Off & Running Sir: My spirits cringe at the possibility that, with bad luck, the next President of the U.S. will consult the "Kennedy clan" and the "family war councils" instead of his Cabinet. "Tribal law" will dictate policies on foreign affairs, national government, taxes, farm prices, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum!

CAROL R. WHITE DeKalb, Ill.

Sir: Dedication to the common good, courage in the service of country, disciplined minds, ability to face crisis, strength of purpose--what more can be asked of any American family ?

DAN & ROSE LUCEY Canoga Park, Calif.

Sir: My warmest congratulations on your fine Kennedy article and the truly classic cover. As a Canadian wellwisher, I hope you will not mind my saying that if you don't put him in, you may have "had it"--and that means us, too.

G. L. CLARKE Winnipeg, Man.

Sir: I, for one, would hesitate to vote for Senator Kennedy, who has already shown neglect of his senatorial duties for some six months.

PATRICIA A. AVERY Toledo, Ohio

Sir: A fine cover story of July 11 on the Kennedys! I saw the Kennedy family, So here's my fervent prayer: Please let them keep their money, But, Lord, remove their hair.

FRED HAYES Clinton, Ind.

Sir: Your Kennedy cover prompts me to ask if he were elected, would he be the only elected President with a living father? Mr. Coolidge's father was living when he became President, but by succession, not election.

HARRISON DALE Santa Barbara, Calif.

P: Other White House fathers: John Adams, Nathaniel Fillmore, Jesse Root Grant, George Tryon Harding.--ED.

Sir: As an independent voter, I had yet to understand what Senator Kennedy's qualifications are for President. But I find there is one qualification, and it also solves the problem of the Vice Presidency. We wouldn't need one. If anything happened to Jack, Brother Bobby would fill in, and if Bobby died, Teddy would take over for him. Ah--but what if Teddy went too? Well then, we could fall back on that granddaddy of all shrewd operators, Joe Sr.

MRS. L. SIMON Van Nuys, Calif.

Sir: It is far better to have a Joseph Kennedy whispering into the ear of the President of the United States than a Sherman Adams.

E. RHODA GREENBERG Los Angeles

Sir: If it makes no difference whether your President will be a Catholic or a Protestant, religion in America is something empty, formal and superfluous. I think religion doesn't take an end at the door of the church; on the contrary, it should inspire, guide and fortify men in their life of all day. Kennedy is not to be chosen merely because of his faith; nevertheless, it is a fact which must be taken into account.

RUDI KESSELS Leuven, Belgium

Sir: Every indication points to Roman Catholic political rigging . . . Di Salle, Butler, Brown and others involved in what is undoubtedly the dirtiest politics in our country's history.

CARSON BOYLE Dayton, Ohio

Sir: While my father and I were traveling through south Texas, we saw this sign near Karnes City in Karnes County [see cut).

JERRY SMITH Seymour, Texas

Sir: ". .. the family foofaraws." Do you know what foofaraw means? It is a word that was used by the fur traders and trappers in the Rockies in the early 1800s. It meant the trinkets these men gave the Indian girls and squaws for their favors. It might even mean fur jackets or a horse and saddle. Foofaraw was whatever it took to make her his.

MRS. H. A. ORRELL Winter Haven, Fla.

Sir: It may well be that what we need most is Mr. Kennedy's or Mr. Nixon's youth and youthful approach to "old" problems created by or unresolved by senior citizens. George Chapman's words come to mind: "Men rather honor the sun rising than the sun going down."

JOSEPH J. BURNS Haddonfield, N.J.

Upheaval in Africa Sir: If, as you stated, the Belgian Congo has stridden "out of the Stone Age in a matter of decades," then it has reverted to the Stone Age in a matter of days.

STEPHEN D. BOURGEOIS New Orleans

Sir: Indeed tribalism is Africa's most potent reality [June 27]. Why do our African political leaders not realize this? Why do they fear it and try to ignore it or stamp it out? Why can it not be used to create a national legislative body where all tribes will be represented on a tribal basis? The tribes' individual rights would be guaranteed, and their respective potentialities developed while they worked together for the common good. I am a Masai of Tanganyika. We are a pastoral people, and we do not want our highland grazing areas taken from us by our agriculturist Bantu neighbors. We, too, are separated from our Masai brothers in Kenya by "an artificial and arbitrary boundary drawn years ago by the European colonialists." We want that boundary erased. But we also want "a new nation"--a free Tanganyika and East Africa.

SIKAR OLE SEREMON Monduli, British East Africa

Sir: In discussing the outbreaks of violence in the Congo, you say that "14 million people reverted to near savagery" and that "there seemed no logical explanation for the madness that swept the Congo." May I suggest that such reversion to savagery is not peculiar to the African but that throughout history such excesses have generally followed in the wake of heady new freedom won at last by people who have previously been treated like dogs. Freedom permits open expression of hatred that has been seething for years, and that hatred bursts like water from a broken dam. For the moment there is terror, but it does not last, just as the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution did not last.

ELLEN HOLLY Richmond Hill, N.Y.

Sir: The "benevolent" colonial powers, and the U.N. too, are evading their responsibility by granting independence to immature nations. Would you call anybody benevolent if he placed matches, knives and poison in the hands of small children just because their screaming got on his nerves?

N. DALMADY Caracas, Venezuela

Passion Play Sir: Hang TIME ! Most obviously you forgot that the people of Oberammergau are devotedly fulfilling a promise to God that their ancestors made centuries back. In the 1600s, when the Black Plague was sweeping the country, killing thousands, the people of this village turned to their only help--they dropped to their knees and promised God that if the plague was spared them, they would present the drama of the Christ's Passion every ten years. This is what they are doing. They aren't striving for the perfection of Hollywood with all its top stars and glitter. Why then do you criticize as if this were Hollywood? This article gave me an aching heart! You have made little of what is a big thing to the people of Oberammergau, for you could not see past "1,600 painful amateurs."

LUCY WATKINS Houston

"Courageous Leadership" Sir: You have done a useful service for civil aviation in this country by calling attention to the statesmanship of CAB Chairman Whitney Gillilland in specifying to the Defense Department that Military Air Transport traffic move over the certificated airlines at tariff rates, eliminating the ruinous practice of cutthroat bidding [July 18]. Only with this type of courageous leadership can the CAB fulfill its responsibility for developing an economically sound airlines system with the health and vigor to serve the country's civil and military needs.

CHARLES S. THOMAS President Trans World Airlines New York City

Edifice Complex? Sir: As an American born in Norway, I was startled by the interior of the new American embassy building in Oslo. How Architect Saarinen could create this sinister prison interior with its barred rows of cells (not to mention the snake pit in the center) as symbolic of the freedom for which America stands is incomprehensible to me--as is my former countrymen's enthusiastic approval.

CHRISTOPHER NORTH Haverford, Pa.

Sir: There was no mention of what these splendiferous palaces are costing the taxpayer, but whatever it costs is too much. Isn't the American stereotype ingrained enough without giving our enemies more fuel for their propaganda machine? All that the article proved to me is that we are furthering an edifice complex instead of true diplomacy.

DAVID C. HOROWITZ Evanston, Ill.

Sir: I would like to commend you on your fine article and pictures concerning America's new embassies abroad. Each of the buildings seems to display a serenity and respect for the culture of the country in which it is located. Certainly the quiet dignity of such structures at sites around the world will make a definite contribution to U.S. prestige abroad.

Louis M. BOURNE Alexandria, Va.

Red Star over Cuba? Sir: As a former Hungarian refugee and prospective U.S. citizen I can't help feeling a certain sad satisfaction upon Khrushchev's rocket-rattling warnings concerning Cuba. Four years ago we were anticipating something similar from the U.S. All we got was ''moral support" and the irresponsible lies of the unofficial American broadcasting stations. You--or rather we--deserve this lesson.

NICHOLAS NAGY Brooklyn

Sir: How does the mighty Uncle Sam feel now? Not so pleasant to be expropriated instead of the supporter of expropriation is it? I wrote to you two years ago telling you that the U.S. would regret the betrayal of its allies at the time of Suez. Now you know how the British and French felt when Nasser with the support of the U.S. stole the Suez Canal. The price America is now paying is only part of that she will suffer for setting the precedent for international brigandage.

R. A. ALDRIDGE London

Bicycles from Japan Sir: It is indeed unfortunate that I must write to you under these circumstances, as I have had great admiration for TIME Magazine over many years. Our corporation was mentioned, stating that the Ohio Independent Products Corp. canceled an order for 1,700 bicycles. In fact, our corporation is bringing in 48,500 bicycles, the second largest volume of 26-in. lightweight bicycles in the U.S. by any importer.

HERBERT L. GRAN Vice President Independent Products Corp. New York City

The Journalists Sir: The statements of Mr. Edwin L. Dale, as reported in your July 11 issue, represent something new in journalistic commentating; namely, conclusions based on fact.

W. Y. C, HUMES Los Angeles

Sir: The analysis of the cold war by Edwin L. Dale Jr. is a scholarly one, but it seems to overlook [Communism's] conscienceless will to use brute force in gaining what it seeks if everything else fails. The fact that "Europe is vigorous and thriving and fully with us" is hardly comforting in the light of Russia's ability to overrun it, in a matter of days, if she so chooses, at the same time delivering us a crippling blow to ward off any opposition. At any given moment, Russia has that physical and psychological edge on us.

RICHARD BECK Fort Washington, Pa.

Sir: Joe Alsop is not a Jeremiah. He is just an intensely ingrown Democratic partisan.

SEELEY WILCOX New York City

Sir: Bright fellows like Reston seem to get carried away with their own cleverness with words. Reston seems to be blind to the real progress that has been made in recent years. He doesn't seem to have a perspective of history. If, like Socrates, he's merely posing as a gadfly to prod us into doing better, that's O.K., but in his eagerness to defame he can do a lot of harm.

EDMUND LLOYD Middletown, N.Y.

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