Lithuania’s Struggle for Independence

Our government leaders seem to be convinced that it is imperative to sacrifice the freedom of the Baltic states--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania--for the possible good of the long-term relationship between the two superpowers: the Soviet Union and the United States. But we must be cautious that the good not be one-sided. We must be cautious that our naivete in understanding the Russian way of thinking does not serve to further only the good of the crumbling economy of the Soviet Union at a very high cost to the American taxpayer. Unless the Soviet Union gets our technology for virtually nothing and some very favorable trade agreements as well with the U.S., the Soviet Union is doomed to become a Third World country economically, and the Soviet leaders know it.

They also need the more industrious and skilled Baltic republics in the same manner that the old grand South needed the slaves.

Gorbachev has never been too proud to respond to pressure. Our pressure for the Baltic independence should be unrelenting. Taking a neutral position between freedom and tyranny corrupts our own values.

IRENA ZOMMERS

Rancho Palos Verdes