BALTIC TWO TALES OF INDEPENDENCE : What if the Navajo Nation up and declared itself separate? The Indians might have a good argument, but it’s not something the United States could or would allow.

Suppose the Navajo Indians pass a resolution declaring their independence from the United States. And suppose they send this resolution to the White House.

Suppose further that the tribe creates its own militia, declaring it to be the Army of the Navajo Nation, and orders it to establish its own border patrol and customs service. Then suppose, upon this declaration, several thousand young Navajo men desert from U.S. military service. Suppose representatives of the new Navajo Nation occupy various offices of departments of the U.S. government. Finally, suppose the new nation gains diplomatic recognition from various foreign governments.

You are President of the United States. What do you do?

Easy, you say. We should simply remind the Indians that the U.S. Constitution grants them no right of secession whatsoever, that they have no right to occupy government property, and that this is simply unacceptable behavior. In a huff, you send a military detachment from a nearby Arizona base to arrest the deserters with orders to throw them in the brig, and you instruct the local commander to take over the Interior Department buildings claimed by the Indians. You issue a statement, in an even greater huff, rejecting the tribal chief’s offer to negotiate.

Enough of this silly game, you say. The Navajos are not Lithuanians. It just isn’t the same.

Well, probably not. But it is close enough to cause thoughtful people to pause in what might otherwise be wholehearted support for the embattled, overwhelmed Lithuanians.

Of course, if a large majority of the Lithuanian people want independence, we want them to have it. But, like the Navajos in this hypothetical situation, be reminded that the Lithuanians have not had a referendum on this issue. Is Mikhail Gorbachev beyond his rights and duties to insist that, at the very least, there be a vote on the matter? And what of the rights of the Russian people in the Lithuanian Republic? Can soldiers and sailors simply defect when their legislature declares its independence?

Finally, there is the issue of precedent. Are you doing your constitutional duty as president of the Soviet Union if you permit, without objection, every republic in the union to decide arbitrarily and without due process when and how it wishes to go its own way? That would simply be an open invitation to total chaos. No modern nation does its business that way. And we certainly do not accept this policy for ourselves. It is probably uncomfortable for us to remember that this was pretty much the identical issue for many 19th-Century Southerners and, after brutal bloodshed, they were not given their way.

So, here’s to the brave, the courageous Lithuanians. We look forward to receiving their ambassador. But, in the meantime, let’s give Gorbachev reasonable and responsible room to resolve a complicated issue in an orderly way.