Hart on Peace With the Soviets

My sincere appreciation goes to Hart for his column. He has put into words what many of us are thinking.

It must be apparent by now to both the Soviets and ourselves that there is no longer any rationale for war, for war would totally devastate both our nations. The Soviet Union is certainly feeling the economic stress of its military buildup, as are we of ours. When I visited the Soviet Union last fall, a constant theme of the people I talked to was their support for Mikhail Gorbachev, but dissatisfaction that his policies had not yet improved their living standards. Their priority was consumer goods--they did not want a Cold War.

Hart has given us a good question to ponder: “Are we genuinely ready for a world beyond the Cold War?” Perhaps our fears would be allayed if we had a national dialogue about how to convert from a wartime to a peacetime economy. Intuitively we know that eliminating the tremendous quantity of world resources allocated to weapons would permit all of us to live better.

I firmly believe our country has to start converting to a peacetime economy soon, or we and our children will suffer drastically. We now are experiencing the initial stages--the homeless, the needy, the drug use, the declining education of our children, the increasing environmental problems. Resources are being put into weapons at the expense of a solution to these, our real needs.

It is now time to start learning how to live in a world beyond the Cold War.

JACK WEIL

Woodland Hills