To Sing a Different Song.

We appreciated James Kurth's recent article, "To Sing a Different Song" (Summer 1999), in which he advocated a third way for the Baltic states - a capturing of the middle ground between NATO membership on the one hand and complete isolation from the West (military and otherwise) on the other. He calls for the Baltic states to weigh the opposing forces of NATO and Russia, west and east, against one another, and in doing so perform a balancing act similar to the one performed by Finland during the Cold War.

Professor Kurth acknowledges that this third way "is a path decisively rejected by the Baltic states themselves." Perhaps we can explain why this is so in the case of Estonia. The bottom line for our country is that historically, culturally and economically it is and has always been part of the West European community. By contrast, Estonia's connection to the USSR was coerced militarily, and the United States in fact never recognized Estonia as a member of the USSR.

One of the most convincing pro-expansion arguments I have heard was put to me by a senator's legislative director, who pointed out that to invite the Baltic states to join NATO would only serve to clarify U.S. policy...