Eastern Europe and Germany

In response to “Reform, Yes, but Can He Do Miracles?” by Jeane Kirkpatrick, Op-Ed Page, Sept. 18:

Kirkpatrick is seeing only two options for the Soviet Union: the breaking down of it or the return to the days of Stalin with suppression, torture and a bloody dictatorship. There’s a third option which escapes Kirkpatrick--a complete, peaceful and genuine change in Soviet thinking regarding the system of communism.

There’s a good, but not necessarily certain, possibility that Mikhail Gorbachev and his supporters will reluctantly agree that independent, prosperous and friendly Baltic states would be more preferable than angry, uncooperative Baltic states. Glasnost and perestroika depend on relative tranquility in the Soviet Union. The Baltic states could be very handy as middlemen in trade between the Soviet Union and Western Europe.

Likewise, realistically it’s impossible to force a reluctant nation to stay in the Warsaw Pact. Even if a nation were forced to remain in the pact, nobody can guarantee that its armed forces would fight against the right enemies as far as the Soviet Union is concerned.

A captive empire can become a union of sovereign nations with true freedoms and true autonomous states. Captive nations can be set free for mutual benefit.

I believe that Gorbachev will choose the third option, despite the projections of Kirkpatrick and people like her. In fact, there’s no other feasible alternative.

ADOLPH DONINS

Oxnard