Crisis for Gorbachev
The editorial is a sympathetic discussion of the Lithuanians’ determined, but peaceful drive for independence. Its great flaw is that “secession” is the wrong word for Lithuania, since Webster defines it as “formal withdrawal from an organization.” How can they secede when they never joined? An independent state that had been invaded and occupied by a neighboring state does not “secede”; it liberates itself when it returns to an independent existence. The discreet silence from Washington has the unfortunate appearance of a tacit endorsement of Hitler’s decision to hand over the independent Baltic states to Stalin in 1939 in exchange for a free hand in Poland. Please say it ain’t so, President Bush!
ALGIRDAS AVIZIENIS
Santa Monica
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