MOY

Sir: My nomination for TIME'S Man of the Year is the Vietnamese guerrilla, who for 25 years has fought, always against great odds, for the right to govern himself.

P. S. ADAMS

London

Sir: The Viet Cong soldier, who, though underfed, underpaid and underequipped, has fought the world's most powerful nation to a standstill.

NEAL NUSS

Park Forest, Ill.

Sir: I nominate the American G.I. In the past year no other man or group of men has done so much for the American people.

SUSAN PULLUS

Dallas

Sir: The Student Demonstrator.

LEROY VOGEL

Professor of History

Centenary College

Shreveport, La.

Sir: The U.S. spacemen, who have achieved so much and have opened the space age by their daring experiments.

ANTHONY HAGERTY

London

Sir: Barry Goldwater, whose honesty, frankness and sense of morality inspired the present U.S. President in his fight against international Communism.

ALEJANDRO DEL MOLING TORRES

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sir: Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, a world leader who, I predict, will succeed Johnson as President of the U.S.

PATRICK BEARY

Jamaica, N.Y.

Sir: John W. Lennon of the Beatles.

MADELINE R. TRESS

Brooklyn

Historian Schlesinger

Sir: As another historian, I commend you for honoring the craft with your cover story on Arthur Schlesinger [Dec. 17]. I, too, would plump for activism because of its merit to the interpreter of history. However, there is a factor in such associations that Schlesinger fails to emphasize. That is the gracious receptivity of men such as his President and my Governor to interloping historians. Access is the key to effective political participation and observation, and Kennedy and Scranton have literally opened their offices to public scrutiny.

GEORGE D. WOLF

Special Assistant to the Governor

Harrisburg, Pa.

Sir: According to TIME, Rusk considered Schlesinger one of the "biggest gossips in Washington." I am one of Mr. Schlesinger's closest friends. I saw him every two or three weeks. In reading his book, I was amazed to find all he knew and the experiences he shared with the President and others. Never did he ever give me the slightest hint of these activities and discussions. Until last month, I thought he was just a friend of the President.

SEYMOUR E. HARRIS

Chairman

Department of Economics

University of California

San Diego

Sir: Concerning the historian as participant: In 1892 President Eliot of Harvard notified Henry Adams that he would be the recipient of an honorary degree in recognition of his History of the United States. Adams declined, and urged that the honor be conferred on Nicolay and Hay for their Abraham Lincoln, A History. Eliot replied: "Those gentlemen did not write history, but the historical biography of a man just dead. They were actors in many of the scenes they described, and, therefore, could not be historians. They have prepared invaluable materials for the subsequent historian, and done an admirable piece of literary work; but I submit that they have not written history." I don't agree, but that's what the man said.

PAUL M. ANGLE

Secretary

Chicago Historical Society

Chicago, Ill.

Viet Nam

Sir: How refreshing, how stimulating, to read of a Dwight Owen [Dec. 17]. This is the kind of man who would have been at the Boston Tea Party; he is the man about whom the history of this country is written. Eight years ago, while a senior at Brown University, I had the privilege of living with the Owen family. "Dee" Owen was even then a bright boy who made sure my baby sitting was never dull. It was worth it!

A. STEPHEN CASIMIR, M.D.

Vestal, N.Y.

Sir: It is nice to read about all the support for us back there and to receive all the delicious cookies and candy from our friends. But although cookies are nice, they don't stop the rashes that come from the heat and dampness, or shave the faces that have not seen a new blade in days, or kill the fungus that seems to be a common place. And all the time I see body powder and disinfectants and so many other things sorely needed by us marines arrive under the title of "We Care," etc. on their way to the Vietnamese people.

(LANCE CPL.) D. L. GREEN

U.S.M.C.

Viet Nam

Sir: Here in Viet Nam we can't understand why so much undeserved publicity is given to Vietniks, since they and their supporters comprise such a small and infantile portion of the population. Most of these people are interested only in reading about themselves. If all publications would treat them as the morons they are, I'll bet my time for rotation that the streets of the U.S. would soon empty of Vietniks.

(A/ 1C) WILLIAM E. COOK

U.S.A.F.

Viet Nam

Sir: Your cover story on General Johnson [Dec. 10] is a worthy tribute to a great American. We are most fortunate to have such a deeply religious, professionally competent and genuinely sincere leader for our army. He practices those things he expects of his subordinates. All citizens should pray daily that God will give him the strength and courage for the hard decisions ahead.

T. E. CARTER

East Point, Ga.

Sir: Your story saddened me, because it bolsters the myth of fighting efficiency in Viet Nam. Australian troops, speaking to our correspondents, describe the Americans as poorly led and poorly trained in jungle warfare. Our men will not go on patrol with Americans because it is too dangerous. These examples of dangerous practices are cited: marines yelling to one another on patrol, unburied mess tins and cigarette butts, transistor radios blaring, lighted cigars at night, an appalling lack of observation of danger signs.

ALAN MACDONALD

Hamilton, N.Z.

Sir: With apprehension, sympathy and horror, I spent a sleepless night after reading your cover story on General Johnson, written with tongue in cheek and excellently disguised disgust about the methods used to drag hopeful youth away from fine families to the slaughter of Viet Nam after being indoctrinated with hatred and brainwashed for mass murder and suicide. It is a pity that the U.S.A., which had all the makings for world leadership, was left with a leader who uses toughness to cover up his weakness. This is one more reason the world mourns the untimely death of Kennedy, who was able and determined to bring the nations into brotherly line.

M. HALTRECHT

Montreal

Sir: The cover story on General Johnson is a welcome change from the articles I have read about our misunderstood specimens of manhood who manage to muster up enough energy to hold up placards and march. As I read the grim reminder of Bataan and the death march, I couldn't help comparing those soldiers with our protest marchers, many of whom would be wasting a match to burn their draft cards, because they would be either physically or mentally unfit to serve in the armed forces. We who are mothers of young sons should add this article to their required reading lists.

THERESA C. DUSSAULT

Hudson, N.H.

Sir: About your quotes from Dean Rusk's speech [Dec. 17]: Won't Government spokesmen ever face the essential Viet Nam issue? Whether or not Hanoi "leaves South Viet Nam alone," many experts believe that the situation in South Viet Nam is a revolutionary one and that the Viet Cong is primarily a civil-revolutionary force. Will Mr. Rusk never acknowledge this possibility? Will he persist in evading the real point?

W. BACKEMEYER

University of Sydney

Sydney, Australia

Sir: Herewith the rest of the story on the bombing of the Metropole [Dec. 10]. Two floors were occupied by the out-pat clinic of the Navy Station Hospital. Twenty-two hospital corpsmen lived in the Metropole. Sixteen were injured in the blast; 14, though injured, spent the next twelve hours aiding the injured as well as carrying out their assigned hospital tasks. On the "blast" side of the Metropole, doctors' offices, treatment rooms, an eye clinic, the X-ray department and bacteriology laboratory were demolished. In the main hospital building, two patients were injured. But assistance by a surgical team from the Army 3rd Field Hospital enabled us to gain "medical control" of the situation by late afternoon the same day. We are small, but wound tight!

A. C. HERING

Captain, U.S.N.

Senior Medical Officer

Navy Station Hospital

Saigon

Voting Problems

Sir: Your Essay on voting [Dec. 10] was directly to the mark. As the staff director of the President's Committee on Registration and Voting, I was shocked to find that while apathy is a major cause of nonvoting, election laws written when buggy whips were a big industry and high-button shoes the latest style are the major block. The fact is, we are shortly going to have 100 million Americans attempting to register and vote. Our procedures and practices simply are not up to that number, and revision must take place --and soon.

DONALD G. HERZBERG

Executive Director

Eagleton Institute of Politics

Rutgers University

New Brunswick, N.J.

Vatican II

Sir: In its superb comprehensiveness and magnificent clarity, TIME'S interpretive summary of the Vatican Council's work [Dec. 17] is a masterpiece in objective journalism. It ought to be made required reading for every Protestant minister, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox priest. Jewish rabbi, and every divinity school student.

WILLIAM B. LIPPHARD

Editor Emeritus

Missions

American Baptist International Magazine

Yonkers, N.Y.

Sir: Until history provides perspective, your Essay must be filed with the contemporary evaluations of Vatican II as the best capsule analysis. You avoid the extremes of so much of the press coverage, from indiscriminate flattery to unimaginative cynicism. That a newsmagazine weighs for its readers the triteness or the significance of different council statements is evidence that John XXIII's dream and Paul VI's plans are already being realized: Vatican II was not just for the Catholic Church (ecclesiastical) but for the world (ecumenical).

(THE REV.) J. W. LANGLINAIS, S.M.

Dean, Arts and Sciences

St. Mary's University

San Antonio, Tex.

Passover Plot

Sir: About your article on Hugh Schonfield's book The Passover Plot [Dec. 10]: please ask the good Mr. Schonfield what miraculous drug Jesus took to feed the 4,000 from seven loaves and fishes.

DONALD A. LONGO

Pittsburgh

Sir: Schonfield has missed the point. The plot is much bigger than he realized; its magnitude must make us gasp with admiration. Think of the Madison Avenue techniques apparent in the show put on some 30-odd years earlier--finding out about the impending tax from "contacts" (the perfect excuse for a trip to Bethlehem), timing the conception of a boy child, setting the stage (the angels' choirs and star alone must have cost plenty). What seriousness of purpose, what singleness of thought to hold to for 33 years And finally, she even managed to have Him find someone on that last day to take care of her in case something went wrong. Hail to the hitherto unknown perpetrator of the plot. Back of every great man is a woman.

LINDA J. BERGSTEN

Clarendon Hills, Ill.

Pop Prayer

Sir: I am dismayed by your story on "Pop Prayer" [Nov. 26]. However, the Episcopalians have no monopoly on this. Our local reform rabbi, from his pulpit, pleads with us to come to "syna-go-go." The children think he's "cool."

(MRS.) LORRAINE ALEXANDER

Wellesley, Mass.

The Supreme Court & Obscenity

Sir: Is it not poetic justice that the nine old men [Dec. 17] who, in the name of democracy, opened the sluice gates on the filth pouring over our children are now themselves being inundated in the swill of pornography?

L. C. LEMMON

Arlington, Va.

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