Dear Editor

...Thank goodness the Reagan team does not view this brand of escapism as a viable option No one The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...

...Professor of Civilization and Foreign Affairs, Academic Dean, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy...

...City Charles Hayes How interesting that Reagan has appointed Henry Kissinger as his chief panjandram and consensus builder for U S mischief in Central America The "two-track" policy Paul E Sigmund describes is reminiscent of Kissinger's tactics against Chile in the early '70s In Chile, the official American policy was economic hostility-that was the first track The second track, huffily disavowed by former Nixon Administration members, was covert action, hostile operations and ultimately assassination...

...The difference this time around is that the Reagan Administration does not even bother disowning its second track It does say it is merely intent on "pressuring" the Sandinistas in Managua, not on bringing them down, but the distinction is moot Boston James Bendlx The day is long past when a U S President can handle Latin America by sending down troops Paul E Sigmund is right to say that Reagan should "consider giving greater weight to the improved possibilities of the diplomatic option and link U S endeavors with those of the Contadora group " I would even argue that economic warfare and the manipulation of monetary aid is today inappropriate...

...Medford, Mass John P Roche...

...claims that keeping the Communists out of our backyard is easy, but the task is a necessary one New York...

...When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did its part to make life rough for Michael Manlev's Jamaica, or Salvador Allende's Chile, U S prestige in the region suffered despite the short term political gains As Latin nations seek greater autonomy, Washington will have to moderate its desire to run things Denver John M Blakestone The cry from Central America these days is "Yankee go home'" But if we leave, in a few years we will start hearing, "Yankee come back " New York City Gordon Crane Sauvage I, too, object to the gay-is-good message inserted into the musical version of La Cage aux Folles But Leo Sauvage ("On Stage," NL, September 5) overreacts The show does have some very funny lines that are intended to be just that New York City RENEE GREENSPAN...

...Central America Paul E Sigmund's logic escapes me ("Reagan's Two-Track Policy in Central America," NL, August 8-22) On the one hand, he admits that there is concrete evidence of "policy coordination and (limited) shipments of arms and supplies" to Salvadoran rebels from the Leftist regime in Nicaragua, on the other, he wrings his hands over the U S efforts to check Communist expansion in the region, urging diplomatic options proposed by hardly disinterested parties like the so-called Contadora nations (Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama) Sigmund seems to be suggesting that Washington abandon its leadership...

...Dear Editor What Locke Said George P Brockway's "Life, Liberty and Property" (NL, July 11-25) reminds me that I have been intrigued for some 40 years now by the dispute over the significance of Thomas Jefferson's use of "the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence rather than the supposedly sacred Lockean formulation, "life, liberty and property " Unlike those engaged in this Talmudic exercise, as a sophomore at Hofstra I actually read John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding Admittedly it was slow going, but when the hardy reader gets to Book II, Chapter 21, Section 52, he learns that "the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in the careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness [Which is] the necessary foundation of our liberty ". This is simply the kernel of Locke's views, expressed at length in Chapter 21, "Of Power " I suggest that Locke's words in the Second Treatise on Government(published in 1689) and in the Essay (1690) were meshed in the minds of Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and other Amencan admirers of his...