Torpedoes in Tonkin

Sir: President Johnson's quick and decisive performance in the Tonkin Gulf situation [Aug. 14] was in the correct tradition of American firmness to aggressive acts. To bomb North Viet Nam oil dumps and boat bases was an extreme action in the best sense of the word.

WILLIAM E. MOORE Old Greenwich. Conn.

Sir: I believe that the applicable word describing these actions in Viet Nam is "resolute" and not "extreme."

CHARLES H. CALISHER Takoma Park, Md.

Sir: The swift action of President Johnson after the attack on the Seventh Fleet indicates that Goldwater's nomination has already had an effect on the nation's policy. If a "me too" Republican had been nominated, Johnson would only have sent a note of protest to North Viet Nam.

GUY K. ZIMMERMAN Arlington, Va.

Sir: By Jove! Mr. Johnson is quickly becoming the Teddy Roosevelt of the '60s. Both men display a somewhat vibrant personality, and Lyndon used the "big stick" in Southeast Asia much the same as Teddy used it in Panama. Let's hope Lyndon doesn't contract yellow fever.

GEORGE SHAYLER Rochester, N.Y.

Sir: Good for you. Yanks! Your swift reflexes over Cuba warned Khrushchev with appalling clarity that if he tweaked the "paper tiger's" tail it could, and would if necessary, hook him instantly with nuclear claws. The Gulf of Tonkin action and reaction should serve as a similar warning to the impetuous Mao dynasty. Let's hope so, anyway. If it doesn't, then we Aussies are right in there with you.

RONALD W. WARE Townsville. Australia

Sir: Hearty congratulations to President Johnson for being the "fastest gun alive." Will he kindly draw on Peking and end the real menace to free Asia once and for all?

INDOOMATI PANDIT Kolhapur. India

Sir: Well done, America! Once again the U.S. is standing up to aggression, as it did in Korea and Cuba. The men of Peking and Hanoi must learn that they cannot attack the U.S. Navy and get away with it. Fifty years ago, Britain was willing to protect a small country against an aggressor. The U.S. today carries on that tradition.

PETER GREEN London

Sir: It looks as though at last we have the war we have been itching for in Southeast Asia. It sure is wonderful having spunky little General Khanh as the latest American superpatriot. The death of innocent people who want only the establishment of a neutral Viet Nam doesn't upset him. Oh well, it takes our minds off race riots and all that dirty local stuff.

JOHN A. McCoNNELL Rochester, N.Y.

Sir: For the sake of friends and kin in that area as well as the war effort in South Viet Nam, I hope that the reflection Chaliapin painted in Khanh's glasses [Aug. 7] is not the China Wall.

JAMES WOODWARD Los Angeles >

>Not the Chinese Wall, but a wall of Vietnamese soldiers is reflected in the glasses (see cut).--ED.

Bostonian from New York Sir: The proposal that Bobby Kennedy declare himself a candidate for the Senate from New York [Aug. 14] is a shocking denial of the traditional belief that members of Congress should understand and represent the interests of their constituents. The legacy of John F. Kennedy appears not to be freedom for all mankind but rather political remuneration for family and friends.

ERIC H. WAYNE Royal Oak, Mich.

Sir: In California and in New York, as well as in most other states, politicians have set up residency-requirement laws for a license to practice as an accountant, doctor, lawyer, insurance or security salesman, real estate or insurance broker, etc.

In view of this, I cannot see how a nonresident politician of California or New York can just announce that he will run for high office in another state and have the temerity to think that the public will stand still for this blatant effrontery.

J. CUNNINGHAM Port Orange. Fla.

Sir: As a New Yorker, I am perfectly happy to have the opportunity to vote for Robert Kennedy as a U.S. Senator from New York. Some people forget that the Senate was meant, through longer tenure and fewer members, to serve as a less provincial legislative body than the House of Representatives. New Yorkers have 41 Representatives and another Senator to serve the state's selfish sectional interests. A Senator experienced and interested in the welfare of the whole nation should be welcome in an already too-provincial chamber.

GWYNNE KlNCAID

New York City

Aphrodite's Island

Sir: What is taking place in Cyprus is essentially a repetition of what happened in your own country during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln and the majority, in trying to save the Union, forced the Southern secessionists into an unconditional surrender. At least one foreign power. Great Britain, supported the South. Today you journalists glibly lend your support to Turkish Cypriot secessionists. The American Government gives the impression that it has taken the role of the British of 1861. How the Muses must laugh at us hypocritical mortals!

G. L. MOISSIDES Boston

Sir: May I ask what is so wrong with majority rule? For heaven's sake, I refer you to the ancient Greeks, who invented democracy and other high principles 2,500 years ago.

YIANNAKIS MIKE CHATTALAS Baltimore

Sir: The Greeks sanctimoniously point to their ancient heritage of democracy in justifying their demands for "majority rule" in Cyprus. Just as the ancient Athenians failed to even imagine that their slaves might have human rights, Greek Cypriots fail to note the difference between "majority rule" and an oppressed minority.

PHILIP BARBOUR New York City

Political Sacrifice

Sir: The news that Adam Yarmolinsky has been sacrificed in order to get the anti-poverty bill through Congress [Aug. 14] comes as a sad shock to those of us who have known him since Yale Law School days (1946-48). What has delighted me about Adam has been that he combines ability, intelligence and integrity with imagination and ingenuity. He refuses to be the routine bureaucrat. Although not really an outdoorsman. he accompanied one paratroop group aloft on a training exercise as an observer. He then jumped with them. At another time he took a cruise on a Polaris submarine. Many of us think we need more Yarmolin-skys in Washington, not fewer.

EVERETT FISHER Greenwich. Conn.

Aged but Awesome

Sir: I wonder if Macmillan was aware of the striking similarity between his words about Churchill [Aug. 7] and Edgar's words about King Lear. After the death of Lear, Edgar remarks with a kind of awe:

The oldest hath borne most: we that are young Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

BARBARA HINCKLEY Ithaca, N.Y.

Saarinen's Elegance Sir: Fero Saarinen's headquarters for Deere & Co. seems an exquisite triumph of function and use of contemporary materials [Aug. 7]. Your marvelous color photographs convey its Oriental elegance.

LEONARD J. PACHECO Palo Alto, Calif.

Sir: Without detracting from Mr. Saarinen's considerably deserved glory, I would like to point out that the other specialist with a major responsibility in such projects is the structural engineer, who develops the structural scheme, provides the details, and supervises the construction.

Often with only the broadest directive from the architect, the structural engineer will point the way to such graceful and useful solutions as in the Deere building.

STANLEY I. HART Paris >Structural engineering consultants for the Deere & Co. building, as for most of Saarinen's other structures, were Ammann & Whitney.--ED.

Stylish Cult Sir: Your witty reviewer provoked me into obtaining a copy of Psychological Studies of Famous Americans [Aug. 7], and I don't believe he pounced down hard enough. It is ironic that more and more, the field is attracting those who are not naturally perceptive or intuitive, who are attracted by the cult value of the "unconscious," and who take sycophantic pleasure in being admired as "experts."

RICHARD HOERNER Jamaica, N.Y.

Sir: Norman Kiell's theory that Lee's diarrhea was psychosomatic is not only a new thought but one that is entirely probable. Other historians believe that Confederate General A. P. Hill suffered strange attacks of illness immediately before going into battle. In fact he was ill on the second morning of the Battle of Gettysburg. The psychosomatic theory is certainly consistent with the personal courage and military ability of both Lee and Hill.

JOHN M. BENNETT Johnstown. Pa.

Leading the Blind Sir: The educational department of this prison has a group of inmates recording for the blind [Aug. 14] for the National Braille Press, Inc., and the Library of Congress. Since 1960. more than 1,200 books have been taped. The Koran has been recorded, as well as books on abstract mathematics, a telephone directory, a text on mapping in outer space, and other books in French, German, Spanish and Russian. To date, inmates have recorded more than 19,633,000 feet of tape in their off-time.

GERALD F. O'LOUGHLIN Principal of School Massachusetts Correctional Institution Norfolk, Mass.

Pushkin's Ancestor Sir: Having read your review of Mr. Nabokov's Eugene Onegin [July 31], I expected some mention of Alexander Pushkin's Negro ancestry.

MALLIE ROBINSON--National Chairman George Washington Carver Memorial Institute Washington. D.C.

>Pushkin boasted that his maternal great-grandfather was Abram Petrovich Hannibal, son of an Abyssinian prince, who was freed at the age of eight from a Turkish seraglio, became a favorite of Peter the Great.--ED.

Offal Cuisine Sir: We have chitlins [July 31] in Great Britain too, but we call them chitterlings. Agreed, they are not "snob" diet. Nor is that excellent Lancashire dish, tripe-and-onions. In France, Villon wrote: "A dish of tripe is the best of all." The king of beasts, when he has made his kill, eats the "offal" first. His criterion is his instinct, which tells him what is best for him.

ROSEMARY BROOKS London Sir: "Chitlins" is another name for boudins, as they were called by the French Canadian trappers. Originally, boudins were certain of the intestines of the buffalo. They were considered a great delicacy by the Indians, who taught the trappers to eat and enjoy them. When the buffalo became extinct in the East, it was found that the boudins of hogs were equally good. Eventually, when the importation of slaves began, these slaves learned from the whites how good boudins were.

COLONEL W. H. IRVINE Carmel. Calif.

Up & Down with Shrewsburies Sir: We promoters of Shrewsburies are determined to debunk the myth of the Earl of Sandwich, "the 18th century title-holder who invented layered lunch" [July 31]. Poppycock! This delicacy owes its existence to the forgotten Duke of Shrewsbury, whose lack of heirs prompted the earl to usurp Shrewsbury's rightful claim to fame. I urge sympathizers of our cause to rectify this gross injustice to the duke and join our fifth column, whose rallying cry remains, "Down with Sandwiches: up with Shrewsburies!"

MARTHA MARY WHELAN Silver Spring, Md.

>Call your cheese on rye what you will, culinary tradition for more than 200 years has held that John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, invented the handy concoction so that he would not have to leave the gaming table to eat.--ED.

* Mother of Jackie.

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