LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (05/07/00)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Not surprised by Matlock's views

Dear Editor:

The anti-Ukrainian views of Jack F. Matlock Jr., former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, are not surprising (April 2). In answering a question from the floor in a session at a two-day conference on Eastern Europe and Russia presented by the Council of World Affairs of Greater Cincinnati about three or four years ago, he stated unequivocally that "Russia has never attacked anybody."

In responding to his statement, I reminded him of a few examples of Russian aggressions: the 1940 attack on Rumania, the 1940 takeover of the Baltic countries in cooperation with Hitler, the 1939-1940 attack on Finland and, prior to that, on Poland jointly with Germany, aggression against Ukraine in 1917-1920, and Russia's participation in the partition of Poland in the 18th century.

I asked him to explain how else the small 13th century principality of Muscovy could have grown into a huge empire by the beginning of the 20th century. Obviously unhappy, he did not attempt to answer my question, although the chairman of that session - who was then also president of the council - was visibly pleased with my comments. At the private reception following the conference, Mr. Matlock made every effort to avoid me.

Of course, it is utterly disappointing to see such clearly biased people in the diplomatic service of the United States. Moreover, while it was gratifying to read Dr. David Marples' excellent review and commentary, I wonder how many Ukrainian American community leaders and especially historians, scholarly organizations and academic institutions - will write to Mr. Matlock, to The New York Review of Books, to Anatol Lieven and to the publisher of his book to protest such agrossly distorted presentation of historical facts and events?

Z. Lew Melnyk
Cincinnati, Ohio

Entrepreneurs vs. bureaucrats

Dear Editor:

An entrepreneur who is placed in charge of the distribution of public monies is not an "entrepreneur" - he is a bureaucrat. Instead of red foxes guarding the hen house, Walter Prochorenko (News and Views, April 9) proposes gray-colored foxes.

The most inane statement in Mr. Prochorenko's letter is his misuse of Benjamin Franklin's quote: "... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other." In applying this to the people of Ukraine, he certainly reveals his ignorance of historical facts. It was despotism and corruption, in the form of Bolshevism, which came, uninvited, and forced itself upon Ukraine.

Lacking support from the "democratic" nations of the West, as well as its own resources to resist, the hapless people of Ukraine required every skill they possessed merely to survive under such a corrupt system. They are the victims of a vile, inhumane system and not the cause of its existence.

The unwillingness of the current governments of the former Soviet bloc nations to pursue and hold accountable in the courts of justice the monsters of such a system is one cause of the continued corruption in the former Soviet bloc nations. The protracted silence of the "democratic" nations of the world is another. Where are the Nuremberg Trials for Gorbachev and his cronies? Gorbachev, like Stalin, knew how to crack a few eggs in order to make omelets. He proved it, even to the Doubting Thomases, when he sent in troops to violate the Baltic peoples in their determination to become free of Russia. Gorbachev remains free and roams the corridors of power worldwide, unrepentant, arrogant, fearless, and thumbing his nose at justice.

The current organized crime, called government, is merely a continuation of the traditional way of doing business. The boss, formerly addressed as "Commissar" and/or "Comrade," is now called a "reformer" and/or "capitalist." Whom and what do these comrades-turned-capitalists have to fear?

Ukraine, as well as the other "emerging" nations of the world, should be free of any foreign aid, in part for the exact reason Mr. Prochorenko gives in his commentary: "It is a well-known fact, and one of human nature, that when one receives something for nothing one appreciates it far less then when one earns that something." Let Ukraine find its own way to "success" and let it be free to define for itself the word "success." Let it be free and untethered to the demands that come along with aid "given" by the World Bank and the IMF.

If Ukraine truly wants to be a free nation and not a client state of the latest organizers of the new world order; it must reject the aid which comes, inevitably, with strings attached. Such "aid" never reaches the people that could make a change, nor, if the truth is to be told, is it intended to. It goes and is meant to go to the power brokers at the top, as well as the so-called entrepreneurs who flood into the "emerging" countries looking for easy money. These "entrepreneurs" are the silent partners and beneficiaries of the corrupt system they claim to reject.

There can no change in Ukraine because there remains too much "unfinished business." No entrepreneur-turned-bureaucrat can be ever change this fact, nor can any "reform" ever come about until there exists the public will to execute justice for the many crimes committed by the tyrants that once ruled and continue conducting business as usual.

Anna Anderson
Berlin, Md.

Not everyone agrees with Kuropas

Dear Editor:

Week after week, I am barraged with Dr. Myron Kuropas' column touting his ultra right-wing conservative views. I wondered if I was the only one in our community who does not agree with him. It was refreshing to read Tatiana Durbak's letter (March 26) voicing the way I thought no other Ukrainian but myself thinks.

Yes, Dr. Kuropas, we are a diverse community. We are "unabashed practicing" Catholics and Orthodox who believe in gun control, equal rights for gays and a woman's right to choose. We wonder why our young people are leaving our churches and organizations, and yet we refuse to open our minds to the possibility that not everyone in our community is a card-carrying Republican with ultra conservative views.

Perhaps if our people had a more open mind and celebrated the individual diversity of each person, our young people would stop fleeing.

Ray Wihak
Syracuse, N.Y.

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