‘A New Soviet Union’

After reading the Arthur Macy Cox article, “Reckoning with a New Soviet Union” (Opinion, July 26), I would like to add a few observations. I agree with Cox that the current reforms taking place in the Soviet Union are genuine and are not “an exercise in propaganda.” But the belief of the Cold War warriors, starting with the President, that the Kremlin is planning an assault on democracy remains strong in Washington. That very belief could doom the reform movement to fail before it ever has a chance.

If we look at the two major socialist countries in the world, the Soviet Union and China, we see both countries attempting to initiate reform movements to increase prosperity and individual well-being. Both countries have begun to do so by adopting some aspects of the capitalist market economy--private agriculture, material incentives, increased quality and efficiency by allowing demand and supply to regulate production. All these attempts are only in their infant stages today and neither the Kremlin nor Bejing has figured out yet how far it can or must go with the reforms or how to integrate these semi-capitalist reforms into Marxist/Leninist theory.

At this trial-and-error stage of the reform attempts in China and the Soviet Union, it is imperative that democracies of the world lend their support to these efforts. After we failed to overcome communism on the battlefield (Korea, Vietnam and, depending on your view, Nicaragua), maybe we can succeed in supporting a slow change in the nature of communist regimes starting in the economic arena. But I see a great danger, for if the Cold War warriors in government prevail, we ourselves will forestall the reform movement by strengthening the conservative opposition in the Soviet Union and China which would like to see a return to more totalitarian forms.

Now the time has come for the democracies to lend their support to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, to believe that the intended reforms are genuine attempts to increase the well-being of their societies, and not believe that the reform attempts represent another chapter in the communist quest for world domination.

RALPH H. VERLOHR

Claremont