HUNDREDS of would-be US immigrants are stranded in the Marshall Islands. And, because the US is our good friend we should try to help if we can. It is in this spirit that I offer this suggestion. The US should not believe it is better to be dead than red, especially now that the Iron Curtain has been lifted. The US has been found in breach of international law by the International Court of Justice for its hostile conduct towards Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Its support of the Contras despite Congress' ruling the public purse should be so used, has blackened the copy-books of two US presidents. Cubans, guilty of hijacking a plane to Florida two months ago, were screened in as refugees in a day. Unqualified refugees may be deported to Haiti but not to China, Vietnam or Cuba, though their governments may be less repressive than the dictatorships in banana republics. Unless the US realises that returning an illegal immigrant to a communist country may not be sending him to a fate worse than death, the East Wood dilemma will never go away. KETCHEN KUO Hongkong