The Eagleton Affair (Contd.)

Sir / Re the Eagleton Affair [Aug. 14]: The liberal, understanding, modern-thinking Mr. McGovern shows us his true side as he echoes the overstrained voices of some Americans who live with the suspicions and ignorant fears of the 19th century.

I think we are beginning to see that Mr. McGovern's trumpet of a new way of life and thinking in America is just another hollow blast. If one looks closely enough, I think one can see his credibility gapping.

DONALD CROSSETT

Minoa, N.Y.

Sir / Because I was a student during the frustrating years of the late '60s. I have viewed George McGovern with hope. It looked as though this seemingly credible man would finally be able to change priorities in our Government from a kill count in Viet Nam to a job and food count in Harlem. But with McGovern's "handling" of Eagleton, he has developed a true politician's trait--the forked-tongue syndrome.

MARY TUSH

Leesburg, Fla.

Sir / We don't deserve Mr. Eagleton. His display of maturity, stability and selflessness is not homogeneous with the irrational, virulent, self-seeking mob of America today.

DONNA MARKHAM

Washington, D.C.

Sir / My right to assess the true merits of the McGovern-Eagleton candidacy was pre-empted by that old triple threat: power, influence and money. Apparently America cannot come home just yet.

ELEANOR JOHNSON

Chevy Chase, Md.

Sir / The Eagleton affair will not be remembered as a tragedy. George McGovern, as Senator Eagleton is quick to acknowledge, has so much to offer our country that anything or anyone who might conceivably dim his chances is a liability to us all. It is with great anticipation that I await a fresh, open Government. I can smell the fragrance of victory behind McGovern's determination to run with the best mate possible, despite the momentary discomfort.

STEPHEN CHANDLER

Tucson, Ariz.

Sir / The cover photo of Senator Thomas Eagleton suggests that the vice-presidential candidate might be more than a bit "out of focus." Such a subtle personal slur represents distasteful, amateurish journalism.

JAMES T.ROONEY

Brewster, N.Y.

Sir / Politicians mystify me. Only a few weeks ago Democratic Party leaders were clamoring for Senator Kennedy to be Senator McGovern's running mate. Senator Kennedy's behavior in time of crisis is a matter of record. Now the same leaders have dumped Senator Eagleton because of a history of mental fatigue and depression. Evidently to panic in an emergency is quite acceptable to them, but to recognize a problem and seek treatment for it is not.

CATHERINE S. GRUBB

Noank, Conn.

Jane Fonda and Viet Nam Dikes

Sir / Jane Fonda, the "Tokyo Rose" of the Viet Nam War, should be punished for her recent "pilgrimage" to Hanoi [Aug. 7].

She has given aid and comfort to our enemy, and I enthusiastically support Congressman Fletcher Thompson's recommendation that charges of treason be brought against her. We cannot survive as a free nation if we permit treason to become an accepted social amenity consonant with the jaded politics and actions of extremists.

ROBERT HOHL

Laurel, Md.

Sir / The so-called liberals and the left have picked up the propaganda line from Hanoi about the dikes. Whenever Hanoi is hurt, it is amazing how these friends will scurry to her aid. The world should use every means possible to defend itself from Hanoi's barbaric acts in Indochina. Destroying the dikes could be a humane way to stop Hanoi and to end the war.

HAROLD CUTLER

Oscoda, Mich.

Sir / As any former Air Force targeting officer knows, the best evidence that the U.S. is systematically bombing the dikes is that we have hit very few of them.

JIM PIPER

U.S. Air Force Academy

Class of'65

Washington, D.C.

To Spare Anxiety

Sir / In your Letters column concerning the question of an Unknown Soldier [Aug. 14], Dr. O'Hara reports having viewed what he calls "a collection of unidentified remains" in Tan Son Nhut mortuary in Viet Nam and speculates that the bodies or partial remains of men reported missing in action may have been among them. What Dr. O'Hara writes is true: there have been and still are a small number of unidentified partial remains at Tan Son Nhut. However, the macabre image that Dr. O'Hara conjures up is thoughtlessly cruel to the families of men missing in action.

We are adamant that no doubts be added to the grief of a bereaved family and equally determined that the families of men missing in action be spared the anxiety of wondering whether their soldier has been buried as an unidentified casualty.

Despite the thoroughness and expertise of the team at Tan Son Nhut, there are occasionally partial remains that are impossible to identify positively. In these infrequent cases, despite continuing efforts at considerable risk to probe sites where American soldiers are believed or known to have been killed, complete recovery and final identification must wait until the cessation of hostilities.

WINANT SIDLE

Major General, U.S.A.

Chief of Public Information

Washington, D.C.

Lithuania's Struggle

Sir / Your article about Lithuania [July 31] is truly a splendid portrayal of the struggle being carried on by the Lithuanian people against the tyrannous oppression imposed on them by Communist Russia.

FRANK GUDELIS

Knights of Lithuania

Dayton

Sir / The fate of a nation of merely 3,000,000, with a land mass of hardly 26,000 sq. mi., may seem like too trivial a matter for the world's concern these days. But we made peace, prosperity and independence viable for 22 years--until Russian imperialism made a shambles of it. Is it asking too much to want this again?

G.E. SANURA

Heidelberg, West Germany

Black English

Sir / Re the article on Black English [Aug. 7]: I am sorry to say that the theories of my friends and colleagues Joe Dillard and Bill Stewart, as reported in your article, contain a number of inaccuracies that may mislead your readers.

Put as simply as possible, it is not the case that Black English is a separate language from White (not "Standard") English nor that it has different syntax from the latter. Black and White English are variants or genera of one language, differing mainly in pronunciation, not grammar. It is a waste of time and energy to teach black children White English "as though it were a foreign language"; black and white children in fact speak the same language, namely English, and are almost always 100% mutually intelligible.

This further obviates the need for readers in Black English, as Stewart's readers purport to be. Written English is neither Black nor White; it is just General Shared English, a mirror of the competence of all native English speakers, black or white.

SUSAN H. HOUSTON

Associate Professor

Behavioral Science/Linguistics

State University College

Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Sir / In addition to the indignities of physical ghettoization, must we blacks now submit to linguistic and grammatical apartheid by having our children exposed to Black English wrongly set before them in print in our schools? Schools must meet their responsibility for preparing our young to compete effectively in the world of affairs where Standard English is the norm. Dialects should be left to novelists and songwriters.

There is no such thing as Black English, only English corrupted by the ignorance to which blacks are unjustly condemned by a society in which there is no "liberty and justice for all."

(MRS.) S.M.HAYES

Los Angeles

Space Shuttle Contract

Sir / In your article on the new space shuttle [Aug. 7], you neglected to mention Grumman Aerospace Corp., which was one of the four bidders for the contract. In fact the final design to be utilized for the shuttle was heavily influenced by engineering effort at Grumman.

Most significantly your article points up in alarming clarity the extent to which a violently competitive proposal was settled on political grounds rather than the content of the proposal or the capabilities of the bidders. Plain and simple, it was California v. New York. California won because its constituents and its legislators cared more about winning.

In point of fact, no one in the world can convince the working-level people on Grumman's proposal team that North American turned in a better proposal than we did.

MARK A. STERN

Westbury, N.Y.

Pity the Robin

Sir / I pity the robin that tries to pluck a worm from a plastic "lawn" or build a nest in a synthetic "juniper." I pity any living thing that tries to live in the James Cummings' artificial "garden" [Aug. 7]. But most of all, I pity the people who are so insensitive as to mock and defile nature by conjuring up a plastic landscape in one of the most beautiful areas of the world--the Pacific Northwest.

JOHNF.CHAPIN

Plainfield, Ind.

Sir / Are Mr. and Mrs. Cummings aware of the fact that their $3,500 plastic lawn cannot return oxygen to the atmosphere?

I find their total disregard for the environment appalling.

(MRS.) HARRIET CHARLAND

Oakdale, Conn.

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