Two-Fisted Air Power

Sir:

. . . Your latest article on U.S. air power [TIME, May 12] does not give the complete picture on armed air power.

Every thinking person knows Uncle Sam's air power is two-fisted. The right fist is the U.S.A.F.--smashing, powerful and capable; the left fist is U.S. naval and Marine aviation--rapier-like, highly mobile and superb. The bloodstream for these fighting fists is Uncle Sam's civilian aeronautical industry.

ERNEST S. PARK Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N. Rio de Janeiro

Sir:

In your article on U.S. air power you made no mention of the impact of guided-missile warfare on air power . . .

In any mid-air contest between a piloted aircraft and a well-designed guided missile, the former has no more than a 50-50 chance of surviving. The missile will always have a speed and maneuverability advantage because the aircraft must be designed around human limitations . . . If it takes two $100,000 missiles to destroy a million-dollar bomber, hadn't we better reassess the latter's real strategic value? . . . Control of the air will shortly pass from piloted aircraft to antiaircraft guided missiles [and then] the piloted aircraft will cease to have tactical significance except for noncombat employment.

The Soviets appear to be quite appreciative of this revolutionary prospect . . . It is reasonable to presume that their important targets will be heavily defended by these missiles. How will the B-47 fare against such a defense? The time has come for us to adopt another yardstick for measuring air power than the air group. We must plan for the impact of guided-missile warfare.

GRAYSON MERRILL Commander, U.S.N. Bureau of Aeronautics Washington, B.C.

The One That Got Away

Sir:

Shame on you for saying that Dick Russell would be the "second bachelor-President"--the first being James Buchanan!

Grover Cleveland was a bachelor when he went into office and was later married in the White House . . .

ROBERT O. FOOTE Sierra Madre, Calif.

Ruffles & Flourishes

Sir:

Your article [TIME, May 12] on "Honest Ave, the hairsplitter" is delicious. Twenty years ago we tried one millionaire who gave the national bobsled a push down the icy run. Exhilarating at first, but now we're going at terrific speed and . . . we're heading right for a big tree.

This time let's put a man at the control who came up the hard way. Think hard; his first name is a three-letter word.

H. W. JOYCE

Brookline, Mass.

P: Bob or Ike?--ED.

Sir:

Eisenhower's victories are termed "smashing," "atomic," "revolutionary." Bob Taft's are minimized by "expected," etc. Now good old Senator Lodge informs us that there are not enough Republicans in the U.S. to elect a President. Well, if Eisenhower is nominated, there certainly won't be many Republicans at the polls. We'd rather stay home . . .

MRS. MARIAN ERICKSON

Chicago

Christianity in Fruita

Sir:

In regard to your article, "Good Neighbors," in the May 12 issue, it is gratifying to learn of a community where a man and his family are helped because they need help--regardless of color.

The citizens of Fruita, Colo, should be commended, for it is Americans such as they who will break the ridiculous code of racial discrimination.

MR. & MRS. BARRY GRAVES

Gainesville, Fla.

Sir:

To Fruita should go the award "American town of the year." . . .

JOSEPH JUNDANIAN

Northbridge, Mass.

Cut-Rate Freedom?

Sir:

Reader Gerald Wickremesooriya's letter [TIME, May 12] expresses a belief which is only too prevalent in Asia and Europe . . . Freedom is not like a commodity with which one bargains. Anyone fighting Communism is doing more for himself than the United States could ever do.

SIGMUND V. WROBLEWSKI Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N. Carmel, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Is it unfair of us to ask for a payment in loyalty for the aid we propose to Ceylon? We have seen what all of the aid to Russia has brought us--rebuff and humiliation . .

. Can we actually attempt to correct every ailment or grievance that is present in the world today? I think the answer is obvious. It appears to me that some people place the blame for the miserable world at the feet of the United States . . .

FRANCIS J. SCULLY JR.

Tucson, Ariz.

Sir:

The reaction of Mr. Wickremesooriya . . . is pretty discouraging to American citizens who are helping his people out of their own pockets . . . Is it too much to ask that in return for money and materials we request that his country not send rubber to Red China for shooting up our men and Korean civilians?

E. F. TROYCHAK Ossining, N.Y.

TV Tune

Sir:

Having viewed the tour of the White House with President Truman [TIME, May 12], I was surprised to find that daughter Margaret did not know what father had played on the Steinway. According to her, it was Mozart's Ninth Sonata. Well, it wasn't. Check again with Mr. Truman and you will find out that it was Sonata No. 16 in A Major . . .

FRANK ROWLEY Santa Barbara, Calif.

P: Check again--and everybody's right. It was a Mozart Sonata in A Major, now generally known by its Koechel number (K. 331), but previously listed by musical editors as both No. 9 and No. 16.--ED.

God at the Cinema

Sir:

. . . I would like to point up a side of the current Catholic-Protestant controversy which is usually ignored . . . Very nearly all motion pictures being currently released present their characters either as Catholics, or as people with no religion . . . Many of us resent this representation to the exclusion of all others . . . Movies should present all sides fairly, and stop trying to convert everyone to a single way of thinking . . .

KENNETH C. REED Houston

Old News

Sir:

As a dispenser of new business ideas, TIME now takes its place one pace to the rear of the Tanganyika Tattler. See your "New Idea" on Central Phone Dictation Systems [May 5] . . .

Edison Televoice . . . was widely proclaimed late in 1950. Perhaps the idea was too new then for TIME'S Business editor, who linked the invention with another company some 16 months later.

Evidently TIME'S editors have not kept pace with TIME'S readers, many of whom discovered Televoice through 15 big Edison ad insertions (the New Fashioned Way of Dictating is Televoice--only Edison makes it) between TIME'S own covers . . .

JOHN E. SLOANE Director of Public Relations Thomas A. Edison, Inc. West Orange, N.J.

Sir:

I was amazed to see your Business & Finance editor report a central dictation system under "New Ideas." He has a good nose for old news . . . For nearly two years Dictaphone has offered such a system specially designed to take advantage of the world's most successful dictating machine, the Time-Master.

A. DONALD BRICE Director of Advertising & Public Relations Dictaphone Corp. New York City

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