Oil Diplomacy

Sir / I hold no brief for either the Arabs or Israel. Certainly there is merit in the case on both sides. I speak only as an American citizen.

We have come to a strange and threatening state of affairs. A feudal King of a desert kingdom of a few million people--a kingdom whose vast oil resources have been developed by American money and technical knowledge--is blackmailing our country.

It is not just a matter of oil, it is not just a matter of economics, strong as these reasons may be. It is a question of national integrity and honor, or are those dead?

JACQUES A. LAUS

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sir / The Arab nations have been quick to realize the power of their oil weapon. They have been successful in exploiting the situation. I am sure no one is more surprised than the Arab nations themselves, who have delightedly realized how vulnerable European countries are. The eyes of the world are now on America, waiting to see how America conducts itself through the oil crisis. I only hope it will be courageous enough not to forsake its conscience for worldly comforts and succumb to Arab pressure.

KALYAN BASU

Calcutta. India

Sir / You made two damaging allegations: first, that the Arabs hoped to pressure the industrial nations into forcing Israel to make peace on terms favorable to the Arabs; second, that Egypt and Syria invaded Israel in October.

The truth is that the Arabs want a just solution. This is certainly quite different from what is implied by the word favorable. On the other hand, it is equally true that neither Egypt nor Syria (nor in fact any Arab country) invaded Israel. The war was fought on and for Egyptian and Syrian territories occupied for a long time by Israel.

A.B. ABDALLA

Liverpool. England

Energy Options

Sir / Reduction of environmental standards, which are even now abysmally low. is a betrayal of the future for the sake of a luxurious present. Our hope does not lie in more oil. more coal, or more nuclear power plants, any more than our transportation crisis calls for bigger freeways. These are the solutions of shortsighted men. and the pollution resulting from these solutions will be disastrous. Unlimited energy will not help us if we cannot breathe the air or drink the water.

L.G. DORR JR.

San Franciscb

Sir / If it had not been for the narrow-minded and cantankerous behavior of the environment fanatics, this country would be in much better shape.

For five years they have been able to delay the building of the Alaska pipeline. Their arguments were that it would interfere with the sex habits of reindeer, damage the permafrost, pose a hazard because of the danger of earthquakes and, finally, that there might be oil spillage.

Similar arguments are being used to halt offshore oil drilling, including that the sight of a rig might not be aesthetically pleasing.

While I can of course understand reasonable objections to avoidable pollution, the domineering attitude of the environmentalists has been counterproductive.

FRED S. POLI

Upper Darby, Pa.

Sir / Here is an idea for saving fuel which is not likely to be mentioned but which I offer in all seriousness.

Close all churches during winter months. There are over 200 churches in my own county alone. We are told that no one will have to be cold in his own home this winter. Why not revert to the practice of pioneer days when devout people worshiped in each other's homes? This might well be a better way of saving fuel than disrupting school systems or laying off thousands of employees in so-called "dispensable" industries, as has been suggested.

DOROTHY CONNER

Fort Wayne. Ind.

Sir / I wonder how many people are turning up the heat on their electric blankets to compensate for the cooler bedrooms advocated by energy conservationists.

R.D. HAIRE

Reno

Sir / I would like Santa to know that this year I would appreciate a stocking full of coal.

VANCE BURNHAM

Newburyport. Mass.

Operation Candor

Sir / Nixon has launched "Operation Candor" [Dec. 3]--a campaign-style offense which gives the pro-Nixon rooters something, once again, to cheer (or write letters) about. However, if from the beginning of the Watergate investigations, Nixon had been honest and frank with America, he would not need the "strategies" he still relies on today.

A man of true candor wouldn't need a strategy of candor.

DONALD GERRING

San Francisco

Sir / President Nixon reassured my trust and admiration in him through his most recent appearance on television. He reminds me of the little but powerful nation of Israel. His enemies continually try to destroy him through unjust attacks; yet the President finds strength to overcome the odds.

MARK R. LEVIN

Elkins Park. Pa.

Sir / President Nixon has been courting the Republican Congressmen, meeting with them to try to give his version of his Watergate troubles--the same men who would be his jury in an impeachment trial. If the average Joe Citizen did the same thing, he would be imprisoned for tampering with the jury.

SANDY MCBEE

Corryton. Tenn.

Press and President

Sir/ As I read the letters [Nov. 26] in response to your editorial, what dismayed me was not some people's unflagging support for Nixon. That was to be expected. What sickened me was their demands that a magazine that dares to attack the President close down. Nowhere does the Constitution limit free speech to politicians and political candidates. Dissent is what freedom of the press is all about. Those who want nothing but a docile, uncomplaining, unquestioning press might just as well live under Communism.

MIRIAM WEISS

New York City

Sir / May I thank all who wrote letters so neatly slapping TIME for its continued harassment of President Nixon. Perhaps more such letters will remind its editors that there are still a lot of Americans who think objectively and admire fair play.

H. DEAN CRAWFORD

Benson. Ariz.

Public Servant Peter

Sir / Your story on Peter Falk [Nov. 26] brought back memories of the days we served together in the Connecticut budget division: Peter reporting to work on a bitter winter morning with his pajama top on beneath his overcoat (he had been studying his lines until the wee hours of the morning). Peter gamely trying to develop an interest in computer systems.

If he had stayed he could have become a superb public servant. On second thought, he is a superb public servant now.

FAULT. VEILLETTE

Chief Budget Examiner State of New York Albany

Sir / In Columbo crimes are solved, but one is also committed: the waste of Peter Falk's great talent on such an inane project.

JAMES IRONS

Hollywood

Hand or Mouth

Sir / The plight of the Roman Catholic Church with its exodus of priests and communicants points up a problem which is not unique to the Catholic Church, but one it shares with other churches in which there is often too much concern with dogma and ritual rather than with the higher aims and values of practically all religions.

I am referring, of course, to the "spirited debate" by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops over whether to place the Communion wafer in the hand or on the tongue of the communicant [Nov. 26]. Could not this kind of petty concern help explain the exodus of the faithful from their respective churches?

STANLEY J. RICE

Hanson. Mass.

Tolerance Therapy?

Sir / I am appalled at the insensitive approach Psychiatrist Richard Green uses to "change" the feminine characteristics of the young boys in his program as reported in "Girlish Boys" [Nov. 26]. It seems that schoolmates who "taunt" and parents who "reject" are the ones who require therapy.

What these boys need is understanding and tolerance of the way they behave rather than a Clockwork Orange behavioral alteration.

J.T. ANDERSON

North Las Vegas, Nev.

Man of the Year

Sir / The Man of the Year: Frank Wills, the security agent at Watergate. Even though he discovered the Watergate break-in in 1972. what he did has affected our nation more in 1973 than any other act performed in either 1972 or 1973.

J. THOBURNLEGG

Sharon, Conn.

Sir / For Man of the Year I propose George McGovern, whose candor, integrity and decency can now be seen in contrast to the sinister and deceiving man who defeated him in 1972.

MICHAEL J. FINE

New York City

Sir / Richard Nixon has provided TIME with the inevitable choice for Man of the Year: the honored group of 200 Americans revealed in the Watergate hearings to be on Nixon's list of political enemies.

THOMAS H. CRAWFORD

San Francisco Sir / For Man of the Year, Saudi Arabia's King Feisal--the Prince of Darkness.

RUTH KUPER

Johannesburg, South Africa

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