Bush-Gorbachev Summit in Malta

The monumental changes in the East Bloc are a coincidence of history and the dramatic shifts in Soviet policy are not the direct and tangible results of eight years of tough-minded and sophisticated policies by the Reagan Administration, but a product of the present Administration’s kinder and gentler policy in diplomatic relations with communist bigwigs, contrary to the assertions of Rohrabacher.

It should be noted that James Baker, formerly the Treasury secretary and White House chief of staff under President Reagan, is now the secretary of state of President Bush who should rightly know the most appropriate approach to tame the Russian bear, so to speak, having seen the abject failure of strong-arm measures which the past Administration customarily applied. It can even be safely asserted that the storms currently being reaped by Bush are the results of the winds sowed by the Reagan Administration.

As to the dramatic shifts in Soviet policy, this is clearly caused by the forces of necessity which recognize no law and that Gorbachev would rather lose face than promote civil war in Russia reminiscent of the historical Bolshevik revolution.

FRED SANTIAGO, Santa Ana