When I asked Alexi what more we could do. he said we need to keep sending letters. He said we must do everything in our power to make the Soviets aware that the United States will not stop fighting for him. And we will press on. not just on behalf of the 400.000 Soviet Jews who have applied for and been refused exit visas. but on behalf of those countless prisoners of conscience who have been locked up. and often beaten. humiliated. and tortured. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze is in Washington this week to negotiate a new arms control treaty. Above all. an arms treaty arms reduction depends on faith in each others respect for the most basic human right. the right to exist.