The Fighting Americans Sir: Your cover story on American fighting men in Viet Nam [April 23] was really a coup de maitre. For the first time, I felt a kind of personal involvement with this far-off war that all previous coverage of the situation had not given me.

If some of those White House pickets would read about the strong convictions of the men fighting in Viet Nam, maybe they would channel their energy into forwarding rather than fighting our policies there.

JO-ANNE ROSIELLO Brooklyn Sir: I hadn't realized how exciting things are in Viet Nam. It's nice to see that there is something romantic and adventurous left in the world. Here I sit worrying about such things as morality, human rights, hungry people--while my countrymen are getting a chance to be Real Men and kill and destroy enough rice to feed 25,000 people for a year. Where do I sign up to get in on all the fun?

JOHN R. COLE Columbia University New York City Sir: It is not surprising to find Major Joseph Sladen Bradley Jr. serving his country in Viet Nam, since his family has been doing just that for more than 100 years.

His great-grandfather, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Captain Joseph Alton Sladen, fought in the Civil War and later in the Apache Indian War was held hostage by Cochise. His grandfather, Brigadier General John J. Bradley, served in World War I, and his father, the late Major General J. S. Bradley, was decorated for bravery in both World War II and the Korean War.

ROWLAND L. HALL Winnetka, Ill.

Sir: In 1899, Theodore Roosevelt said:

"If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and the stronger peoples will pass us by and win for themselves the domination of the world." Reason enough for Viet Nam?

JEFF WILLSEY Gary, Ind.

Texan Tops Texan Sir: Your recent story and photographs of U.S. servicemen in Viet Nam graphically point out that these men are in a combat situation. It is inconceivable to me that our Government still refuses to declare Viet Nam a "combat zone" so that these men may receive the tax benefits normally granted for combat service in past conflicts. I have offered a bill to accomplish this, and I hope the Congress will accept it.

JOHN G. TOWER U.S. Senator from Texas Washington, D.C.

Without waiting for Congress, President Johnson did precisely that last week. He excused enlisted men and noncoms in Viet Nam and surrounding waters from federal income taxes, gave officers a monthly $200 exemption.

Democratic Turkey?

Sir: I was surprised and shocked to read in the Essay "The Worldwide Status of Democracy" [April 23] that Turkey is a "non-democracy" and "under military rule."

It is a fact that military rule ended formally with the adoption of our new constitution in 1961, and since then a true democratic regime has been established with all its ramifications and processes. There is no military rule or intervention, and the coalition government that runs Turkey today is an elected civilian government.

Everything may not be perfect, but Turkey is a democracy.

MUNCI Giz

Office of the Turkish Press Counselor Washington, D.C.

But only so long as it is tolerated by the military.

Pornography Pondered Sir: The pornography Essay [April 16] was a welcome oasis in the desert of avant-garde literature that pretends to depict realism.

Obscenity may be difficult to define but not to recognize. The pages of obscene literature are truly a barren wasteland that must be forsaken now by the readers, so that this type of scribbling may soon be abandoned by the writers.

SARNIA BROOKS Detroit Sir: I was amused by your Tolstoyan "phallacy"--a particularly black and lacy Freudian slip but rather appropriate to the subject.

BOB WARREN Berkeley, Calif.

But hardly a slip.

The Royal's Romeo Sir: I am 17 years old and until I read your article on Rudolf Nureyev [April 16], liked only the Beatle version of "longhair." Now I realize what grace and beauty there are to a ballet.

VIRGINIA COLORITO West Haverstraw, N.Y.

Sir: Nureyev looks more like Nanki-Poo enduring a Bendix spin cycle than a dancing Romeo.

MARY-LOUISE WEISMAN Fairfield, Conn.

Sir: I don't blame Artist Sidney Nolan for being in New Guinea when the Nureyev cover came off the presses. Frankly, I don't think he's safe even there!

MRS. J. W. DEEKEN Dayton

Sir: As an artist, my first interest on receiving TIME is the Art section. This week, however, I spent an hour just studying the brilliant portrait of Nureyev. May this be the first of many many more by Sidney Nolan.

PATRICIA ZENDA Wauwatosa, Wis.

Sir: My congratulations to you on what certainly must be one of the most artistic covers in magazine history. I already have it framed on my wall.

JUDSON CLARK CHRISNEY Publisher Ramparts Menlo Park, Calif.

So There!

Sir: Re Harry S. Truman's receiving Freedom Award [April 23]: this is to let it be known that I didn't give it to him.

HARRY RASMUSSEN Lemoncove, Calif.

Sir: Thank God someone with a voice of authority whose opinion commands national respect has called Martin Luther King by his right name.

MRS. A. T. ENGE Atlanta

Gun Shy

Sir: Your article on mail-order guns [April 16] did point out some of the abuses that the Dodd bill is trying to correct. You failed to mention its restrictive measures. It's as sensible to control traffic in kitchen knives because a few people stab each other as it is to impose strict controls on the law-abiding, gun-collecting citizen.

DEREK V. H. HOLMAN Durham, N.H.

Sir: TIME failed to mention Texas Congressman Bob Casey's bill (HR No. 5642), which provides that "whoever, during the commission of any robbery, assault, murder, rape, burglary, kidnaping, or homicide (other than involuntary manslaughter), uses or carries any firearm which has been transported across the boundary of a state shall be imprisoned for twenty-five years." This bill is aimed at the criminal rather than the hunters, target shooters and collectors. Representative Casey's bill deserves strong support, for nothing would create a stronger deterrent to crime than fast, certain and severe punishment.

ANTHONY D. DARLING New Haven, Conn.

Confessions of the Innocent Sir: An untrue inference is contained in TIME'S [April 2] statement, "The fact that mdigents (60% of all criminal defendants) frequently confess out of fear, even though innocent, is among the chief reasons for the court decisions on the right to counsel and the inadmissibility of nonvoluntary confessions." It is a rare occurrence when an innocent person confesses to a crime that he did not commit, and because of the layers of niters built into our system, the production in court of such a false confession would be a rarity among rarities. It is a tragic mistake for TIME to imply that our peace officers frequently scare confessions out of the poor and innocent.

JESSE R. HIMMELSBACH JR.

President Oregon District Attorneys' Association Baker, Ore.

Dedicated Lawyer Sir: Your article on Pointer v. Texas [April 16] was as clear and as accurate a summary of the Supreme Court's opinion as could have been written. I remember when Orville A. Harlan was appointed to represent Pointer in his appeal. Harlan was handling a number of appeals for various indigents--a burden borne by a very small percentage of the bar in this community. After Mr. Harlan entered the Pointer case, he not only expended far more than the $100 paid him by the state, but the time devoted to briefing and arguing the case before the appellate court and the Supreme Court was such that it adversely affected his income.

The statement attributed to Justice Frankfurter that "the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in cases involving not very nice people" is incomplete. It should continue: "and dedicated lawyers whose love of justice surmounts any personal sacrifice that may be required to attain it."

JOHN J. BROWNE Houston Pyrrhic for Whom?

Sir: A Pyrrhic victory may be a disappointment to the individual involved, but what appears to be a Pyrrhic victory [April 231 for one may ensure to all the citizens of this country the rights we too often take for granted.

ORVILLE A. HARLAN Houston Stout Defense

Sir: The Honorable Judge Juanita Kidd Stout [April 16] must be the greatest Philadelphian since Benjamin Franklin, doing more to advance her race than any person since Booker T. Washington. Everybody should have a mother like hers. ERNEST L. MCLAUGHLIN Union, S.C.

Sir: People like Judge Stout renew my faith in and hope for our country.

I. SCHWARTZ, M.D. Rockford, 111.

Sir: New York City could use a few more like Judge Stout on our benches. PHYLLIS NEEDLEMAN Jamaica, N.Y.

Sir: I submit that her attitude and judicial perspective is one that has been with us since well before the passage of the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601. Those administrators, too, looked down upon the "unworthy poor" from their "holier than thou" positions and decided that only their standards could possibly be "right and proper." It seems to me that it is about time we tried something new.

As long as people like Judge Stout continue to deny the basic dignity, worth and respect of any group, then she will have her 1,000 delinquents to incarcerate and another 1,000 and another and another and another and another.

ALAN R. GRUBER Quincy, Mass.

That's New?

Sir: Re your article on voice commands in space [April 23]: My grandfather used voice control while plowing the farm fields --giddy up to go ahead, haw and gee to move sideways, back, boy to reverse, and whoa to stop. It worked equally well for the model A--at least when he said, "Whoa, Billy," the car always stopped. On occasion he used more than the ten words the Astronauts will be limited to, and they weren't exactly "normal" either.

KENNETH C. MILLER Zion, Ill.

Correction Sir: Although we glitter, it's not gold.

This conservative Republican community did not vote for Barry, nor did we change our name to the capital G spelling in your tornado and flood story [April 23]. It is still Coldwater.

CHARLES R. BACON, M.D.

Coldwater, Mich.

Soup's On

Sir: You forgot to mention [April 23] the most famous Soupy Sez in the world: "Don't scratch your chicken pox ... if you ever walk by a golf course, they'll mistake you for a golf ball."

LINDA LUKE Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

Transcendent Reunion

Sir: I could not be more delighted, nor could the people of Virginia, to see TIME'S [April 23] spread on the rejoining of the Egyptian Scribe carved in alabaster. It implies the truth that mutual interest in the arts transcends state or sectional boundaries.

ALBERTIS S. HARRISON JR. Governor Richmond, Va.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.