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- LETTERS, Page 8BETRAYAL
-
-
- To revive the 1987 Moscow espionage scandal, as Ronald
- Kessler's Moscow Station does, is disturbing to U.S. Marines
- currently serving in the corps (BOOK EXCERPT, Feb. 20). The
- humiliation brought about by the original investigation was enough
- to make heads hang low for quite a while. A few inferior characters
- must not undermine the reputation of one of the world's elite
- fighting forces. The public should have complete faith in the U.S.
- Marine Corps.
-
- (PFC) Robert L. Minchew Jr., U.S.M.C.
- Camp Pendleton, Calif.
-
- Forty years ago, I was a Marine and had an experience very much
- like that of Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, only in my case it happened
- in Japan. While still wearing my uniform, I was assigned as defense
- attorney for a Japanese field marshal at the 1946-48 Tokyo
- war-crimes trial. I poured my heart into my work and became a
- prominent figure at the trial. The Soviets noted this and reckoned
- that, at age 34, I was a probable comer in postwar America. They
- decided to make a "friend" of me. A new member of the Soviet
- prosecution staff arrived, a young beauty who had all the physical
- attributes of Violetta, the Soviet woman who entrapped Lonetree.
- She too spoke perfect English. "Chance encounters" began -- in the
- hallways en route to the courtroom and to and from my office in the
- same building. She would stop me and express enthusiasm over my
- courtroom work, and soon made it clear that these conversations
- could be continued after hours if I wished. She played her role
- very well. Had I been a bachelor instead of a married man who loved
- his wife, it is possible that I might have overcome my hatred of
- Communism and accepted her blandishments, just as our bachelor
- Marines did with the Soviet women at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
-
- Aristides George Lazarus
- Bronxville, N.Y.
-
- Enough is enough! How many times are you going to defame the
- Marine Corps on your cover? The fact that a couple of lightweights
- managed to slip through the screening process does not justify such
- a scurrilous attack.
-
- Richard Ohlarik
- Somerville, N.J.
-
- I was shocked by Kessler's account of how the KGB penetrated
- the American embassy in the Soviet Union. It's absurd to expect
- unarmed, inexperienced, vulnerable personnel to protect our
- embassy.
-
- Elle Friedman Becker
- Beaverton, Ore.
-
- The excerpt from Moscow Station does a disservice to journalism
- and the truth. Kessler's paragraphs drip with gossipy innuendo, and
- his insinuations serve to vilify Lonetree, Corporal Arnold Bracy
- and, by extension, all enlisted men and women. Kessler has smeared
- two young men, both scapegoats in an effort to cover up high-level
- security violations at the embassy. Lonetree was convicted by the
- press before his trial. Bracy was never tried. I'm afraid it is
- Lonetree who was betrayed by his country, not the other way around.
-
- Paul Bloom
- Clayton Lonetree Defense Committee
- Big Mountain Support Group
- Berkeley