Secretary Baker’s Mideast Visit

Your editorial “Hoping Against Hope for the Breakthrough” (April 18) on Secretary of State James Baker’s efforts to end the Arab-Israeli cold/hot war invites the comparison you make with President Carter’s successful promotion of the Israeli-Egyptian rapprochement of 1977. But you fail to note the two salient differences between then and now: the then-President came to the peace table with clean hands, whereas the current President and his secretary of state had just promoted and waged a major war. President Carter showed his sincerity by his personal hands-on negotiating, while President Bush showed his insincerity (or remoteness) by delegating this task.

We are left with the unhappy conclusion that this left-handed effort is a further attempt by the Administration to sell us this war--while its disproportionate cost in lives and treasure continues to mount.

DAVID ALAN MUNRO, Laguna Beach