Man of the Year Sir:

Just heard that he is Nikita Khrushchev. A better choice would have been Laika.

GEORGIA CLARKE Redondo Beach, Calif.

SIR:

SATAN MUST BE WELL PLEASED WITH YOUR SELECTION. CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION.

R. P. GILMARTIN

PITTSBURGH

Sir:

Sure he made the news in 1957, but he's an s.o.b., and if TIME'S choice produces the same result that befell Traitor Pierre Laval, I'll say amen to a job well done.

HOWARD VAN St. Paul

Sir:

Butcher of the Year would have been more appropriate.

(THE REV.) HUGH K. WOLF St. Agnes Church Vermillion, S. Dak.

Sir:

Congratulations. I think you made an excellent selection.

JACK SMITH Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Sir:

There should be two men of the year. Continue if you wish with the most notorious, but, may I suggest, add another: the man who has done much for his fellow men and the world at large.

WILLIS C. ARNOLD

Longmeadow, Mass.

Sir:

For college students who have been sitting back and watching the growth of Khrushchev's power and the materialization of his goals, your article was more than sufficient stimulus to get us back to those lost arts of thinking and acting. The preserving of democracy and regaining of international leadership is up to us in the classrooms.

MARILOU REITMAN New York City

Sir:

The man on your cover doesn't scare me. He's not omniscient. His picture reveals the failure of even Russia to solve a major scientific problem: baldness.

R. E. TAUB Montreal

Mac & the Girls

Sir:

Why was the "hardbitten, respected, slave-driving bastard," B.G. MacNabb, so excited over the recently successful test firing of "Big Annie"? His sophomoric screams of delight remind me of the reaction of an inadequate coach when his outclassed team scores a surprise touchdown.

EMILY FITZGERALD Claremont, Calif.

Sir:

What a thrill, after twelve years, to see a once familiar face in TIME, Dec. 30. I knew Byron G. MacNabb when he was a lieutenant in the Navy and I was civilian secretary to the officer in charge of the armament test unit of the Navy's Patuxent River station. We were both in the unit at the time they test fired the first rockets mounted on the underside of the wings of Navy planes--we couldn't have known we were spawning such a big girl as "Annie." I remember one occasion when they shot up their own fuselage and the plane came crippling in--a mech had lost a foot and Mac's hand was badly injured. Mac's rueful remark was that it was a pretty stupid way to have to earn a Purple Heart.

AGNES STALKER Toledo

NATO's Norstad

Sir:

I have never written a fan letter in my life, but the wonderful cover portrait of General Norstad by Pietro Annigoni has prompted this one. Thank you.

DORIS BROWN Spokane

Sir:

Only the pressure of [the NATO meeting] prevented my writing before to express my very great appreciation of the way in which the TIME story was handled. If there is a fault, it is that the comments about myself are overgenerous, and that is a fault which I find no difficulty in forgiving.

LAURIS NORSTAD General, U.S.A.F. c/o Postmaster New York City

One Man's Jiggerypook

Sir:

It is common knowledge that when anything of a finer nature, or loftier thoughts, is presented to a small-souled person it is met with hostility and contempt. Your Dec. 30 reviewer of Candles in the Sun is no exception. He can no more understand theosophy, the works of Annie Besant and Krishnamurti, than a primitive man could understand Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essays. As for the author of the book, the less said about her the better.

Louis B. BALL

Long Beach, Calif.

Sir:

So the Theosophical Society has unloosed a "tidal bore of flumduddery and jiggery-pook on the superstitious suburbs of the West." This is an unwarranted attack on an honorable institution, considerably older and more stable than TIME.

RILEY CRABB Barstow, Calif.

Another Second Best?

Sir:

Europe's new churches [TIME, Dec. 23] are breathtaking--daring--beautiful beyond words. Unfortunately, it now looks as if we are second best in another field.

JERI REISER La Habra, Calif.

Sir:

Our delight in "Europe's New Churches" was revived in your fine pictorial article. We regret only the omission of the name of the prominent postwar German artist, Georg Meistermann, who designed the stained-glass window in Schweinfurt's St. Kilian's Church.

Lois AND FRED CRANE Minot, N. Dak.

Holy Hucksters

Sir:

As a reasonably sincere Catholic, I must admit that your Dec. 23 article on holy hucksters certainly hit home. It is an unfortunate fact that the manufacturers and distributors of pseudoreligious trinkets find ready prey among many gullible Catholics. The church is strongly in favor of the use of rosaries, medals, and such aids in the worship of God, but the abuse of this custom, as practiced by these unscrupulous individuals, constitutes a grave offense against everything the church stands for.

FRANCIS JONES

Irvington, NJ.

Sir:

Our Association is almost 50 years" old, and consists of several hundred firms in the church-goods and religious-goods industry. Your one-sided report has been a disservice to these firms and--even more important--to the thousands of clergy and the millions of lay people whom they serve.

HAROLD P. C. HOWE National Association of Catholic Publishers and Dealers in Church Goods New York City

The Doctor or the Grocer?

Sir:

The Montana doctor who stated, "We're no more obligated to give service than is the grocer" [Dec. 30] should study the implications of his Hippocratic oath. The A.M.A. has the highest ethics of any profession. Such departure from these ethics and disregard of oath is good reason for--heaven forbid--socialized medicine.

A. M. HALL

Livingston, Mont.

Sir:

The Montana M.D.'s attitude is no worse than that of the Middleton, Wis. (near Madison) M.D. who, some years ago, verbally told me to "go to hell" when I asked him to our house to treat a badly burned little girl. His ethical reasoning was as follows: "You had Patty delivered in Madison, and if you want anything done for her, why don't you take her there?"

Louis E. SHAEFFER Chicago

Sir:

If I become ill, I would much prefer having the grocer treat me than that Montana practitioner.

MRS. SID TRAXLER North Hollywood, Calif.

Rally Boys, Rally

Sir:

To correct your book critic's implication that Rally Round the Flag, Boys! [Dec. 30] is being enjoyed only by the retarded, may I point out that the book received excellent notices in the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a couple of hundred other newspapers.

MAX SHULMAN Monticello, Ont.

Korean Treasures

Sir:

The Korean government and people have asked me to extend to you their deep appreciation for the Dec. 16 spread, "Art Treasure From Korea." America has a stake in these works of art because had it not been for the assistance of your country, all of them would probably be in Communist hands today. TIME'S color plates do full justice to these masterpieces and your article will do much to inform the American people of the artistic tradition that is Korea's. CHAE KYUNG OH Director

Office of Public Information Seoul, Korea

Sir:

Along with our deep appreciation, we know your pictures and article will cause countless Americans to see and enjoy these masterpieces now being exhibited in the U.S.

WON-YONG KIM The National Museum Seoul

Old Name for the New Group

Sir:

Concerning your Dec. 23 Education story on "group dynamics": it's men like Educationists jeep and Hollis who are mostly responsible for our youngsters' lack of interest in science, mathematics, languages and other subjects, and who, if they continue to dominate public education, will cause this country to lose the respect of the rest of the world.

HENRY PANNUTO JR. Teacher Belleville, Ill.

Sir:

By eliminating effective participation of the teacher, the group is denied what it needs most: the constant infusion of new ideas, the push, pull and stretch by a challenging, directing and driving leader. Ideas seldom spring spontaneously; they are communicated, i.e., taught.

HUGO W. PETERSEN JR.

Elkhart, Ind.

Sir:

We had "group dynamics" in school when I was a kid. We called it "recess."

RAY PARKER Pacific Palisades, Calif.

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