Your editorial urging Gorbachev to lay it on the line concludes with your questionable assertion that Soviet stability should be a primary goal of our foreign policy. You must have assumed that our relationship with the Soviets over the last 50 years entitles them to receive most-favored-nation status.
If in fact the USSR had been our ally during World War II and thereafter, a case might have been made for preferential treatment. But, in fact, all that can be said is that it was merely a co-belligerent, carrying on the war for its special interests and purposes, and at times in opposition to American aims and democratic principles.
Nor should we forget the hostile treatment we received from the Soviets during our joint control of Germany at the end of World War II.
We ought to await the conclusion of the events presently unfolding in the changeover from a controlled economy to one based on free trade and democratic principles, not taking sides.
