The mail from Korea on TIME'S Man of the Year is coming in now. It consists of cheers and gripes and intensely personal communication.

Our Man of the Year choice brought a wide range of comment from columnists, radio & TV commentators and editorial writers. As it does each year, the Associated Press wired its report of our selection to papers throughout the country. The Army adopted our cover painting for 50,000 recruiting posters. The original was requested for display in London. A newly enlisted naval aviation cadet wrote that the reasoning in the story had "affirmed and broadened" his own convictions. Praise for the story was almost universal, with a predictable exception: the West Coast Communist newspaper, the People's World, took two columns to condemn our "brutal killer."

But slow mails from the war zone left us waiting for word from the man himself. The replies were worth the wait. "Your timely portrayal of the American G.I. in Korea is unparalleled in its reality," wrote Sergeant John A. Cook of the 5th Cavalry Regiment. "Weand I believe I speak for most of usappreciate the tribute you have given us dog-faces."

Wrote an Air Force captain of the 36th Fighter-Bomber Squadron: "Individually and collectively we feel that it has a deep, sincere message for all the people in and from the United States of America . . . Are people at home realizing that this isn't a police action but a fight for survival? Do people realize the import of your statement about the number and excellence of our weapons?"

Early in the Korean war, combat G.I.s and officers began urging us on in our efforts to present the full facts of the fight. Some of their comments: "It is all so very true and it is something all American people should know" . . . "Keep up the good work, TIME". . . "Expressed my views perfectly". . . "If I were a reporter or writer, that is what I would have written". . . "I praise your staff on the excellent coverage of the Korean war." Corporal "Tex" Herzog of the heroic 27th Regiment called TIME "the best magazine in the world," but wanted us to change the name to the Weekly World Magazine.

Several men in the war zone asked us to send clippings, particularly on the BACKGROUND FOR WAR series, to their families and friends at home. (We did.) A Medical Corps private had us mail his girl friend the account of the superhuman job done by combat medics.

True to Army tradition, the G.I. bitched as hard as he praised. Front-liners who disagreed with TIME'S combat accounts wrote their versions to our editors or to the correspondents they met in battle. Army men protested hotly when we reported that Marine esprit de corps gave leathernecks a lower percentage of "missing in action" casualties.

Soldiers' letters to us showed grave concern with "what people back home think." Scrawled in pencil across odd bits of notepaper, these letters bore the urgency of men at war. "The subject," wrote one sergeant, "is too grim to permit delay."

Fighting men leaped into the Great Debate. One wounded corporal went a step beyond Senator Paul Douglas' suggestion that the generals be permitted to use the atom bomb on Chinese troops. From a hospital in Japan, he wrote that we should atom-bomb Manchuria right away.

As in the last war, news of bottlenecks and strikes at home brought bitterness. To point this up, an infantry lieutenant recently suggested a trade union for fighters. "We are not directly concerned with higher wages," he explained, "but would like to have collective protection against lethal projectiles, zero temperatures, and exile from our families."

Cordially yours,

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