To The Editor,
Yes, President Vladimir V. Putin, – this former colonel of the K.G.B. -, should apologize for the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and for what the Soviets did to Poland and the Baltics. But the 50 years of illegal and criminal occupation of the Eastern half of Europe, was not approved by Molotov and Ribbentrop, it was sanctioned by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.
It is dishonest to ask for an apology only from the Russians, when it were the western democracies that permitted the Gulag, the Berlin Wall, the opression of the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring and the Solidarnosk movement in Poland. It would be a falsification of history to blame only the Soviets for the crimes committed during the occupation of East-Central Europe.
More than a single apology is needed, if we are to face up to the truth!. And we should face the truth, because without an apology, there can be no forgiveness and without forgiveness there can be no reconciliation.
Béla Lipták
Stamford, CT
5-7-2005
TEL: 203-357-7614
