Robert Gates’ Bid for CIA Post

An item in “Washington Insight” headed “Opening for Gates?” (Part A, Sept. 2) caught my attention and gives rise to the following comments. You reported on the efforts of the White House, led by Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, to capitalize on the “clearly right” pronouncements of Gates, when he predicted a Soviet right-wing coup, which indeed have occurred.

Is the Administration so hard up for confirmation tools or do they think that the American people are so stupid as to swallow that fact as a plus for Gates’ confirmation as the head of the CIA? What Gates failed to predict was the complete breakdown of the coup and the subsequent hastening of the eradication of the Communist Party with the attendant departure from the Soviet Union of most of its republics. Had Gates’ predictions included that eventuality, rather than the suggested innuendo that we must keep our guard up in terms of military responsiveness, then I, too, would give him high grades.

ROBERT SCHUSTEFF

Pacific Palisades