The New Ambassadors
Sir:
I have just read with interest your cover story [Jan. 12] on Ambassadors Reischauer, Kennan and Galbraith. If all our ambassadors were of this caliber, "the ugly American" image could be permitted to die an unlamented death.
MICHAEL DIVELY
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sir:
Obviously Mr. Kennan is convicted of softheadedness when he says he would never play politics with Yugoslav stomachs.
A pragmatical ambassador at Belgrade could find no better weapon for playing cold war politics than Yugoslav stomachs.
L. K. FRANK
Grove City, Pa.
Sir:
When Ambassador Kennan thought that his personality and techniques were reshaping Tito's thinking, his misconception and naivete proved that the name given to all American ambassadors in Communist countries--"The Suckers"--was correct.
I would welcome a Secretary of State who would be bold enough to fire most of the State Department personnel, hire new faces, and thus stop losing battle after battle with the Communists!
JOHN D. SAVICH
Chicago
Sir:
You describe Ambassador Galbraith as relaxing in a "lazy W" position. Like many Galbraith postures, this looks fine on paper but it cannot be done. I have been folding myself all day and can only achieve an N.
ZOANN L. DUSENBURY
South Euclid, Ohio
Sir:
In your article on the ambassadors, the "Dress Circular" instructing American representatives abroad to use "the simple costume of an American citizen" was not decreed by Andrew Jackson in 1853 (he died in 1845) but by William Marcy, Secretary of State to Franklin Pierce.
In London, James Buchanan wore a dress sword to avoid being confused with the servants.
(THE REV.) STAFFORD POOLE, C.M. Cardinal Glennon College
St. Louis
Up in the Air
Sir:
As a small part of the NORAD team [Jan. 12], I would like to congratulate you on an uncomplicated presentation of a vital complex system. I feel certain that you have done much to tone down the screams of many taxpayers wondering where and how their dollars are being spent in the field of national defense.
(A/2C) V. M. DOUGHERTY
U.S.A.F. 29th Air Division (SAGE)
Grandview, Mo.
Sir:
Since I am convinced that the earth is round, I hate to think that Russia might get an idea to "knock" on the back door of NORAD via the South Pole. Did not the Germans once bypass the famous Maginot line?
DAVID HSIAO
Syracuse, N.Y.
Sir:
I hardly expected to see the Russian bear on NORAD's plotting board--but there it is. Is it Russkephobia or am I ready for Picasso ?
LEWIS D. KELLOGG
New Orleans
>You are seeing Red in Greenland.--ED.
Diverse Means to an End
Sir:
The several civil rights organizations are not confused, as the title of your article ["Confused Crusade"--Jan. 12] implies, but rather they represent diverse means of attaining the same goal: full freedom for all Americans.
Just as Americans differ in approach to all the nation's problems, so Negroes of different ages and temperaments use a variety of means to achieve full citizenship. It is inevitable that one generation's "Revered Leader" will become another generation's "Uncle Tom"--sometimes justly, sometimes not.
The significant fact about today's civil rights groups is that collectively they are stronger than ever before. With today's increasing emphasis on direct action by youth, civil rights groups are better equipped to defeat the opponents of a democratic America, whether those opponents are Russian Communists or Mississippi racists.
EDWARD OPTON JR. President
North Carolina Conference of Youth and College Chapters, N.A.A.C.P.
Duke University Durham, N.C.
Sir:
Snick [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] is the agent that the N.A.A.C.P. needs to show the public that the Negro will fight for his rights, even if that should mean personal sacrifice. The responsibility of using this great tool rests in the hands of the growing number of capable college graduates.
PAUL PETRAITIS
Park Ridge, Ill..
Don't Shoot!
Sir:
Your keen and entertaining account of the "Rarae Aves" [Jan. 12] was faithful to the facts except for leaving the impression that the fowling piece is standard equipment for the Christmas bird census. We hope and trust the Cape Cod party described by your reporter was the only one carrying a gun.
Some professional ornithologists hold Government licenses to do "scientific collecting" for valid research purposes, but collecting is not advocated in the Christmas count. Our rules require sight records only.
Oldtime ornithologists shot birds to identify them and not always for scientific purposes. The modern school relies on superior knowledge of field marks, binoculars or spotting scope and/or camera. There may still exist a few of the oldtimers who would collect the last ivory-billed woodpecker "for the record" or to possess a personal trophy, but fortunately they are becoming almost as rare as the ivorybill itself. No birder, professional or otherwise, guns down an endangered species with the approval of the National Audubon Society.
CARL W. BUCHHEISTER President
National Audubon Society New York City
>Thirtyfour amateur ornithologists held Massachusetts permits last year allowing them to kill protected birds. Says TIME'S Boston birdwatcher watcher: "Although birders in Massachusetts now rely more on clever color-camera work to get needed specimens, still they do (gasp) shoot birds at times."--ED.
Maria & Max
SIR:
YOUR REFERENCE THAT MY SISTER MARIA AND I ARE UNFRIENDLY [JAN. 19] IS ERRONEOUS. MY RELATIONSHIP WITH HER, AS I TOLD YOUR CORRESPONDENT, IS VERY CLOSE.
MAXIMILIAN SCHELL
NEW YORK CITY
The French Paragraph
Sir:
The article "Star Paragrapher" [Jan. 5] is delightful. I am sure paragraphing gained impetus with the writings of Franc,ois de la Rochefoucauld (1613-80), the French aphorist. Sample:
"It is as easy to deceive ourselves without knowing it as it is hard to deceive others without their finding it out."
GEORGE E. TALMAGE Indianapolis
>La Rochefoucauld, from one of the noblest families in France, viewed mankind with a jaded eye, wrote paragraphs that were as pungently Gallic as Vaughn's are All-American. Another La Rochefoucauld sample: There are few good women who do not tire of their role.--ED.
The Elusive McCoy
Sir:
In a footnote to the Giesler obituary [Jan. 12] you imply that the "real McCoy" was a fighter. Back when liquor was illegal, and booze was more commonly found in bathtubs than in the bottle, there was a man by name of McCoy who became a famous rumrunner off Long Island. He dealt only with the finest-quality whisky, which he imported, and would never water or tamper with it. His bootlegged products became known as "the real McCoy," thereby adding an expression to the American language.
DIANE JUDGE
New York City
>Experts have never agreed on which story is the "real McCoy." There are many versions, including a ballad of the 1870s about the Irishwoman who beat up her husband to prove that she was the "real McCoy."--ED.
Madame Protests
Sir:
Your recent article about me [Dec. 1] needs a reply.
1) I am not a feminist, if this means advocating a new social imbalance favoring women this time. If ever Viet Nam adopts a "chastity law," I shall urge that it be applied equally to all citizens.
2) Why is "guidance" of the press by the Information Directorate a subject for sarcasm in the case of Viet Nam any more than in any other country ?
Why are our newspapers recognized as free only when they criticize the Vietnamese government? And why suddenly "subject to the Information Directorate" when they dare to riposte to the foreign press? Should the Vietnamese press travel freely only on a one-way street ?
Why not admit that our newsmen may react as ordinary Vietnamese citizens weary of bearing alone the sufferings of the common fight against international Communism, while most of their foreign colleagues, though allies, preach at them, provoking division in their ranks, when not ingenuously shooting at their backs, finally treating their country considerably less well than they treat some Communist countries.
3) With regard to the press of the free world, I pointed out a problem which appears to me apparent and fundamental: the integration of the Communist line into our information system. Ignoring Communist propaganda will not make it disappear.
While the Communists' international propaganda network wages the war for men's minds with noticeable success, the press of the free world (which could surely be as effective if it concerted on a strategy and faced the fight in unified order) confuses the battle, maneuvering so blindly that it shoots at allies before hitting the enemy.
These tactics, which may in other times have been the expression of freedom, have, since the advent of Communism, become dangerous and even fatal to liberty itself.
Moreover, does not liberty take the form of injustice when it is applied irrationally, ignoring realities, the most striking and massive of which is the Communist reality ?
This is all I meant when I mentioned the necessity to face this reality and include it within our journalistic perspectives. The rest is polemics.
MADAME NGO DINH NHU
Deputy to the National Assembly
Republic of Viet Nam
Saigon
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