THE COST OF STAR WARS

Regarding Jack Miles’ review of “The Cardinal and the Kremlin” by Tom Clancy (Book Review, Aug. 14): The reason to be against Star Wars is not in regard to whether it works but in regard to the cost . The United States and the Soviet Union are falling apart. The arms race is destroying both nations. The United States is becoming a chaotic disaster. The streets are all broken, the bridges are falling, the schools are falling apart, the pollution is horrible and the whole United States is becoming a rotten, filthy, crime-ridden, poverty-stricken mess because of the stupid arms race. The public is foolish to stand for it, and Gorbachev wants it stopped.

HUGH WESTON

PALM DESERT