West Germans

“Pan Am 103 Probe: Was It Bungled?” (Part I, May 12) gives a shocking account of how the West German authorities failed to bring a group of radical Palestinians to justice, by blocking U.S. efforts to access crucial data, which may have prevented the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Then, on Page 24, the West German government in a paid advertisement “reaffirms its gratitude to the American people” for breaking the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948-49.

I lived in West Berlin during the blockade and probably owe my life, but certainly my freedom from communist oppression, to those brave U.S. Air Force pilots. If the government of the Federal Republic of Germany truly wanted to reaffirm its appreciation and friendship to the United States, it would have made a more convincing case by cooperating with the U.S. in the hunt for Arab terrorists and, more recently, by supporting their U.S. and British NATO partners’ position regarding the retention of short-range missiles in Europe.

GORDON L. FROEDE

Cheviot Hills