New member of the IMF?
Pat Holt's rationale for propping up the decrepit Soviet economy by granting the USSR membership in the International Monetary Fund is that greater Soviet integration into the global economy would moderate its behavior in international affairs [``Opening doors to the Soviets,'' Dec. 3]. Can Holt honestly say, though, that the $200 billion-plus of American capital that has been lent to the Soviet bloc since World War II has done anything to moderate Soviet expansionism?
On the contrary, American dollars have made it easier for the Soviets to assemble their massive war machine and to support antidemocratic revolutions in both hemispheres. Allen McCormick Belleview, Fla.
Popularity change The column ``The President under siege,'' Dec. 2, took Mr. Reagan's popularity to mythic levels, claiming that at ``the President's last press conference ... one could almost hear people all around the country crying out: `Hey, the President may have made a mistake - but quit kicking him around.'''
By focusing exclusively on that part of the population that, in the past, has approved of Mr. Reagan and his performance, the column has played down, even ignored, the significant and recently growing percentage of the population that, in addition to disapproving of Mr. Reagan's policies, distrusts him as well. Its optimistic appraisals of Mr. Reagan's leadership are based more on wishful thinking than on the real situation. Regina Braker Troy, N.Y.
Teen parenthood Any good that might be accomplished through the recommendations mentioned early in the article ``Major US effort urged to handle problems of teen parenthood,'' Dec. 10, will be severely counteracted by what the report recommended as its major strategy - to ``encourage diligent contraceptive use by all sexually active teen-agers'' and to continue the policy that pregnant teen-agers be able to choose abortions.
If we abide by these policies, we're telling teen-agers that the real value in life's relationships is sexual. In effect, we are helping to seriously retard our youth's ability to develop meaningful friendships.
Moreover, these recommendations are not new, as the article suggests. They are the same ones that have been promoted by Planned Parenthood for more than 10 years. Since the incidence of teen pregnancy has risen alarmingly over these years in the United States, it would seem that they have already proven detrimental. Joe Hegarty Mullica Hill, N.J.
