Aid for Soviets

The leaders of the world’s seven greatest industrial powers (G-7), are, in the words of your July 9 headline, “Taking a Hard Look at Soviet Ledgers” as they weigh the pros and cons of Soviet economic assistance. I write to make them an offer they can’t refuse; a low-cost/high-yield way to offer immediate help as more costly methods are being evaluated.

My suggestion stems from personal experience, a pro bono experiment which the Soviets named the Bilson-Willens Initiative. Working with several factories we found that Western entrepreneurial concepts were helpful and warmly received (one factory now produces children’s clothing at a site that was a military base not long ago). And now the Connecticut-based International Executive Service Corps, with a database of 11,000 retired executives and experts, stands poised to expand our experiment, requiring only direct-expense funds for volunteers who donate skills and experience that could literally become 1,000 points of light in a dark economic landscape.

IESC funds come from our State Department’s Agency for Economic Development. For a few million dollars--an invisible speck in the federal budget--priceless and perfectly directed help can be provided right now. And because each of the other six nations have their own similar volunteer programs, the Group of Seven would be dramatically enacting this dictum: There are moments in history when self-interest and altruism intersect.

HAROLD WILLENS

Los Angeles