Victors and Vanquished

Sir: the howls of outrage emanating from the American people at Lieut. Galley's sentence [April 12] seem to indicate that Americans are not willing to do unto themselves as they did unto the Germans and the Japanese. America has a moral obligation to judge her own as she has judged others in the past. Or are the norms to be different for the victors and the vanquished?

SANJOY SHOME Flin Flon, Manitoba

Sir: How can the Army, an organization that trains people to kill, condemn Lieut. Galley for murder?

MARC IVANCIC Eveleth, Minn.

Sir: So Lieut. Galley has been found guilty. Of what? Of having the courage to fight for his country? That a young man should expose himself to peril only to be court-martialed and convicted upon his return home is incredible. The idea that there is a "right" and "wrong" in war is ludicrous. I cannot believe that we will allow Galley to serve as scapegoat for our guilty consciences.

JANET DUNLOP SCHOM College Station, Texas

Sir: Has this nation gone mad? Can a convicted murderer of women and children really become a folk hero? Are we to believe that murder without military reason is the norm for our armed services?

While it is true that Galley alone must not be allowed to bear the total blame, how can he be considered a scapegoat? A scapegoat is one who bears punishment for the mistakes of others. Is he so incompetent a human being that he is totally free of responsibility for his actions? MARY ANNE HARRISON Highland Park, Ill.

Sir: Germans accused of murdering Jews and other "enemies of the people" in cold blood during World War II invariably claimed that they were "only doing their duty and following orders." Many Americans who could not accept such an alibi then feel now that Galley's conviction is unjust. Fortunately, Galley's peers who convicted him did not have any such double standard.

GUNTHER RIENES Havre de Grace, Md.

Sir: In my opinion, Lieut. Galley represents the tens of thousands of Americans who in the past have gone to foreign lands and waters to defend this country and the things for which it stands. As a World War II veteran, I know war is not pleasant. But to punish Lieut. Galley for carrying out his basic mission--to seek out and destroy the enemy--is wrong.

If Lieut. Galley's conviction and sentence are permitted to stand, these actions will most surely destroy the necessary fighting spirit of our armed forces.

OSBORNE S.P. KOERNER Captain, U.S.N.R. Arlington, Va.

La Causa Nostra

Sir: I found your article on the Italian-American Civil Rights League [April 5] an insult to all our people. You portray our defensive organizations as fronts for "La Cosa Nostra" but ignore "La Causa Nostra" (Our Cause). We are sick of being discriminated against, stigmatized, degraded and oppressed in this country, sick of being called Mafiosi, greasers, dumb dagos, guineas and wops. We will not be scapegoats of the WASP gangster establishment, which sees a cure-all for Yankee problems in the persecution of Italian-Americans.

ROBERTO Di SCIPIO El Paso

Sir: As an Italian-American, I say a special thank you to Joe Colombo; what he may be is not certain, but that he is proud of his heritage is. Perhaps TIME will stop printing the words that I have been associated with all my life yet know very little about: La Cosa Nostra and Mafia.

PATSY SCARNECCHIA Wiirzburg, West Germany

Sir: Surely the Italian-American Civil Rights League could rally around some legitimate grievances rather than splitting straws over The Godfather, The FBI series and Alka-Seltzer's "spicy meatballs." The next thing we know, we're going to have to erase Sicily from the maps. Somebody in that league is full of pasta.

HARALD O. DOGLIANI Boulder, Codo. Sir: I have had films of mine picketed by the American Legion in Orange County, Calif., and by the Communist Party in Paris. Thank heavens some order has finally been brought into what people may or may not see on the screen by a truly responsible organization: the Mafia.

GEORGE AXELROD London

Sir: I suppose even Joe Colombo has done a few good deeds, but Father Gigante would have done better to bless them in private and save his public prayers for the thousands of victims of the Mafia.

Had Father Gigante offered prayers at a Planned Parenthood banquet, I'm sure his bishop would have been induced to comment publicly. As an American of Italian descent, I can only be embarrassed over the whole sad affair.

RICHARD W. FRATTALI Ann Arbor, Mich.

"New" Catholics

Sir: When Joseph Dollinger found it impossible to subscribe to papal infallibility at Vatican I, he felt constrained to leave the church and found the "Old" Catholics. When Hans Kung [April 5] finds it impossible to subscribe to any infallibility other than God's, he feels constrained to stay on and help bail out the sinking bark of Peter. Since infallibility is an irreformable position of the Catholic Church, many will wonder why Hans Kung does not leave the church and found the "New" Catholics. PAUL F. PALMER, S.J. New York City

Sir: It is quite amusing to watch Hans Kung, as a theologian, sawing away at the branch he is sitting on. For if the propositions of faith are as inadequate as he claims them to be, he is surely not entitled to assert that God is infallible, or that faith is not the acceptance of infallible propositions but a commitment to Christ and his message. And why bother with Christ's message if he could have been mistaken?

G.H. DLJGGAN, S.M. Greenmeadows, New Zealand

Sir: Catholics are aware of the fact that it is Hans Kung who is neither infallible nor indefectible.

(THE REV.) G.V. HADDOCK Manhattan

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Gore v. Sex

Sir: The author of "Pornography Revisited" [April 5] suggests that there is an inconsistency between the conclusions of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography and those of the Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. This is not the case at all.

The real inconsistency is in protecting our children from films with sexual content, while giving G ratings to films which capitalize on blood and gore.

THOMAS R. WADDELL Gainesville, Fla.

Sir: You write: "If some have a right to pornography, others have an equal right not to have it foisted on them." Have you ever thought that the word pornography could be replaced by the words advertising, religion, sport, music, etc.? Each time we open a book or a magazine, we run the risk of being shocked or scandalized. We accept this risk because it is the price of liberty.

NORMAND DESCHAMPS Montreal

Sir: I feel that pornography has a definite detrimental effect on society. It is degrading, demeaning and depersonalizing and makes fun of marriage, fidelity, home life, love and respect. We are surrounded by obscenities in our everyday lives by advertisements stressing virility and sex appeal. How many people are unhappy because they cannot keep up with the frantic pace that books and current movies tell us is "normal" in our sex lives? What ever happened to the idea of loving one person and keeping faithful to one's ideals?

(MRS.) JUDITH F. SOKOL Bellflower, Calif.

Pure Blood to the Public

Sir: I don't think the Tokyo Giants are all "pureblood Japanese" [March 29]. Sadaharu Oh may be a Japanese citizen, but his father is Chinese and only his mother is Japanese.

JAMES C. CHANG Cedar Falls, Iowa

Born and brought up in Japan, First Baseman Oil considers himself Japanese, as does his public.

A Cut

Sir: The item entitled "Goheen Goes" [April 5] said that Princeton has cut the number of prep school graduates to 70% of the freshman class. For the record, the public school graduates made up about 50% when Mr. Goheen became president nearly 14 years ago, and this year were 70% of the freshman class.

WILLIAM H. WEATHERSBY Vice President for Public Affairs Princeton University

Not Without the Golden Fleece

Sir: Your excellent article on the National Gallery's new Rogier van der Weyden [April 5] contains a small misstatement that I would like to correct: Sir John Pope-Hennessy never agreed that the sitter was Philip the Good of Burgundy. Like me, he believed that the picture could be connected with the portrait of Philip's wife, Isabella of Portugal. But he realized that it was unlikely, to say the least, that Philip would have been painted not wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece.

The original purpose of the National Gallery picture remains a mystery. Is it a portrait, or is it the image of a saint posed for by a saintly looking model? Very probably it possessed a companion picture or pictures, and all the problems relating to it could be resolved if these should come to light.

DAVID CARRITT London

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