Our readers wrote letters throughout 1990 expressing their viewpoints on a variety of issues. Here are condensed versions of some of those letters to help us remember the events that mattered to Orange County readers this past year. We would like to thank the readers who took the time to share their viewpoints and look forward to hearing from them and others in 1991. : Ron Kovic and His Claim to Leadership

I hope the recent movement by some to import Ron Kovic into our 38th Congressional District to oppose Robert K. Dornan fails. Such a confrontation might sell newspapers but has no other useful purpose. At a time when Dornan can and should be defeated, there are those who would run a person who hopefully could not be elected.

Kovic is a man who apparently grew up with a distorted fantasy of war and a thirst for combat. During his second tour of combat in Vietnam, he was gravely wounded. Reality would not compromise. His once-beloved fantasies became the enemy of his new, distorted view of the world around him.