The Loss of Stevenson

Sir: It was fitting that when Adlai Stevenson met his death [July 23], America was making world history with its Mariner conquest of Mars. It was fitting because Stevenson believed in man; he knew that there was nothing man could not do, from the vilest destruction to the most inspiring creativity. But it was his hope that America would be a leader in the latter.

(REP.) PATRICK W. NEE

Statehouse

Boston

Sir: Stevenson calmed the tempests rather than cursed the elements.

WILSON M. BALTZ

Bloomington, Ill.

Sir: Stevenson's loss is immeasurably great for the U.S. and for the U.N. The admiration and love that he was given outside our country were earned through his intellectual breadth, his human warmth and spontaneous wit. I spend more time out of the U.S. than in it on my concert tours, and I was able to point to Mr. Stevenson as an American with profound understanding of world problems, with agreement from people of all countries. He saw to the core of life with a sensitivity rare in a person in public, political life--and it was this sensitivity that reached the universal heart everywhere.

ROSALYN TURECK

Amagansett, N.Y.

Sir: I feel a sense of personal loss at the death of Adlai Stevenson. His speeches were classics, and his kindly voice reached us even here.

J. H. YOUNG

Nukualofa, Tonga

Mariner IV

Sir: My enjoyment of your Mariner cover story [July 23] was somewhat curtailed by the implication that "science fictioneers" are not authors of serious literary works. Men like A. E. Van Vogt, Poul Anderson and Isaac Asimov are respected as writers of fact as well as fiction. The thought that these men picture life on Mars as "little green men with floppy antennae sprouting out of little green heads" is at once ridiculous and laughable.

WARREN F. TAYLOR JR.

Washington, D.C.

Sir: I used to know left from right. In the old days, I would have said that somebody had flopped the negatives of the pictures of Mars's surface in your fine cover article. The computer age seems to be changing most of our other concepts, however, so perhaps it has changed right and left as well.

JOHN L. BRIGGS JR. New York City

> Unlike some caption writers, Reader Briggs knows left from right, all right.

Sir: Was this trip necessary?

SAM ROSEY

San Francisco

Race for the Bomb

Sir: Nuclear proliferation cannot be controlled unless the smaller atomic nations surrender a good deal of sovereignty, which is unlikely. Unless a disarmament solution including China can be worked out, the best hope for the security of our nation and the world lies in the ideas of Disarmament Director Foster.

ROGER S. BAER

Washington, D.C.

Sir: If it is true that "the superpowers between them have ten tons of nuclear destruction for every being on earth," then we are much closer to Armageddon than many of us realize.

QUENTIN O. NOLTE

Chicago

Sir: Your cover story on Ho Chi Minh [July 16] is a shocking distortion of history. Your article says that after two months of haggling, "Ho suddenly agreed to a modus vivendi: the Chinese would leave Viet Nam, but there would be no independence. France promised to explore the possibilities. That was hardly what Ho wanted, and Giap's army took to the hills to begin the eight-year guerrilla war." Actually the French had concluded an agreement directly with the Nationalist Chinese that provided for their withdrawal from North Viet Nam. As for the agreement Ho concluded with the French at Hanoi, it clearly stipulated: "The French Government recognizes the Republic of Viet Nam as a free state having its own government, its own parliament, its own army and finances." Ho was satisfied with this arrangement. It was the French who broke that agreement.

LAWRENCE H. BATTISTINI

Department of Social Science

Michigan State University

East Lansing, Mich.

> Reader Battistini correctly points out that Chinese withdrawal and Vietnamese nationhood were negotiated separately. Whether Ho was really satisfied with an "independence" that left foreign policy in French hands and 15,000 French troops on Vietnamese soil remains debatable.

Sir: You forgot to mention Uncle Ho's visit to Uncle Sam. After leaving Great Britain before World War I, Ho Chi Minh came to America. While in Harlem, he claims to have learned about "the cruelties of Yankee capitalism and Negro lynching."

ALBERT B. FINK JR.

Lawrence, Kans.

Sir: One day China's nuclear power will force us to concede the countries we now fight for. Thus we should either prepare to destroy China's industrial and military capabilities upon its intervention in Viet Nam, or we should voluntarily make concessions rather than be compelled to make them in the future.

SANDY KAHN

Chicago

Sir: Your description of the quiet streets of Hanoi brought to mind my own experience in Belgrade three years ago. Emerging from my hotel in the heart of town at the height of the rush hour, I was struck by the very strange stillness, in which the only sound was the shuffle-shuffle-shuffle of hundreds of shoes; and suddenly I was afraid. Now I realize that the silent life is simply the natural consequence of any Communist system anywhere in the world, and I am no longer frightened--I am terrified!

PATRICIA DINNEN HAWKINS

Washington, D.C.

Unchanging Times

Sir: In your discussion of the Times's editorial policy on the Viet Nam war [July 23], you implied that there was significance to the fact that some Times columnists and some writers for the Sunday Magazine have taken a different viewpoint from that expressed in our editorials. The opinions expressed by columnists and writers for the Times and the magazine are strictly their own and have no relationship whatsoever to the editorial opinions of the New York Times as such.

You further implied that our editorial statement of July 14th that it would be "disastrous" for the United States to quit Viet Nam under present circumstances represented a change of policy on our part. It does not. The Times has never suggested that the U.S. suddenly withdraw its forces from Viet Nam. We have, however, been critical of the deepening American involvement in a land war on the continent of Asia, and we still are.

JOHN B. OAKES

Editor of the Editorial Page

New York Times

New York City

Crime, Society & the Law

Sir: Let officialdom learn to uphold the law rather than abuse it. An innocent man in prison is no deterrent to the commission of crimes.

JACK COLEMAN

Miles City, Mont.

Sir: As one whose position requires that he grapple with the problems of criminal law, may I congratulate you upon a splendid and objective analysis in your essay, "The Revolution in Criminal Justice" [July 16]. Your objectivity is an encouraging contrast to the frequent emotional and sophomoric treatments of this grave issue.

MATHEW O. TOBRINER

Associate Justice

Supreme Court of California

San Francisco

Gad, Sir!

Sir: Your cover story on Race Driver Jim Clark [July 9] says that "in the early days, British motorists had to be preceded by men on foot crying their approach." Nonsense! Up to 1896, mechanically propelled vehicles had to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag, neither to exceed 4 m.p.h. I have seen steam rollers moving at 3 m.p.h. with a man walking in front with the flag (I am 83). On Nov. 14, 1896, the speed permitted was increased to 12 m.p.h. To celebrate, a run was organized from London to Brighton for a collection of motor vehicles, German, French, British and American, to the number of about a score, the distance being 52 miles.

EDWARD H. LIVESAY

Victoria, B.C.

Jack the Giant Builder

Sir: Re Jack Valenti's speech in Boston [July 9]: Is it really true that L.B.J. ghostwrites for Jack?

(MRS.) LAURA HAGANS

Madera, Calif.

Y, Of Course

Sir: Let us hope that Unknown Typist Joan Sutherland left Sidney [July 23] for some reason other than that she could spell no better than TIME. Blimey, blokes, call it Sydney just once, can't you?

ARNOLD S. LOTT

United States Naval Institute

Annapolis, Md.

> Sure, cobber. See "Manning the Outpost," TIME, July 9.

Artzybasheff Lamented

Sir: I was deeply sorry to hear of Boris Artzybasheff's death [July 23]. His artistic integrity was rare and outstanding. He was the finest craftsman of our time, highly imaginative, most original in his concepts. The gap Artzy left may never be filled; he will be long remembered.

ERNEST HAMLIN BAKER

Hendersonville, N.C.

Sir: May I suggest that Time Inc. publish a book of Artzybasheff covers to perpetuate the works of this great artist?

JAN S. IRVINE

Lyme, Conn.

The Horse Latitudes

Sir: Filmways' Mr. Ed is not only a talking horse but an avid reader, which is why our palomino TV star flipped his hackamore after hoofing through TIME [July 23]. Whoever researched your story got a tip from a poor tout. Mr. Ed will indeed run for his fifth season on CBS-TV.

ARTHUR LUBIN

Mr. Ed's Producer-Director

Hollywood

Sir: TIME reports [July 16] that Kelso "had his own water supply (Vichy, imported from Arkansas)." Arkansas has no Vichy. Arkansas does have Mountain Valley Water, which we've been delivering to Kelso through his five "horse of the year" campaigns and right to this minute. Other thoroughbred drinkers include Bold Ruler, Sword Dancer, Nashua, Round Table, Gallant Man, and, going back, Gallant Fox, Bimelech, Challedon, Bubbling Over, Black Toney, Johnstown and Omaha. Kelso has consumed more Mountain Valley than any other living being.

JOHN G. SCOTT

President

Mountain Valley Water

New York City

No Bull

Sir: Two sea cows failed to reproduce, you say [July 16]. Try adding a bull.

MAX BLUMER

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Woods Hole, Mass.

> Whether it's a he-cow or a she-cow, a sea cow is a sea cow.

Fairs for the Future

Sir: TIME'S piece on fairs [July 16] misses an essential point. Knowing both Seattle's success and New York's bust, I would like to note that most Seattle construction was permanent, leaving a new civic-cultural center like those planned after the upcoming San Antonio and Miami fairs. Such planning achieves lasting results that would otherwise take a decade or more to achieve. This, not costly temporary borax like that at Moses' fair, is the likely future of world's fairs in the U.S.

ALFRED STERN

Robinson-Stern Associates, Inc.

New York City

Have a Go-Go

Sir: Frugging at the local discotheque [July 16] may be a bit wearing on the old torso, but What a Way to Go-Go!

(MRS.) DALIA MILLER

Los Angeles

Sir: All Systems Go-Go?

STEPHEN C. B. ATKINSON

Nantucket, Mass.

Sir: The Alter Ego-Go?

MICHAEL GRUBE

Fairbanks, Alaska

Sir: Dizzy Gillespie's Vertigo-Go?

PALMER TYLER

Miami

Sir: Shakespeare's Iago-Go?

CHARLES & MARY EDWARDS

Racine, Wis.

Sir: Okefenokee's Pogo-Go?

EDWARD E. WENDELL JR.

Seattle

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