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From: jho@ihuxn.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Letters for Peace
Message-ID: <770@ihuxn.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 14:06:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxn.770
Posted: Tue Jul 17 14:06:31 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jul-84 03:01:38 EDT
References: <757@ihuxn.UUCP> <410@ames.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 41

From Al Globus:

>You guys have rather naive ideas about how efficient the Soviet system
>is.  If you send enough letters a lot will get through.  Also, although
>the Soviet regime is definitely repressive, it's not quite as bad as RR
>would have us believe (although Stalin in the 30's got close).  I was there
>in 68 and had one or two discussions with the locals where they complained
>about their government without looking over their shoulder.  Incidentally,
>the Russian people are about as nice as they come, and they LOVE Americans.
>Now if only they could get their government under control ....

I would say you have been duped. There are some westerners who seem to
loose their eye sight, when they visit the USSR.  I have met a number
of Russian immigrants.  They tell me quite a different story.  You
have to be very careful with your tongue in the USSR.  If you don't,
you may find yourself sent to the Gulag for 15 years.

Incidentally, you say, you were in Russia in 1968. Did you use
this opportunity to travel to Czechoslovakia?  Have you been in
Prague in 1968?  Did you see the Russian tanks role over freedom
in the streets of Prague?

I shall end this discussion of "freedom in the USSR" with a
joke:

	An American met a Russian.  And as usual, an argument
	started.  The argument was centered around the issue
	which system is more democratic, the Russian or the
	American.  The American said, "The US is more democratic,
	I can go to the White House and yell, "Reagan is an
	idiot and a fool, and nobody will bother or stop me"
	To this the Russian replied, "Big deal, I can can go
	to the Kremlin and yell, "Reagan is an idiot and a fool,
	and nobody will bother or stop me"
-- 

Yosi Hoshen
Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois
(312)-979-7321
Mail: ihnp4!ihuxn!jho