RIGHT ON, ‘AMERIKA’

The upcoming TV miniseries “Amerika” depicting the United Nations’ helping the Soviet Union conquer and occupy the United States belongs in the gutter (“Cold War Between U.N., ABC Over ‘Amerika’ Heats Up,” by Howard Rosenberg, Oct. 10).

Between its L.A. radio-TV affiliate and “Amerika,” ABC is beginning to stand for American Birchcasting Co.

When United Nations Assn. Chairman Elliot Richardson protested, ABC claimed that the report in the L.A. Weekly (Jan. 17, 1986) about scenes of U.N. peacekeeping troops slaughtering Americans and schoolchildren forced to salute the Soviet and U.N. flags “referenced a very early version of the script . . . either incorrect or changed in subsequent drafts.”

Now it’s clear ABC was lying through its teeth--almost 90 such scenes! And the U.N. is not the only target to be wildly maligned in “Amerika”; proponents of causes such as abortion, rent control, even Social Security are depicted as so treasonous that “Amerika’s” producer-writer has said the Soviets “come off looking rather well” by comparison.

With the Soviets threatening to throw out its Moscow news bureau over the show, one has to wonder if ABC--which went ahead with “Amerika” to appease right-wing wrath over “The Day After”--isn’t trying to placate both sides, throwing the U.N. and other groups as raw meat to rightwing crowd while letting the Soviets off as much as possible by shifting the most odious acts to others.

ABC should either delete the scenes attacking the U.N. and the other groups or grant rebuttal time, as was given to the critics--who had no justification for it in comparison--of “The Day After.”

JOHN W. OSBORN JR.

President

Southern California Division

United Nations Assn. of the U.S.A.