Baltic States
I have read your news report “Soviets Concede Stalin’s Actions Were Unjust: Monument to Ousted Latvians Pledged,” by Michael Parks (Part I, June 15).
First, I thank you for an excellent map, indicating all of the three Baltic states--Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The news report stated that “On Tuesday (June 14), President Reagan signed a proclamation commemorating ‘Baltic Freedom Day’, saying that the United States will never recognize the incorporation of the three states into the Soviet Union.”
It means very little (if anything) to the enslaved Balts. Just recently President Reagan was in Moscow for a summit with dictator Mikhail Gorbachev. Did the President even mention the names of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in his bargainings with Gorbachev? Did he ask the Soviets to remove their military troops from the Baltic states and leave those countries?
The Baltic states are old nations and states. Lithuania came into existence in 1251 when Mindaugas the Great was crowned as the first king of the country. There was no Russia in 1251!
The Soviet Union is the last colonial power on our planet. The free world should demand that Gorbachev and his associates dismantle this colonial and evil empire and leave all the enslaved countries alone.
L.A. VALIUKAS
Los Angeles
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