Points for the Pentagon Sir:

There can be no question of the necessity for one overall, absolute planning staff for our armed forces.

NORMAN C. FOLDEN San Francisco

Sir:

The general staff in Germany bungled two world wars. Fortunately, what is now advocated in this country is something different and more suitable.

H. T. KESSLER New York City

Sir:

Since "management today doesn't require specific skills," (especially obsolescent military skills), should not a U.S. general staff be dominated by successful lay civilians, like McElroy, who have successfully specialized in high command?

CHARLES H. McGuiRE Lieutenant (jg), U.S.N.R. Brooklyn

Sir:

Oh Joy for the sound of Neil McElroy. The Tide gets rolled back, and the show is on the road.

PHIL MORTELON Denver

Sir:

I like McElroy, Secretary of Defense, but I think he should use a good deal of the soap he sold to wash out his mouth.

T. P. HORGER JR. Clinton, S.C.

Goodbye, Jim

Sir:

Maybe the abrupt resignation of Pentagonite Gavin should be likened to a latter-day Mutiny on the Bounty. Suffice to say that "Slim Jim" must be pretty egocentric if he quits because the other cogs in the military wheel won't operate on the suggestions he made. What a terrific chumpnik! JEFF SPRUNG La Mesa, Calif.

Sir:

General Gavin's case exemplifies much of the Army's philosophy of "don't do as I do, but do as I say." The Army" is already full of "yes men." What we need are some "thinkers" who can present ideas without high echelon wrist slapping.

DERWOOD JONES St. Louis

Sir:

Gavin's got guts!

JOYCE B. CHARRON Hyattsville, Md.

Sir:

General Gavin has reached the maximum-pay retirement age and is now sounding off against the present armed forces setup for his own gain. If he loved his country more than self, he would serve his years of optimum value in the face of opposition.

JOHN C. PICKEL JR. Philadelphia

Tees & Tails

Sir:

Compared to some of the other mink-covered items referred to in your Jan. 13 issue, a mink duster for dusting Cadillacs is really practical. Incidentally, pastel and white mink have for years given an assist to Casper's greenhouses and choicer gardens, so Manhattan's Ferti-Mink [a fertilizer for penthouse plants] isn't so extraordinary.

Here's a picture of the "Mink o' Nine Tails" duster, which shows it is also a bottle opener.

G. M. KRAMPERT

Casper, Wyo.

Sir:

Thank you for mentioning mink-trimmed golf tees. Here is a photograph to show you how a Mink Tee looks when ready for play. Our product is made of fine-quality mink, packed three shades to a box: autumn haze, cerulean and white jasmine mink.

GENIE ZELLER Springfield, Mass.

Question for Lyndon

Sir:

Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson's posture of concern [Jan. 20] for our security is touching. For years he's been head of the Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee; what the hell has he been doing all that time ?

J. TURNER

New York City

Dulles & the Critics Sir:

You should have dedicated a cover to the most unsuccessful and unlikable Man of the Year: John Foster Dulles.

C. E. ARSLANOGLOU

Alexandria, Egypt

Sir:

In the conflict with Communism, I would rather have the "hard man," Mr. Dulles, on my side than any other one man you can name.

M. G. WHEELOCK Tempe, Ariz.

The Runaway

Sir:

As a member of the rock-'n'-roll generation, I suppose I should be accustomed to reading about such tragedies as "Ruin Around a Rebel" [Jan. 13], but this is one tragedy I can hardly push from my mind. I feel nothing but pity for Christine Nystrom and for the wife and children of the man she killed. Why couldn't there have been the usual logical reasons for her behavior?

JUDY DOLLENMAYER Pasadena, Calif.

Sir:

Your article helps explain why the "American Way of Life" is not universally admired abroad. You refer to a model girl (of 16) "who never drank, smoked or rock-'n'-rolled." At what age, pray, does the average teen-age girl start drinking? At 13? And does the vicious teen-age girl start at ten? ALAN F. LOWELL

Toronto

Sir:

One rather sure--but alas for the economy, impractical--way to slow this violent generation down would be to quit producing automobiles that run 100 m.p.h.

LARRY McMuRTRY Denton, Texas

The Money Goes Thataway

Sir:

It was with grim interest that I read of the going salaries of the Hollywood horses which daily gallop across our TV screen [Jan. 6]. Some quick arithmetic rewarded me with the knowledge that my husband, now in his sixth year of teaching in a public high school, is earning almost as much as the cow ponies, mustangs and cayuses. My kingdom for a hoss!

MRS. K. W. NORDMEYER North Miami, Fla.

Why George Did It

Sir:

It is heart-warming to know, via your Jan. 13 "The Man Who Played George," that there are still persons left in the U.S. who are willing to cry out against such ridiculous laws as the Broyles law, which are so reminiscent of totalitarianism.

GARY WM. ANDREWS Albuquerque

Sir:

When the Broyles oath law was passed in Illinois in 1955, we predicted that it would "catch" no subversives and serve only to harass people of conscience. The plight of ex-janitor Hjalmar Andersson is only one evidence of this. We look to the day when the legislature will undo its 1955 handiwork.

KENNETH DOUTY American Civil Liberties Union Chicago

Sir:

Since our children and the influences that they are exposed to are important, we must look for ulterior motives in those who sympathize with a school employee who refuses to take Illinois' anti-Communist oath of allegiance to state and nation.

J. KESNER KAHN Chicago

Lessons in Culture

Sir:

A letter from a Mr. Marlowe [Jan. 13] refers to the "peaceful dignity" and "serene beauty" found in the Lutheran and Episcopal churches. If dignity is found in plate-glass windows, why aren't the Protestants holding services in greenhouses? If "serene beauty" means blank walls, there are air-raid shelters. Granted we Catholics occasionally lapse into the tranquilized interiors of modern-style architecture, but when we do, it is only to share the blame Mr. Marlowe claims other religions have total right to.

JACK McFARLAND Los Angeles

Sir:

Does Marlowe realize that all the famous European churches, such as Chartres, the cathedrals at Paris, Cologne, Milan, etc. either are or were Catholic churches?

R. B. WATKINS Jacksonville, Fla.

Man of the Year

Sir:

Khrushchev is a drunkard, a braggart, an atheist, a liar and a barbarian. Where is your sense of common decency and morality?

BETTY ARNRED Hot Springs, Ark.

TIME'S choice for Man of the Year is no moral award. The criterion: who, for better or worse, dominated the news of the year.--ED.

From Here to Illiteracy

Sir:

Why blame James Jones for his new book [Jan. 13]? He's just been sitting in a little Illinois town putting his thoughts on paper--like many other inept writers. Blame the present sad state of American letters in which publishers print manuscripts of such caliber; moving-picture companies buy them at a cost of millions. It is scant comfort to professional writers like myself--who beat our brains out, trying to peddle manuscripts of more or less reasonable value in a market without values--to know that Some Came Running from Here to Eternity.

SIDNEY C. BULLA Chicago

Sin in Five Lines

Sir:

It is a melancholy reflection that Thackeray's lost limerick about the Countess Guiccioli might have gained him a greater literary immortality than his shelf of great novels. May I suggest:

Sighed the beautiful Countess of Guiccioli, Who slept with Lord Byron habitually: "How I wish that George Gordon Would give up his lordin' And attend to his pleasures less ritually!"

DE VALLON SCOTT Van Nuys, Calif.

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