U.S. Defense Budget

With well-directed words of wisdom, your Feb. 1 editorial warns us about resurgent military influence in the troubled Soviet Union: “No longer needed to garrison the now-independent Eastern Europe, the Soviet military faced the possibility of becoming an organization lacking a mission that would justify its size, simply another bloated bureaucracy struggling to get its share of leaner budgets.”

I was struck by the fact that this sentence would speak equal truth if the word American were substituted for Soviet . Almost half of the Pentagon budget has been spent to protect Western Europe against a Warsaw Pact threat that is gone, and we are being told that a 3% reduction in military spending is a big cut! Our military bureaucracy also struggles, always, for the biggest share it can get, no matter how lean our federal budget.

Is it inappropriate to mention this? I do not think so. Defending against Soviet-led attacks or spending for needless nonsense like “Star Wars” has nothing to do with legitimate military needs in a post-Cold War world. A leaner military budget might help us recover diplomatic skills instead of remaining hooked on seeking military solutions to international problems.

HAROLD WILLENS

Los Angeles