Soviets Ask for Western Aid

The arrogant claim of Soviet leaders who believe they have a right to American tax dollars is, quite frankly, galling and offensive. I am referring to Vladimir Pozner’s article, “Western Aid Can Win the People” (Commentary, June 11).

Rather than blaming his country’s economic woes on the suffocating ideology of Marxist-Leninism, Pozner instead lays the crisis on our doorstep, suggesting that it is us tightfisted Westerners who are to blame for the plight of his countrymen.

The question Pozner does not address is what compelling interest the U.S. might have in the survival of the Soviet Union. What have its leaders done for us lately that we should foot the bill for their blunders? During the Gulf crisis, Mikhail Gorbachev did everything possible (short of allying himself with Saddam Hussein) to impede the President’s prosecution of the war. What kind of “friend” was he then?

I think the time has come to permit the inevitable--to allow the Communist Party to self-destruct as the result of its rotten ideology. Why insulate Gorbachev from the wrath of his people with cash and credit? The United States should be on the side of the Russian masses--not Gorbachev and his Communist cohorts. Just as we did 200 years ago, we should once more demand a revolution.

RICHARD DUNN

Bakersfield