REMEMBRANCES OF WHITE

It is with great regret that I noted the passing of Theodore H. White (MILESTONES, May 26). However, White made his mark not in Asia but in America. China has always been too complicated and controversial for anyone to make a lasting reputation by trying to explain it. In his coverage of American politics, White had few if any peers. William R. Brown Pittsburgh In the autumn of 1982 there was a seminar of old China hands on ''War Reporting: China in the 1940s.'' Teddy White was unable to attend and in a letter of regret wrote, ''We were all young men, ignorant men, unskilled men. China was a mystery to all of us, as it remains today a mystery to most scholars. We never knew who was doing what to whom and why; we could not penetrate Chinese politics.'' The significance here is that Teddy, who had once vigorously defended wartime reporting from China, was having second thoughts in the autumn of his life. Sidney L. James Laguna Hills, Calif.