Reagan’s Visit to Germany

As a former POW held in Germany, I feel compelled to raise my voice in opposition to the itinerary of the President. While my train made its way to Stalag Luft I, I saw trains loaded with war materiel, going in the other direction to supply Nazis fighting us. Carefully placed at intervals in these trains were freight cars with freshly painted Red Crosses on them, in the hope that air attacks might be warded off, enabling the supplies to reach the comrades of the SS dead who lie at Bitburg.

I would like to see the President’s schedule scrapped. Blame it on some insensitive flunky, if necessary.

To celebrate the anniversary of the end of World War II, he should first lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for World War II at Arlington National Cemetery, honoring American war dead. He should then go to the closest veterans’ hospital and visit the severely wounded and disabled of World War II, thanking them on behalf of a grateful nation. His next stop should be an Allied cemetery in Europe to lay a wreath in honor of all Allied dead who fought to destroy Nazism and what it stood for.

After these events, he could join German officials at a state dinner and drink a toast to peace in future generations, with the hope that nothing like the Nazis will ever gain power anywhere in the world.

The President should realize that if he continues with his current plans, neo-Nazi groups and their philosophies everywhere will be legitimatized. They will be able to say, “Why do people complain about us and our programs? Even the President of the United States honors the founding fathers of our movements.

CARL FRIEDMAN

Van Nuys