The Baltic and Eastern Europe
In your editorial on the independence movement in the Baltic states (Aug. 28), you seem to advise that the American response should be one of very cautious interest.
However, the United States has never (formally) recognized the incorporation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into the Soviet Union. We officially regard them as independent.
Should the Baltic states proclaim independence from the Soviet Union unilaterally, the United States would find itself in the curious position of reconciling an inconvenient legal fiction with present-day political realities. Baltic patriots are probably aware of this oddity, which cannot dampen at all their drive for restored independence.
MURRAY ARONSON
West Hollywood
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