‘Wrong Kind of Assistance’

Your editorial (May 17), “Wrong Kind of Assistance” illustrates President Reagan’s wrong choice of showing commitment for peace and democracy in Central America during the president of Guatemala, Vinicio Cerezo’s, visit to Washington. President Reagan is offering Cerezo military aid rather than the economic aid Guatemala really needs.

I agree with The Times that a delicate civilian government like Guatemala must receive the economic assistance prior to any military aid. Countries like Guatemala need a strong economic base before it can act as a military force. There are thousands of starving people living in Guatemala and they do not need guns; they need food, and the United States has plenty of it rotting away as an agriculture surplus.

The issue here is a question of sense of priorities. Should we spend money to save thousands of starving lives or should we spend money to promote and defend our well being? The answer, of course, is we should do both. But, when people are dying world wide, is it necessary to give aid to already developed countries such as Israel and Egypt and Saudi Arabia? Approximately half of the United States’ foreign aid is received by Israel, an already developed nation.

If the issue is the threat of spread of communism, guns are not the answer. Aid must be given to Third World countries for economic development and stability to assure the support of the citizens. If the citizens are not happy with the instability of their poor nation, revolution to overthrow the governing can be assured, which makes everything worse than what it used to be. But if the country is stable and the citizens themselves are happy then the country would probably fight the spread of communism on their own.

TODD KERZIE

Pomona