Reagan-Gorbachev Meeting in Iceland

I was thoroughly amused by the naivete displayed in your editorial. You unabashedly state that the agreement that might have been would have cut both American and Soviet nuclear forces by 50% in the next five years and wiped them out altogether at the end of the decade, while conveniently ignoring both the issue of verification and the Soviet compliance record with existing arms-control agreements.

A unilateral discontinuance of practical strategic defense research would be disastrous for Western security. Reagan’s laudable display of leadership in Reykjavik should be commended for continuing to challenge the assumption that the human race is condemned to rely on a mutually mad U.S.-U.S.S.R. suicide pact.

STEVEN R. HARRISON

Laguna Hills