Assistant midwives
The heading over John Simpson's article .I-low the KGB freed Europe' (5 November) is confusing and so is the theory that the secret police in the Soviet satellites engi- neered the downfall of their own regimes.
In fact, the KGB and its East European counterparts were the first to sense that the growing discontent of the people was com- ing to a boil. With foresight, they took out political insurance by aligning themselves with the incipient revolt.
Far from causing the victory of freedom, they merely anticipated its effect and became part of the liberating process.
To give them overall credit for their opportunism in 1989/90 is unfair to the thousands of genuine patriots who died or risked their lives in opposing Stalin's heirs.
It is said that success has many fathers, whereas failure is an orphan.
The henchmen of communist repression have no paternity claim to eastern Europe's new and struggling democracy. At best they were assistant midwives at its birth and that only because they were haunted by their bloody past.
Lionel Bloch
9 Wimpole Street, London W1
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