‘Cold War Is Not Over’

In response to The Times front-page story “ ‘Cold War Is Not Over,’ Bush Adviser Cautions,” Jan. 23:

Brent Scowcroft, President Bush’s national security adviser, identified the motives for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s peace offensive to be major economic and political problems. Our own economy and the issue of global survival also need to be discussed. These are two critically important reasons for our country to launch its own peace offensive.

Our national debt is approaching $24,000 per household; an incredible 14 cents of each federal tax dollar now goes to pay interest on that debt. Our assets (including buildings, corporations and land) are selling to foreign buyers at bargain-basement prices because our trade imbalance forced devaluation of the dollar. And yet we continue to devote nearly 30% of our engineers and scientists to military projects that do almost nothing to improve our competitiveness in the world market.

Economic survival isn’t the only motivation to launch a U.S. peace offensive. In signing the INF treaty and calling for sharp reductions in nuclear weapons, President Reagan recognized that control of nuclear weapons relies upon systems and humans that are imperfect. The terrible experiences of the Challenger accident and the Chernoble disaster show that technology will not save us. Instead, the United States and the Soviet Union must eventually develop and negotiate ways to ensure each other’s security, rather than threatening each other’s security.

Cautious cooperation with the Soviets, rather than continuing a no-win Cold War, is in the best interest of the United States. It is also in the best interest of the planet.

DUANE ERWAY

South Pasadena