Passing Muster

Sir:

In your July 28 cover story Maxwell Taylor sounds like the best thing to happen to the U.S. Military Establishment since General MacArthur.

Russ GRADY

Manchester, N.H.

Sir:

You have done it again! You show Taylor to be a good soldier, truly devoted to his duty and his country. You also show him to be a man with a sense of humor that makes him human.

BARBARA ROSEN

New Haven, Conn.

Sir:

At last J.F.K. has himself a tough-fisted realist for an adviser--and it's about time.

From their comments I wonder about some of the members of Congress. Just what's wrong with a man who reads books? I'll sleep a little sounder now that the President has a "book reader" at his side.

ROBERT B. DICKSON

Los Angeles

Sir:

You say that "Taylor quickly found himself bracketed between Army Secretary Wilber Brucker, who undercut him constantly, and squabbling factions of officers." How can you condone such sloppy reporting and such a ludicrous statement about me? Your story about General Taylor used the name of his book, The Uncertain Trumpet, several times, hence you were on notice that his book contradicts your story and was most laudatory of me.

WILBER M. BRUCKER SR.

Detroit, Mich.

P:TIME did not depend on General Taylor's book alone for information on his term as Chief of Staff, stands by its story.--ED.

The Lost Capsule

Sir:

As is evident, Gus Grissom's flight [July 28] was a complete success in every aspect with the exception of the sinking of the capsule. In your issue concerning Alan Shepard's flight [May 12], you mentioned that "if the Freedom 7 should start to sink, frogmen would be ready to slip beneath it and inflate a raft to lift it to the surface."

Was this precautionary measure not taken in the flight of Captain Grissom?

JOHN C. BOSE

Santa Monica, Calif.

P: This aspect of the rescue procedure is to be used if the flight goes awry on the pad and the capsule lands in shallow water. It is not part of the downrange plan.--ED.

Sir:

Why did Pilot Lewis of the helicopter keep trying to lift the capsule for four or five minutes, until his engine was so hot that he had to let that valuable thing sink?

It seems to me that if he had lowered his altitude by 3 ft., not even trying to move at all, the load would not have been too heavy and, in a short time, a ship could have come to lift it.

BERT VAN ASTEN

Chicago

P: Lewis tried just that, but found that merely keeping the capsule afloat put too much strain on the engine.--ED.

Quite a Question

Sir:

In your piece on ABC Reporter Lisa Howard [July 28], you quoted her as asking Khrushchev: "What is your definition of freedom?" I regret that you did not use the entire question. To keep the record straight, what Miss Howard asked was: "All the spokesmen for the Western position say the real struggle in the world today is between freedom and Communist tyranny--stressing in your country the lack of a free press, the refusal to accept opposition parties. You say the Communist peoples are free, but there is obviously a problem of semantics here, and I ask you, sir, what is your definition of freedom?"

Hardly a "naive" question when heard in its entirety, and one which Chairman Khrushchev evaded.

JAMES C. HAGERTY

Vice President

American Broadcasting Co.

New York City

Death of the Witness

Sir:

You omitted a significant item in the story on Whittaker Chambers [July 21]. Chambers had in the Congressional hearings charged that Hiss had been a Communist. Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat the charge outside of the Congressional hearings without immunity so that. he could bring suit against him. It was at that point that I asked Chambers to appear on Meet the Press, in order to learn whether he would accept the challenge and answer a question about Hiss's Communism. In his book Witness, Chambers said that the answer to the question was the most important that he ever had been called upon to give in his life.

You will remember that after Chambers had appeared on Meet the Press and had said that Hiss was a Communist, Hiss did not sue for a while. Editorial after editorial throughout the country commented on the fact, and when the Washington Post, one of Hiss's staunch defenders, challenged Hiss to make good on his challenge to Chambers, he felt he had no alternative but to start suit. The rest, of course, is history.

LAWRENCE E. SPIVAK

New York City

P:After the public accusation, Hiss filed suit for libel in Baltimore, asking $75,000 damages. In a pretrial hearing, Hiss's lawyers challenged Chambers to show proof of his relationship with Hiss, and Chambers produced the famous "pumpkin papers." They were yielded to the Department of Justice, which in turn called back the grand jury. The grand jury then indicted Hiss for perjury, the count on which he was convicted and sentenced at his second trial. A year later, the libel suit was dismissed for lack of prosecution.--ED.

School Days

Sir:

Congratulations to Theodore C. Sorensen and TIME'S reporting of his recent remarks on Nebraska's educational state [July 21].

He is quite right about a "steady exodus of young people." It is not only in East Germany that people vote with their feet. Of the ten young men who grew up in my neighborhood near the University Agricultural Campus in Lincoln, all have completed university training and have entered some professional field. Only one of these young men who finished university around 1950 is still in Nebraska. As a teacher, it is certain that I will not even consider Nebraska as a place to return to for continuing my work.

WILLIAM M. DERRICK

Munich American Elementary School # 1

APO 407, New York, N.Y.

Sir:

During a lengthy stay as an exchange teacher in that state some years ago, I had the chance to observe a great many of them, and was always impressed by the wonderful spirit of teachers and students alike. Maybe many of the teachers did not have certain degrees, but their zest and interest more than made up for this.

ROLF DIETER DANNENBERGER

Baden, Germany

Sir:

In Nebraska, we kids are pushed and made to study. In seventh grade I was all the way through eighth-grade math, and doing algebra and geometry.

In Nebraska, kids that could do it were put in advanced classes where they did next year's work, and I've never in my life had a bad teacher until we moved to Virginia.

Phooey on Ted Sorensen.

LINDA OLDHAM

McLean, Va.

Up in the Air

Sir:

Your story on the state of airline business this summer, while painful to read, was a well reported, forthright appraisal of the circumstances.

We hope that when the state of the industry improves, your perceptivity and feel for a complex situation will be employed to do the story of the recovery.

CHARLES C. TILLINGHAST JR.

President

Trans World Airlines, Inc.

New York City

Comments on Cyrano

Sir:

I was most happy to see an overdue tribute to Bill Mauldin [July 21]. I have always had the highest respect for this swashbuckling Cyrano of the lithograph.

My plaudits to a rebel with a cause.

HAL HOVERLAND

Los Angeles

Sir:

Probably hundreds of irate cartoon buffs have, by this time, let you know that you neglected a very favorite. My choice for the hall of cartooning fame is naturally reasonable and supported by disinterested scholarship: How did you happen to miss the incomparable Boardman ("Mike") Robinson?

ALBERT CHRIST-JANER

Brooklyn

Sir:

McCutcheon of the old Chicago Tribune in the days when the Trib really was "The World's Greatest Newspaper."

S. A. HOLYOKE

Milwaukee

Sir:

Jim Dobbins, of the Boston Traveler.

JAMES WARWICK

Manchester, Mass.

Sir:

Interlandi in the Los Angeles Times.

CAROLINE INGRAM

Monrovia, Calif.

Sir:

Pulitzer-prizewinning Carey Orr of the Chicago Tribune.

JAMES J. CIERZNIAK

South Bend, Ind.

Sir:

Fred O. Seibel of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

MARY L. BRIDGES

Ashland, Va.

Sir:

Hugh Haynie, of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

JOHN W. LEESON

Lexington, Ky.

Those Weary Blues

Sir:

TIME's concept of geriatrics [July 21] must be of concern not only to this old (42) schoolmaster, but also to a number of others who have clung fondly to the notion that life begins as soon as one is a year older than Jack Benny.

All in one issue, four men are tagged with the fatal word. Danny Kaye is referred to as an "old (48) Mittyslicker." Admiral Arleigh Burke, retiring while still capable of exercising his wit, is dubbed the "old king of the cans (59)." And Prince Philip, of all people, turns up as an "old Naval person"--a title hitherto reserved for one whose undeniable claims upon it were immortalized by his correspondence with an American president.

One can sympathize, perhaps, with the reference to George Alpert of the New Haven Railroad as an "old (63) Boston attorney." His job would bring Peter Pan to senility in no time. But is there no hope for the rest of us--or, for that matter, for TIME itself, which does not stand still and which must now be pushing closely for the designation of an "old (fortyish) newsmagazine?"

EDWARD T. HALL

Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.

P: Thirty-eight. Says Browning:

Grow old along with me,

The best is yet to be.--ED.

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