Eastern Bloc and Gorbachev

Great God Almighty, did you hear what they were singing? Did you hear the voices in the thousands at Wenceslaus Square?

We have witnessed a mad rush to gain credit for the events in Eastern Europe. Some say that Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush in their stalwart stand against communism were the moving factors. Others point to heroes past, Joe McCarthy and even John Birch. Were they the spiritual forebears of the students in Prague?

The fact is that none of these merit the accolades. Blind ranting against the “evil empire” saved no one in Prague in 1968, or in Budapest in 1956, or in Afghanistan for all of those horrible bloody years. If Russian tanks do not assault the gates of Prague or of East Berlin or Budapest now, it is because Gorbachev will not send them. That is the difference. It is a difference well known to the students of Tian An Men Square and the survivors of massacres past.

And who else may we thank for the thousands who protest, who with their shouts and their songs have brought down governments?

Is it not true that they have been inspired and bolstered by other Americans--those who took to the streets and lunch counters, who offered themselves in sacrifice so that their brothers and sisters could be set free.

Is it too much to say that at the back of the crowd in solidarity with all who have placed themselves in the tenuous forefront of history, the souls of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers and others stood, listened to the songs and joined hands?

RICHARD G. BERRY

Redondo Beach