Nicaragua and El Salvador

Congratulations to Times staff writers Richard Boudreaux and Marjorie Miller (“Sandinistas Still Defying East Labels,” Part I, Oct. 16). Almost for the first time, instead of parroting the Reagan Administration-State Department line, journalists have given us an insight into how the American-sponsored war must look to its victims, the Nicaraguan people and their government, and the struggle among that country’s leaders over how to respond to that brutal and continuing reality.

The main thrust of The Times story was illuminating: The Nicaraguan leaders may wish to take immediate, more decisive steps to end the war--even to the point of releasing from prison the remaining former Somoza National Guardsmen and the Contra collaborators who so savagely terrorized their people.

Not surprisingly--especially while an American President continues seeking ways to sabotage the peace process and resume the war--they have to deal with the fierce resistance of those thousands of citizens whose loved ones have been kidnapped, tortured, maimed and killed in the revolution against the dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 and more recently in the Contra war.

I applaud the courage of journalists Boudreaux and Miller and of The Times in publishing their investigative report. Hopefully, a careful reading of their findings, with its sensitive understanding of how things look to the victims of the war, may help to dispel the lies and deceit cranked out by the American Administration.

MELVIN E. SCHROER

Claremont