Gorbachev and the Summit
I have just read your front-page article (Dec. 11) “Soviet Not the Evil Empire Anymore, Reagan Declares.”
The aforesaid article stated that “President Reagan today backed away from his earlier description of the Soviet Union as an ‘evil empire’. . . .” Did the President mean that? Probably not!
Without question, the Soviet Union is still an evil empire. Dictator Gorbachev cannot and may not undo all the crimes committed by Joseph Stalin and other dictators of the Soviet Union.
A devil cannot and may not become an angel overnight! However, Gorbachev can do a real good penance by the following acts: He can open the Iron Curtain. He can remove the Soviet military forces from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and leave those countries alone. He can return the eastern part of Poland to Poland. He can remove military forces from all satellite countries in Europe, Afghanistan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique and Vietnam. He can abolish all concentration camps in the Soviet Union. And he can establish a democratic form of government in Russia.
Communism is like deadly tumor that grows in spite of effort to arrest it. It can only change if it is totally excised.
L.A. VALIUKAS
Los Angeles
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