Calling Soviet Leader a Cowboy
Viva Gorbachev!
After years of U.S. exhortations about Soviet expansionism in the Western Hemisphere, Soviet President and Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev has decided to suspend shipments of offensive military aid to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua (“U.S. Calls Gorbachev ‘Drugstore Cowboy,’ ” Part I, May 17).
The American response?: “Well, er, uh . . . oh, he’s just a ‘drugstore cowboy.’ ”
How could such a great nation as ours come to be run by such a bunch of lame buffoons? Historians will probably recall the Bush Administration as “the era of Pee-wee Herman-style diplomacy.” Are we so dependent upon having dangerous enemies that we cannot make peace when it is thrust in our face?
Hopefully, the United States will one day provide itself with the kind of responsible leadership necessary to confront the positive challenges offered by Gorbachev. This man is for real and we desperately need someone on our side with the courage to admit it.
In the meantime I’ll be looking for that drugstore. After eight years of “False Grit” in the White House, and now the prospect of four more years of this whining wimpishness, I’d like to meet the Soviet “cowboy” who actually has the guts to take a chance.
JOHN HILDEBURN
La Jolla
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