mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly) (12/15/83)
mlh@abnjh(M. L. Holt) writes, "... the Soviet government has never repudiated Stalin's style of governing..." That's wrong. Kruschev publicly denounced Stalin at a Party Congress in the mid-50's. The point is half-true, though. The Soviet's certainly do continue to run a much more repressive state than the U.S., at least as far as civil liberties are concerned. The U.S. and the world community should continue to pressure them to change. However, it seems unlikely that they will change as long as they feel a large threat to their national security exists. Clearly, the U.S. does not plan to overthrow the Soviet government. The best way to encourage a more open society, then, is to provide less of an external threat. That, by the way, applies to the U.S. as well. There's an awful lot of generals running around talking about the "threat" of free information flow. Seems their approach is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. As long as hostility increases between the two blocs, both become less secure and more internally repressive. Mike Kelly ..!ihnp4!tty3b!mjk