GORE . . . YOUNG AL'S LEFT TURN

Vice President Al Gore dismissed as a "college kid's silly language" a letter he wrote while a Harvard undergrad claiming the U.S. Army promoted "fascist, totalitarian regimes. " That letter and others -- written to his father, former Sen. Albert Gore, Sr., and disclosed this week in The New Yorker -- included inflammatory passages, such as: "We do have inveterate antipathy for Communism -- or paranoia as I like to put it. My own belief is that this form of psychological ailment -- in this case a national madness -- leads the victim to actually create the thing which is feared the most. It strikes me that this is precisely what the U.S. has been doing. Creating -- and if not creating, energetically supporting -- fascist, totalitarian regimes in the name of fighting totalitarianism. Greece, South Vietnam, a good deal of Latin America. For me, the best example of all is the U.S. Army." Gore, who subsequently joined the Army and served in Vietnam, isn't yet getting the kind of flak that continues to face President Clinton, who's haunted by his post-college letter to his Arkansas draft board.Post your opinion on theWashingtonbulletin board.