Power and Glory

Sir / It is clear that the German-born Henry Kissinger [Feb. 7] is the one who is running both the domestic and international affairs of our nation. Here we find a playboy who enjoys and practices the full power of the presidency with no responsibility whatsoever to anyone. Any vote for Richard Nixon is a vote for that hedonist Kissinger to lead our nation to the ultimate bankruptcy.

ABDO A. ELKHOLY De Kalb, Ill.

Sir / Why don't we just rip off the fac,ade and make Kissinger President? He has played Edgar Bergen long enough.

FRANK KLOCK Corona del Mar, Calif.

Sir / Are we a people who are so naive that we honestly think the Communists will negotiate peace when they hold all the cards? Whether Mr. Kissinger or President Nixon realizes it or not, the mere presentation of a plan will do nothing to further a settlement in Asia. That will only come when we are willing to agre; to their terms. Let's stop playing politics and do something!

DAVID N. HATHAWAY Montgomery, Ala.

Sir / Your story called Kissinger's twelve trips to Paris "furtive." Why didn't you say "furtive and futile"?

GLENDON HACKNEY Indianapolis Holden Caulfield Today Sir / Many thanks for Stefan Kanfer's Essay "Holden Today" [Feb. 7]. Yes, Holden Caulfield, the 16-year-old hero of The Catcher in the Rye, is already one of the immortals of American literature.

But to think of him as a schoolteacher at 36 -- never. I would sooner imagine him line coach of the Dallas Cowboys!

LEO L. RIDDLE Spruce Pine, N.C.

Sir / Long live Holden Caulfield, no matter what his chronological age! Your Essay reacquainted me with an old, valued friend who eased my prep school muddles by making me realize they were the rule rather than the exception.

Even though Holden may be pushing 40, my own students still regard him as the representative youth who voices problems they have just begun to grasp.

I was relieved to read that Holden has finally teacher -- made and a it. But loyal married, servant a of the father, Esatablishment! What a sellout.

(MRS.) KATHRYN ABERMAN Carlisle, Pa.

Sir / If you really want to hear about it, I respectfully submit that Holden Caulfield is not "pushing 40" for the same reason that Hamlet is not pushing 400. Both of these "mixed-up kids" have something to say to all ages, as evidenced by their up." faithful following; they will never "grow EDWARD MC INTYRE De Kalb, Ill.

Sir / What you've done, buddy, you've given your readers a glorious vision of a superannuated Holden Caulfield shoving Maalox into his mouth and peering nearsightedly into the medicine-cabinet mirror in an attempt to meditate his hairline out of receding.

Make him into a monk if you have to, but don't turn him into a hack with no vision. If Holden Caulfield did turn out to be a schoolteacher, he would take infinite delight in the shine on the braces of the boy sitting in the third row, or something. He would know that was why he was pushing the rock all over the place.

ELLEN BILGORE New York City Sir / Stefan Kanfer's Essay was more than bad. It was Dr. Joyce Brothers on the Virgin Mary.

ROBBIE WRIGHT Granada, Spain Forest of Lunatics Sir / Hugh Sidey's Essay on the presidential campaign [Jan. 31] is a cry of sanity in a forest of lunatics. It is high time, in this day of megagovernment and increasing restriction of personal freedom, that the men who determine the couse of our lives cease conducting themselves like a bunch of clowns. As a former political activist, I have had much personal experience with the hoopla you mention.

If anything, you have understated the problem. I sincerely believe that a candidate who conducted a dignified, out-front campaign could easily capture the youth and independent vote.

WILLIAM R. HENKLE JR.

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Sir / Wow! A campaign could again be ex citing if people would follow Mr. Si dey's suggestions. I'm old enough to remember when campaigns and conventions were exciting and worth reading about. Now I approach the season with nothing but dread.

(MRS.) MARY LOUISE ROBINSON Bayard, Iowa Psychiatric Prisoners Sir / In your article on the use of mental hospitals to suppress dissent in the So viet Union [Feb. 7], you quote me as es timating "that about 150 political prisoners are held in KGB-controlled mental wards in otherwise ordinary psychiatric hospitals, or in special 'institutes' directly under KGB authority."

Unfortunately, what I said over the telephone has become distorted. I said that about 150 political p;isoners are known to me to have been held in re cent years in Soviet menial institutions, but I stressed that the total number of such prisoners is probably much higher, there being no way at present of es timating accurately the total figure.

Secondly, the "psychiatric hospitals of special type" (to use the Soviet ter minology) are, strictly speaking, subject to the authority of the Ministry of In ternal Affairs (MVD), not the KGB. This fact does not, of course, prevent the KGB from exercising wide control in them.

Apart from these points, your re port on this subject struck me as ac curate and useful.

PETER REDDAWAY Lecturer in Political Science London School of Economics London Bombs for Balalaikas Sir / I read your epithet-laden piece of "objective" reporting. "Bombs for Balalaikas" [Feb. 7]. The Jewish Defense League's message is not and never has been one of hate: on the contrary, the league emphasizes love for one's persecuted brothers in the Soviet Union; its members are not "clearly dangerous" but are courageously attempting to rend asunder the fatal curtain of silence that fell between American Jews and their brothers who were being butchered, gassed and burned during World War II.

I personally deplore the bombings, but TIME has desecrated the memory of 6,000,000 murdered Jews by cruelly branding as "storm troopers" those of us who fight desperately and alone to prevent a repetition of the holocaust.

AVI BITTON New York City Sir / Yevtushenko the archhypocrite, the pusher of Soviet propaganda, is peddling his hard stuff to the hate-America junkies, who are eagerly mainlining it; while those Russians with moral sanity and real courage are being shunted into Siberian asylums. The stars in our flag are bullet holes, he howls. One object in his flag is the hammer of truth, and the other is the sickle of state that cuts down those who dare to lift it.

NEIL G. BARCLAY San Francisco Stamps or Jets Sir / Speaking as a private person and not as the grandson of His Highness the Ruler of Ajman, permit me to say that your story "Vacuum in the Gulf" [Feb. 7] errs in describing the fishing industry of my state as "primitive." In fact, ships of Ajman registry constitute the largest diesel-powered trawling fleet (47 vessels) in the lower Gulf. Moreover, our skies, waters and beaches are crystal clear -- so whose industry is "primitive"?

Your article said one true thing: Ajman's sale of commemorative postage stamps does help its economy. My American friends tell me that this is a better of boosting national income than Phantom jets to half the world.

SHAIKH ABDULAZIZ BIN HUMAID AL-NAIMI St. Louis / You said that the Union of Arab Emirates was "linked only by language (Arabic) and faith (Islam)." I fail to understand what you mean by "only." Do you mind telling us in simple words what unites underpopulated Nevada with overpopulated California, and rich Texas with impoverished Kentucky? Enlighten us on the unsuspicious and equal "tribes" of the blacks, Jews, Puerto Ricans, Irish and Italians love and live with each other in New York City.

HAITHAM GOUSSOUS Athens, Ohio Canaletto Alone Sir / You've Giotto be kidding about the pun game in the art world [Feb. 7]. Wyeth Wood I write this letter after I Rembrandt your animal puns last year?

Well, Que Seurat, Seurat.

What do you do when you walk your dog in New York? Courbet.

What do you find between Fran's bedrooms and living room? Frans Hals.

What do you do with the barrel so we'll have a barrel of fun? Rouault.

What do you do with a bunch of Fritos? Munch.

What did the lady buy to go with the peanut butter? Botticelli.

I quit. My typewriter Baroque.

(MRS.) ROWENA MOHN Westport, Conn.

Sir / May I play your artist pun game?

What do Spanish voyeurs do? Watch Salvador Dali.

Is George Inness right mind?

What did the little boy with Montezuma's Revenge say? "Daddy, I've got to Gauguin."

Why are you getting rid of your cat? It Claude Lorrain.

I think Mr. Weil is correct. It could go on forever.

MALCOLM WYATT COCKE Bristol, Va.

Address Letters to TIME, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y.

10020

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