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The World - News from Oct. 1, 1987

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West German Defense Minister Manfred Woerner has been practically guaranteed the job of NATO secretary general when Britain’s Lord Carrington retires next year, Bonn government sources said. They said the U.S. government assured Chancellor Helmut Kohl of its backing for Woerner, thus creating a majority for his candidacy among the 16 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Woerner is pitted in the contest for NATO’s top political post against former Norwegian Prime Minister Kaare Willoch. Diplomats suggested that Washington’s backing of Woerner is a reward for Kohl’s pledge to dismantle Pershing missiles in West Germany in accordance with a U.S.-Soviet arms pact.

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