The Dulles Assessment
Sir:
I wish to express my appreciation of your Jan. 23 article on John Foster Dulles' admirable action in not giving everything to the Communists. He is one of the very few people, in our time, who is not lost in the Red haze.
JAMES RIFE
Sterling, Ill.
Sir:
It would seem that world foreign policies can be divided into two types: peace-at-any-price and brink-of-war. Thank goodness our Secretary of State has the courage to place justice and morality in international affairs above peace. I'm not surprised that the British object to this type of foreign policy. After all, one of their leaders carried his umbrella to Munich. But it is a source of disappointment that some Democrats are so hard pressed for an election-year issue.
JOHN E. BAIRD
Modesto, Calif.
Sir:
Waltzing to the brink of destruction with an H-bomb tucked snugly under his arm may be Mr. Dulles' foolhardy idea of a sort of can-can diplomacy. But the true art of diplomacy remains neither to taunt nor to boast nor berate but to persuade. This is the art Mr. Dulles completely lacks. Wherever he has traveled, he has made us no friends. He has proved more an irritant internationally than a salve.
HUGH SHELDON
Piedmont, Calif.
Sir:
If the Democrats are so horrified at the thought of Dulles bringing us face to face with the "brink of war," then it seems fair that the Republicans can publicly be even more upset about the way the Truman Administration let us fall over backward into war.
JOHN LEICESTER
Downey, Calif.
Resignation
Sir:
The same week your Jan. 23 article on Budget Director Hughes appeared with his picture on the cover, he resigned. Would you please run a similar article on Mr. Dulles?
WALTER GERSTEL
Berkeley, Calif.
For God, the Pope and Joe
Sir:
If Lausche runs for President, a vote for Lausche will be a vote for the Pope, and a vote for the Pope will be a vote for God, and a vote for God will be a vote for Joe McCarthy, and who wants to vote for him?
EDWARD E. MIKENAS
Galway, N.Y.
Sir:
If all Democrats believed as Ohio's Governor Lausche does, there would be twice as many good Republicans.
LEE STRYKER
Kalamazoo, Mich.
Sir:
At present I am an Eisenhower Republican. However, I think it would be easy to persuade me to become a Frank Lausche Democrat.
GERALD J. WEIPERT
Detroit
Gas-Bill Backers
SIR:
AS FORMER MAYOR OF THE CITY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND THE PRESENT CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONSUMERS AND SMALL PRODUCERS OF NATURAL GAS, I WAS QUITE SURPRISED TO SEE MYSELF AND MY COMMITTEE ALIGNED WITH SENATOR CHARLES POTTER IN OPPOSING PASSAGE OF THE NATURAL GAS BILL IN YOUR JAN. 30 ARTICLE "THE LOBBYIST." MY COMMITTEE, BACKED BY MORE THAN 350 MAYORS AND 4OO SMALL PRODUCERS OF NATURAL GAS, TO SAY NOTHING OF THOUSANDS OF CONSUMERS, IS BUSILY ENGAGED IN DOING ALL IN ITS POWER TO PRESENT THE FACTS IN THE INTERESTS OF THE SUCCESSFUL PASSAGE OF THE BILL.
ALEX M. CLARK
WASHINGTON, D.C.
SIR:
. . . TIME GOOFED ON GAS. ALEX M. CLARK DOES NOT SUPPORT MY POSITION IN OPPOSITION TO THE FULBRIGHT NATURAL-GAS BILL . . . MR. CLARK IS EMPLOYED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE "JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONSUMERS AND SMALL PRODUCERS OF NATURAL GAS" AND IS DIRECTING ITS LOBBYING EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE INTEREST OF THE LARGE 'GAS PRODUCERS. NOTE THAT ONLY 29 PRODUCERS PROVIDED 63% OF ALL NATURAL GAS FOR INTERSTATE USE IN 1953. JUST TWO COMPANIES CONTROL APPROXIMATELY ONE-SEVENTH OF ALL U.S. NATURAL-GAS RESERVES. MY STAND IS TAKEN TO PROTECT FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST, NOT TO PROVIDE SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS BY DIPPING INTO THE CAPTIVE CONSUMER'S POCKETBOOK.
CHARLES E. POTTER
U. S. SENATOR
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Promoting Christianity
Sir:
We have been reading about the five missionaries killed by the Auca Indians in Ecuador [Jan. 23]. These young men were very fine people. However, let's look at the Indians' side of the story. The Aucas are well known to be Stone Age people, they hate all strangers, and don't want anyone coming into their territory. Why go in? These people have lived this way for hundreds of years, and I am sure the Lord must be interested in them just as they are. Let's use all our efforts to improve our own country and stay out of the jungles of Ecuador--I am sure it will cause the Auca Indians to give thanks to whatever God they believe in.
DAVID P. LEAS
Villa Nova, Pa.
Sir:
I had met Jim Elliot and Peter Fleming--two of the dead missionaries--a few years ago, and was anxious to learn the complete story of this untimely tragedy. I cannot help agreeing with the statement you printed from Ed McCulIy's father: "God makes no mistakes." History shows that the death of martyrs does not stifle Christianity but promotes its advancement.
INEZ WARE
Nyack, N.Y.
The Grapes of Roth
Sir:
Your Cinema reviewer obviously thinks that I'll Cry Tomorrow [Jan. 23] is about some drunk who sobered up and got a second chance, or as he put it "a second career as a nightclub singer." He profoundly states: "A drunk, however, is a drunk," and "if there is anything more tedious than a lush, it is apt to be a reformed lush." Millions of people felt a choking feeling in their throats when they read Lillian Roth's life story; countless alcoholics, fighting their hard struggle to return to the world of reality, have been inspired and lifted up by her struggle. And then this pseudo-intellectual slob of a reviewer comes up with his crummy appraisal and simple remarks.
DONALD JOHN GIESE
St. Paul
Sir:
Your critic's verbal sideswipe was obviously an attempt at tin-pot philosophy, concocted from a vacant mind and a typewriter with keys. Has he ever been drunk for 16 years? Has he ever had to fight with anything outside of an empty tube of toothpaste?
RICHARD KILBURN
Ottawa
P: 1) No. 2) Yes.--ED.
The State of France
Sir:
Your Jan. 16 report on the French elections is a gem. It should be read with great care by all our political leaders, especially by our presidential candidates. France has sunk so low that it no longer has men in public life with enough patriotism to put national interests ahead of their selfish private animosities. France is now in an advanced state of economic and political decadence. And the rise of a new dictatorship is not far in the future. With its antiquated economic system, its chaotic politics and its weak armed forces, France as an ally is worse than nothing. It is time we cut off our economic and military aid, which is the only thing that props France up.
GEORGE TAYS
Historian, U.S. Army
c/o Postmaster
New York City
Sir:
I would like to know why so many Americans got so mad about the results of the French elections, especially the rise of Poujade and his party. France is a free country; they had free elections, so what is all the yelling about? Because we give them money, are they supposed to vote the way we think they should?
FRANK MANGO
East Boston, Mass.
From the Lighthouse
Sir:
Not that I have anything against Mr. Randolph Churchill, with whom I happen to be acquainted, but I just do not like to be confused with him--nor he with me. You referred in TIME [Dec. 26] to Mr. Randolph Churchill's "frequent pen name of Pharos." This is untrue. Whoever I may be, I am certainly not Mr. Randolph Churchill.
PHAROS
The Spectator
London
P: Pharos may not be Randolph Churchill, but Journalist Churchill frequently contributes to the column so signed.--ED.
The Place of the Prophet (Contd.)
Sir:
Even those who do not agree with TIME'S views will agree that its Jan. 16 cover story on David Ben-Gurion is a remarkable journalistic performance. Your artist, Boris Chaliapin, deserves a bouquet for his inspiring cover portrait.
B. TOREN, EDITOR
R. LIPKIN, ASSISTANT EDITOR
Israel and Middle East
Tel Aviv, Israel
Sir:
. . . TIME slides over the ingathering of the 770,000 emigrants as a kind of crazy idea that somehow succeeded, but weeps again over the 900,000 Arab refugees who left Palestine of their own accord . . . Does not the plight of these poor political pawns clearly reveal the nature of their own government, which is so clearly utterly irresponsible to the human needs and suffering of its own people? . . .
PETER T. RICE
Los Angeles
Sir:
Your description of the attitudes of Israel, Ben-Gurion and the Arab states to one another is the clearest and most objective I have read. Am I correct in assuming that the placing of the flags in the map implies that Tel Aviv is Israel's capital city? Does the U.N. have a right to say that Washington, D.C. should not be the capital of the U.S.?
M. I. BERKMAN
Johannesburg, South Africa
P: The government of Israel considers Jerusalem to be its capital, and in July 1953 moved its foreign ministry there. But the U.S., Britain and France consider this a violation of the U.N. resolution internationalizing Jerusalem and keep their embassies in Tel Aviv, 33 miles away.--ED.
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