Men of the Year

Sir / Your selection of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger as Men of the Year [Jan. 1] is appropriate. One sold the people on peace around the corner ten days before the election and the other has ordered more bombs dropped on North Viet Nam after the election. Yes, the Red baiters of the '50s have come a long way politically.

M.C. DEINHART Mountlake Terrace, Wash.

Sir / For 1972, the year of the hoax, what better choice than Nixon-Kissinger for Men of the Year?

Granted, there were many possibilities: the Arab "guests" at the Olympic Village; the return of Peron; the revelations of Eagleton: the 1,000% backing of McGovern; the Hughes "autobiography" and others. However, they all fade in comparison with the peace hoax of your cover conspirators.

ROBERT E. FLANNERY Springfield, Pa.

Sir / I commend your Men of the Year selection as illustrated. It quite accurately depicts the combined granite Blockheads of the Year.

ALICE A. CHACE Redondo Beach, Calif.

Sir / My first reaction upon reading your choices for the Men of the Year was one of immeasurable disgust. I was able to recover, however, when reminded that decency and concern for human life are not prerequisites for the honor, and that previous winners include Joseph Stalin (twice) and Adolf Hitler.

One could imagine that had TIME been in existence in the 5th century, Attila the Hun might have been a three-time winner.

RICHARD MITTENTHAL New York City

Sir / The sculpture pictured on your cover is an insult to two fine-looking, patriotic men, but then you have devoted four years of insults to Richard Nixon, so why stop now?

IRVIN HIGHT Eldorado, Ill.

Sir / You were right in saying that Richard Nixon has shaped the world. The problem is that he uses bombs to shape it.

JONATHAN HOFFMAN Plainview, N.Y.

Sir / I can think of a number of better subtitles for your Men of the Year story than "Triumph and Trial": how about "Tragedy and Trickery" for one?

HENRI TEMIANKA Los Angeles

Sir / If Men of the Year are chosen For actions that are good or bad. Then "Deception and Destruction" Is what the caption should have had.

GEORGE FLICK North Royalton, Ohio

Sir / The liberals and pantywaists are now sniping at President Nixon for not ending the war regardless of circumstances, and accusing him of misleading the American people before the election. I say this is unjust and untrue.

It was the Nixon bombing policy that apparently persuaded the North Vietnamese to at least pretend to negotiate seriously with Kissinger. Some pantywaists in this country are still trying to persuade them they can get what they want if they're just obstinate enough long enough.

KATHRYN N. RHODES La Crescenta, Calif.

Sir / Men of the Year? Something of the year, maybe. Men, hardly.

WILLIAM F. KEARNS Columbus

Living in Limbo

Sir / Your article on P.O.W. Sergeant First Class Donald Rander [Dec. 25] really hit home with us since my husband has been wearing a VIVA bracelet in honor of him for the past two years. We always felt as though we knew him, and now we know his family as well.

Sergeant Rander was captured only nine days before we were married, and while our life has had all the things that are a part of living, Sergeant Rander has been stagnating in a horrible limbo.

Mrs. Rander is a credit to her family and country. We would like to share her faith in President Nixon, but we cannot. She has tried through peaceful means to get her husband released. It is too bad the Administration cannot follow her example.

SALLY AND GARY KIDD Edgewater, N.J.

Sir / I wonder how Mrs. Rander feels about her vote now that Nixon has added significantly to American P.O.W. numbers by resuming the bombing, which has also resulted in the bombing of the P.O.W.s themselves.

JOAN FROST Jocotepec, Mexico

Sir / I was moved to tears by your article on Andrea Rander and her family--moved to tears of rage that Nixon, with his pre-election promises of peace in Viet Nam, was able to cultivate the sympathies of so many innocent victims. The war is futile and the U.S. should never have dragged in so many unwilling people, both its own and ours.

(MRS.) KAY ZIEGAHN Bondi, Australia

When in Rome--Watch Out

Sir / I wonder if whoever did the story on Rome's Fiurnicino Airport [Dec. 25] has heard a joke that sums up the situation neatly. It goes something like this: A Pan Am flight (we'll call it 123) is approaching Rome and the tower tells the pilot to go to 10,000 ft. and hold. He acknowledges, and his first officer says, "Say, didn't I hear them give the same instructions to BOAC 456, coming in behind us?" "Hey, I think so," says the captain. "I'd better call in and ask them." So he calls the Fiurnicino tower, saying "Tower, this is Pan Am 123. You told me to go to 10,000 ft. and hold, and my first officer says he thinks he heard you tell the same thing to BOAC 456." There is a pause, and then the tower comes on. "That's right, so you better watch out!"

JOHN s. EWING Los Altos Hills, Calif.

Sir / I have landed and departed from the Rome airport four times in the past two years without noting any of the horrible conditions your reporter has found.

Personally I admire the Italians for being able to do so much with so little. Why scare American tourists away from one of the world's most pleasant cities with a story that could as easily have been written about almost any American airport?

LAWRENCE ROSSITER Hartington, Neb.

Sir / Your article on Fiurnicino Airport described everything that happened to us.

A group of 30 had been organized to travel to Florence, Italy, for my one-woman art show. We landed at Fiurnicino three hours late and customs impounded 24 of my paintings. We finally left for Florence. The paintings never left the airport because of various strikes.

Luckily I had eight paintings in suitcases so we had a mini-show. One week later we landed at Fiurnicino Airport again. We were told the paintings would be shipped back to Memphis on the next flight. Our flight was delayed for seven hours because the stewardesses had gone on strike, and we finally made it to New York singing God Bless America. One month later my paintings were returned to me!

SOPHIE W. COORS Memphis

A Principle Intact

Sir / A footnote to your Press section [Jan. 1] incorrectly stated that William Farr was jailed for refusing to name his sources for a story in the Los Angeles Times. Farr's story actually was published by the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, for which he worked before joining, in succession, the district attorney's office and the Los Angeles Times.

In the same section, you state that the Times "changed its mind and decided to obey [Judge] Sirica's order" in turning over to the court its tapes in the Watergate affair after being released from its pledge of confidentiality.

The Times did not change its mind. In fact, it was preparing to pursue its case before the Supreme Court when the man to whom the pledge was given requested--for his own reasons--that the tapes be submitted.

We do not claim this as a ringing victory, but it certainly was not a defeat, as you imply, for the principle of confidentiality, which emerged still intact, in this case at least.

WILLIAM THOMAS Editor Los Angeles Times Los Angeles

Suffering in Prison

Sir / In your story about the charges brought against John and Angelo Alessio, you write about their prison as "fun" [Dec. 25]. After spending 25 consecutive weekends at the Lompoc Correctional Facility as a visitor, I disagree. While trying to be as objective as possible, I have seen two fine, compassionate individuals (my father and my Uncle John) surfer mentally and physically as much, if not more than any other person in the prison, because of the "pressures" of the prison system, the U.S. Government and the press. By your own admission Lompoc is a "minimum security camp" designed for nonviolent inmates, which should set an example for modern penal reforms.

LAWRENCE R. ALESSIO San Diego

Girl's Best Friends

Sir / The designs of the new sculptured jewelry are beautiful [Dec. 18]. When I was 19, I too thought diamonds and other precious stones were gauche. Now I really wish I hadn't said dumb things like that.

As you get older, I'm sure there is a very comfortable feeling in having a few jewels, even in a vault. I suppose it is very much like the girl who chooses to wear her cloth coat when she knows very well where she can put her hands on a mink if she gets a little chilly: right in her closet.

SYLVIA TERRELL Los Angeles

The Quality of Mersey

Sir / I am glad to read that England has fewer polluted rivers [Dec. 25]. There was a time when observers reported seeing birds walking across the rivers on flotsam and jetsam, evoking the comment, "The quality of Mersey is not strained."

W. ROBERT HOLMES Schenectady. N.Y.

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