In war there is one objective and one objective only. There is no substitute for victory. Victory is our objective.

Offense alone brings victory. Therefore, an anti-something will not bring victory. Anti-totalitarianism, anti-fascism, anti-communism-none of those negatives will bring victory. We have preached anti-communism for 68 years and we are still losing ground. The free world, led by the United States, must launch a spectacular moral and ideological offensive against communism.

Remember those words about the battle of ideas. We must attack communists with a better idea. The better idea is the idea of freedom. They proclaim the war of national liberation and we proclaim the war of true liberation.

In order to liberate, we must find God in the 20th century. A Godcentered worldview is the new weapon, if you will, which they do not have. God is our invincible ally. Our value system must be firmly entrenched in the very existence of God.

Accepting the Templeton prize for progress in religion, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said bluntly, "If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Russian revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: men have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened."

That is precisely what is happening in the United States. When you forsake God, either in the name of communism or secular and atheistic humanism, the result will be the same: tyranny and self-destruction. America and the free world must awaken now to this awesome truth or it will be too late.

God or no God is the central point of this moral debate. It is what the CAUSA International movement stresses and why the CAUSA movement is a powerful voice in the world today. Dr. Kenneth Ryker, a distinguished educator and outstanding anti-communist for many years, testified as much to us after a recent seminar in Washington, D.C. He said, "For the past 20 years I have dedicated myself tirelessly to the battle against communism. I did so under the banner of freedom. Yet in spite of my efforts we have steadily been losing ground. Through this CAUSA seminar I realized why freedom was not enough. To win this battle, we must rally in proclaiming the existence of God."

The CAUSA movement inspires hope, a hope for the victory of freedom over tyranny. This movement has been in existence since 1980 and is quickly gaining worldwide momentum. It now reaches across all six continents. I want to make it clear that the CAUSA movement is not a religious movement but an ideological movement. Many generals and admirals who have attended CAUSA seminars can testify that our purpose is not to change anyone's religion.

The Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu said 2,500 years ago that the secret of victory is to know yourself and know your enemy and that the sweetest victory is earned without even engaging the enemy. This clearly explains the communist indirect aggression. They want to conquer the United States without firing a single bullet in a hot war.

Now it is our turn. Some months ago we organized a program called CIMA. I understand that in Spanish CIMA means top or summit. Actually it stands for the CAUSA International Military Association, a CAUSA International project. CIMA is not only interested in military leaders but all academicians who are interested in defending freedom. We also invite diplomats and political leaders to join with us, and we invite you to join with us too.

Let me close by saying that I am honored to have been a part of this conference and to have been able to work together with such distinguished and important individuals.

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