‘AMERIKANA’

Regarding Howard Rosenberg’s Feb. 18 column on “Amerika”: I am not a Soviet apologist; I do believe that the Soviets have a sincere desire for peace, that they are a closed society making genuine attempts to become more open, and that we should perceive this as positively as possible, rather than dismiss each attempt at cooperation (e.g., on arms control) as propaganda.

As for Nicaragua, I make no claim to be an expert on foreign policy or an articulate spokesman of any kind. However, in the face of repeated lies by Administration spokesmen (Elliott Abrams, consistently 180 degrees from the truth, is quoted almost daily) in justification of a policy that is illegal and immoral, I feel obliged to speak out--however clumsily--against the injustices being committed in my country’s name and to remember how I feel about those Germans who spoke up against Nazi atrocities and those others who, out of fear or philosophy, looked the other way.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

Malibu