Ethnic Independence

In response to article “Ethnic Independence Is Not the Only Out in Hot Spots,” by Jerry Hough, Commentary, Feb. 26:

Hough does not understand what’s happening. Neither the Soviet Union nor Yugoslavia is coming together. Who wants it besides him and leftover communists? Amazing that in democratic America persons of Hough’s stature wish tyranny imposed on other people heroically struggling to be free.

Nationalism exists because it is natural and right for people of different cultures to want to be their own masters, regardless of price. Only when they are free from foreign domination can the people choose what confederations or federations to belong to. Self-determination is the wave of the future, which the professor does not comprehend!

Hough is wrong with his facts about the Lithuanian elections. It is not a comeback to the old Soviet Union by President Algirdas Brazauskas, whose platform was better economic management. Sure, he was for improved relations with Russia, as with all neighbors, but not at the expense of independence. Where did Hough get the notion that Lithuanians want the ‘30s back? They don’t want the last five decades back either! They may be looking for free economic associations of Eastern European countries ranging from the Baltic to Vladivostok and from Helsinki to Belgrade. Tomorrow, hopefully, may belong to them and not to the international gulag envisioned by Hough! God help us!

ALGIRDAS V. KANAUKA

Rancho Palos Verdes