The Thinkers

Sir: Your fine cover story on the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Feb. 5] brings to full circle the quiet revolution begun with President Eisenhower's farewell speech. Few remember that the general's last presidential advice was a warning to the country to beware of the dangers of an overpowerful military-industrial clique. Secretary McNamara and his quietly competent military chiefs, as you described in your story, have successfully followed Eisenhower's advice in defending the country's traditions as well as its very existence.

MABEL BELDEN New York City

Sir: When "thinkers and managers" started replacing the heroes of ancient Rome, it was time to start writing The Decline and Fall.

ED KRAEMER Bayside, N.Y.

Sir: The article on the Joint Chiefs of Staff was well written and very enlightening. Now that Mr. McNamara has replaced combat commanders with accountants, we can take great solace from the fact that, while we may not be able to win the next war, we will have a nice, clean set of books.

L. A. YOUNG

Lieut. Commander, U.S.N. (ret.) Camp Hill, Pa.

Sir: TIME'S survey of the J.C.S. erred in assigning Lieut. General David A. Burchinal to the Army rather than the Air Force.

HOWARD HUNT Sumner, Md.

The Younger Society

Sir: TIME'S feature on "Today's Teenagers" [Jan. 29] was delightful reading. To attempt a coherent account with subjects so elusive and mercurial is indeed a formidable assignment and one handled, I think, with great competence. I was glad to note your observation that "the key word is educated," because today's teen-ager is the product of his educational system. Lois V. EDINGER President

National Education Association Washington

Sir: Since I was once a member of the Palisades In group, I feel justified in commenting on your article. The Saracens were described as motorcycling hoods. Not many of them have motorcycles, and their appearance is not hoodish. I wonder why adults complain so constantly about teenage drinking, sex, etc., when they are the ones who introduced it all to us. These things have been given to us on a silver platter and have been just about shoved down our throats. I'm not saying we are right in accepting them, but I am saying it's hard not to. It's terribly hard to live in Pacific Palisades, even though everything goes your way.

JANE GALLU New Hope, Pa.

Sir: I can breathe easier after learning that today's kids at my children's "overprivileged" upper-middle-class high school in Pacific Palisades haven't changed much from those at my often underprivileged lower-middle-class high school in Brooklyn. But my school-spirited youngsters tell me TIME hit Pali below the campus. We Pali parents don't push our children to make grades--it's their own idea. As to luxury vacations for making A's, our family has an agreement that if the kids insist on studying for A's, thereby making me lower the volume on the Beverly Hillbillies, I get two weeks' vacation in Bora Bora for every grade they make over B. TIME was way off on Jags too. If the car pool breaks down, my kids wouldn't even be seen in my Jag--they'd rather take the bus and leave the driving to us. And in the cafeteria, the "squares who really believe in student government" are just imitating adults who are also square enough to really believe in people government. I was interested to learn that our Pali teenagers are "not . . . willing to accept the responsibility of illicit sex." Thank God we're blessed with irresponsible kids!

EDWARD T. TYLER, M.D. Los Angeles

Sir: After getting up at 7 a.m., studying for an hour, going to school for seven hours, playing pool for an hour, spending two hours on a theme, finishing a notebook, filing my income-tax return, studying for a final, and relaxing by playing my guitar for 15 minutes, I went to bed with TIME. From it, I learned that someone over 25 knows that I'm not a hoodlum. BOB BECKMAN Lincoln, Neb.

Sir: I have long been searching for a means to explain the "facts of life" to my parents. Your article was the answer to many prayers.

KEVIN FOLEY Silver Spring, Md.

Churchill

Sir: As an Englishwoman eight years resident in this country and, incidentally, a subscriber to TIME for most of those years, may I take a moment of your time to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your delightful tribute to our beloved "Winnie." I spent the years of World War II near London and within the "invasion area" of the south coast of England, and I know to what-extent Sir Winston's great example of indomitable courage and faith in the ultimate outcome influenced us all to "carry on."

EDYTHE F. MARSH Marion, Conn.

Sir: Your tribute to Mr. Churchill was a well-written, accurate and moving memorial to that great man. Surely future generations will know this as the "Age of Churchill," just as we know Greece's finest hour as the Age of Pericles. But how fitting that your cover story in this sad week of remembering should deal with youth and future. We look with gratitude to the past; we look (as one must always) to the future with hope.

(MRS.) SUSAN WILLIAMS Manhattan, Kans.

Sir: Churchill was a giant, but that is no reason for our statesmen to behave like pygmies. Thank God for Dwight Eisenhower, who represented us perhaps unofficially but very well.

ALAN HOWENSTINE Glenview, Ill.

Sir: I was shocked to see your reproduction of that horrendous Sutherland portrait of Churchill. There are so many true-to-life photographs available that I am amazed at your choosing that painting. ANNE C. BARNES New York City

Sir: Rarely do people attempt to defend the portrait of Churchill by Sutherland. But it is a great portrait, revealing the flaws as well as the formidability of the old warrior. However filled with awe for the man the world may be, it is an important virtue among democratic peoples to remember that great statesmen are not infallible, much less beautiful.

REBECCA BARBOUR New York City

Another Sihanouk Missile

Sir: You wrote that Cambodia "is now a big supply depot for Communist men and equipment moved by sea from North Viet Nam [Jan. 22]." I solemnly protest this calumny. Politically, we do not hesitate to support the Viet Cong in their fight against your neocolonialism, but militarily, we are strictly neutral. I proposed to your Government that it spend an infinitesimal sum to provide the International Control Commission with adequate personnel and materiel to control the entire Cambodian territory to make certain that we are neither accomplices of the Viet Cong nor a "big supply depot." But your Government, knowing perfectly well that we are innocent, refuses our sincere offer. Your Machiavellian dishonesty has been unmasked by Asians. It is better to leave Cambodia in peace, for as the French say, you have plenty of other cats to whip.

NORODOM SIHANOUK Chief of State Pnompenh, Cambodia

The Speaking Deaf

Sir: Your story "Otology" [Jan. 29] revives a pet disgruntlement. I am baffled by the total lack of facilities for doing anything for deaf children who are also unable to speak. The invariable answer from schools for the deaf, particularly public schools, is: 'The child is retarded." In Bridgeton, N.J., I found a lovely child who could neither hear nor speak. Where did I find her? In a "trainable" class, a special education class for children so retarded that they are trained only in essential bodily cleanliness, etc. This child was helping a teacher teach the trainables! The child could make a few sounds, had learned to say a few words. But wherever I turned, a stone wall confronted me. "Oh, we can't take her! She's retarded!" If that child was retarded, my grandmother was a shotputter! Dr. Perdoncini's methods are needed in this country. But we also need some receptivity to the fact that just because a child is handicapped, it does not necessarily follow that she is stupid, or that she cannot be trained to speak, to hear, to learn!

EDWARD KIP CHASE Superintendent of Schools Bridgeton, N.J.

Sir: Deaf youngsters in the U.S. also have the opportunities that you imply are restricted to Dr. Perdoncini's French schools. That is, if "they are lucky enough to land" in Central Institute for the Deaf and St. Joseph's Institute (St. Louis), Lexington School for the Deaf (New York City) or Clarke School for the Deaf (Northampton, Mass.), to mention only the better-known oral schools in this country. THOMAS R. KNEIL Dept. of Speech Pathology and Audiology University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa

Blue-Yonder Cheating

Sir: Some will condemn the Air Force Academy code that provides for expelling not only cheats but those who have knowledge of cheating and remain silent [Feb. 5]. Those strong enough to expose will be called stool pigeons. The name callers are the same people who would watch a neighbor being beaten and do nothing. The nation can't afford officers too weak to live by a strong moral code.

GEORGE R. CRONGEYER Captain, U.S.A.F. Ent. AFB, Colo.

Sir: It is accepted that no honest student can compete successfully, test after test, with cheaters. As a teacher, I have had a few experiences with students who cheat, and have concluded that we, their teachers, force these students to cheat by placing too much emphasis on tests. Do tests necessarily have to be contests in which the teacher on one hand is doing his best to outwit the student and the student on the other hand is doing his best to outguess the teacher?

DEVIC LEFfURAY

Elgin, Ill.

Duchamp Exhibit

Sir: Your article on Marcel Duchamp [Feb. 5] was wonderful, but you were wrongly informed that this exhibition is going to the Contemporary Arts Museum in Texas. It will actually appear in the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.

ARNE H. EKSTROM Cordier & Ekstrom New York City

Mean About Contacts

Sir: I have spent a great deal of time searching on the floor and taking drain pipes apart looking for wayward contact lenses [Ian. 29], but I think you are mean, mean, mean about us 6,000,000 wearers of contacts. We are not all starey-eyed, status-seeking basketball-player types. Contacts improved my vision (20, 80) to 20 25, and are directly responsible for my qualifying for a driver's license, getting through college and being able to work as a teacher for a living.

MARILYN L. WALKER Kewanee High School Kewanee, Ill.

Grimaces

Sir: As soon as I saw your pictures illustrating isometric exercises [Jan. 29], I thought of the painting Self-Portrait by John Kane in the Museum of Modern Art [see cut].

(MRS.) BONNIE M. DEMARIS Fort Belvoir, Va.

Sir: Napoleon Solo's shaving-cream can and lighter escape in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. [Jan. 29] is the perfect explanation to the people who ask why I take my cigarettes and lighter to the bath: one never knows when the children (Thrush agents, all) may lock me in.

(MRS.) S. JACOBS St. Louis

Sir: Granted that Napoleon Solo may be a good imitation of James Bond, but don't ever equate Vaughn with Connery. They are as different as--well, to use a Bond-style analogy, 1951 and 1957 vintage Burgundies. They might have come from the same vine, but gentlemen, one is so much more mellow, mature and smoo-ooth!

(MRS.) MIRIAM K. FLEISHMAN West Hartford, Conn.

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