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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992                   TAG: 9201100440
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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ARE LEADERS AWAKE AFTER PEARL HARBOR?

THE LETTER by Clarence Jewell Dec. 26 regarding economic surrender to Japan was right on track.

The time is past due for us as individuals and as a nation to muster all possible discipline. We should know that free meals are a rarity and are usually a passing fancy.

As long as Japan, Germany, England and France subsidize their industries, we need to do whatever it takes to get our own industrial complex on a competitive basis. This may mean placing foreign aid on hold. The European countries should look after their own defenses. Japan should have been paying for its own defense years ago.

We have been slow to learn the futility or, if you prefer, the stupidity of spending billions for the defense of Japan. Have a few drinks with them, and your Japanese friends will tell you, "America won the war but we are winning the peace; this is a 100-year war." This was the comment of a retired fighter pilot who later worked in Japan. My comment is, it will not take 100 years.

If our leaders don't know how to stop the dumping of vans in this country by Japan, they should resign at once. Our leaders were asleep or dozing until Pearl Harbor. I wonder if they are doing any better now. WILLIAM E. REYNOLDS SALEM

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