The recent uprisings in Iran took the world in general and the United States in particular completely by surprise. Indeed, the shah himself and his government were caught off guard. He had stated repeatedly in his frequent interviews with foreign reporters that there was a close bond between him and the people of Iran, that he was like a father to them, and that he loved them and they loved him.

If he actually believed this, then he must have been shocked to witness a grass roots revolt, the like of which had not been seen in the history of Iran.

A little over thirty-three years ago, when I was just under seventeen, I was a highranking, dedicated member of the Hitler Youth and one of Germany's youngest pilots. Although the Hitler Youth was far larger than the Nazi party itself in membership, I don't hold myself responsible for the rise of Hitler, the outbreak of the Second World War, or the persecution of Jews and other so-called "sub-humans." I dearly wish, though, that it had never happened. It must never be whitewashed or forgotten.

It is impossible for any fair-minded German to deny the genocide of the Jews or to explain how it could have happened without sounding like a pious hypocrite or simple-minded apologist.

A crucial turning point in geopolitical history occurred on November 1, 1978, when President Carter announced a massive borrowing of foreign currencies to save the U.S. dollar. For the first time since World War II the U.S. was forced to borrow from the International Monetary Fund; and for the first time since 1893 the U.S. Treasury will have to issue bonds denominated in foreign monies—in this case Japanese yen, West German marks, and Swiss francs.

What all this means is that the U.S. has acknowledged two things: that the European Economic Community (the EEC) and Japan are now its economic equals; and that America has forfeited the international economic supremacy it enjoyed since 1915.

The September 25, 1978, issue of the Wall Street Journal carried a four-page advertisement on Argentina that reveals the expertise of a public relations firm. Propaganda pieces entitled "Politic? for Investment in Argentine Industries" and "Argentina: an Economic Overview" in the form of "articles" are interspersed with regular ads, giving the reader the impression of four pages of ordinary copy. While the advertisement itself is relatively trivial, it acquires significance because the arguments it advances are obviously those that the present regime would like to present to the U.S. and other countries. It is the item called "On the Question of Human Rights" that draws the special attention of Amnesty International and others well informed on this subject in today's Argentina.

When at last they allowed him in he saw that they had begun work on the Moneda. They had rebuilt the bombed portions of the walls. They put new mortar over the scorched parts and they refilled the bullet holes. But the rubble remained piled up inside. He suspected they took it out at night. It was another country, more placid. Compared to the way it had been it was now a cemetery. But that metaphor had been overused. After dark, a liquid silence filled the streets. The military curfew was enforced; night prowlers were shot, it was said. The iron gates of the Hotel Crillon clanged shut at eight o'clock. He had made it back just in time.