Stockholm Arms Accord

In your editorial (Sept. 23), “No Sudden Moves,” on the East-West security agreement on conventional arms adopted in Stockholm, you observed that “Potentially most important of all, agreement to the verification provisions may signal a Soviet willingness to accept reasonable on-site inspection demands in other areas of arms control, including possible bans on chemical arms and nuclear testing.”

I believe that this agreement also sets a precedent that can lead to the removal of all conventional forces from Europe, followed by the removal of nuclear weapons as well.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has proposed several times this year that all conventional forces in Europe be eliminated “from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains.” This proposal should now be pursued, both at the talks on conventional arms reduction in Vienna and as part of a Reagan-Gorbachev summit.

Confrontation in Europe was the genesis of the nuclear arms race and causes us to station conventional forces and nuclear weapons there at an annual cost of about $100 billion. I can imagine no better step away from the risk of nuclear war and toward a sustainable peace than an agreement allowing us to remove these forces.

We must seek solutions to conflict that are devoid of hostility and threats of unimaginable terror. The problems that face us and our fellow citizens of this small, beautiful planet are no longer amenable to solution through armaments.

MARSHALL McCOMB

Walnut Creek