MOTHER RUSSIA

“Mothers & Sons” (by Kathleen Hunt, April 12) suggests that the noncombat atrocities inflicted upon Soviet military personnel for many years were known to Western intelligence-gathering organizations. Yet our government persisted in conducting a massive, expensive military buildup designed to oppose soldiers whose morale was so low that they probably would have defected when the first shot was fired.

RALPH FREY

San Bernardino