Dear Time-Reader

I once wrote you about Colonel John H. ("Mike") Michaelis reading a copy of TIME while he waited for the Air Force to blast Red concentrations then attacking his heroic 27th Regiment (TIME, Oct. 16). Two weeks ago I told you about the many letters we get from TIME-reading G.I.s and officers in combat. But John Warren Smith insists that there is "no need to go to distant lands to find people reading TIME under hardships." A former Columbia University graduate student, 22-year-old Private Smith sent me the following story to prove his point.

One morning at Fort Sill he stuffed a rolled-up copy of TIME into his pants pocket and pulled his fatigue jacket down to hide it. Then he marched out on the parade ground to drill with his platoon. The rigid schedule of basic training left little time for his customary cover-to-cover reading of TIME. So he planned to read during the Army's traditional ten-minute breaks.

But his plans left out his company commander's practiced eyes. Out to inspect the close-order drill class, Captain W. A. ("I'm a bug on proper uniform") Gorman quickly spied the odd bulge bobbing under Smith's jacket. He stopped the platoon and commanded the recruit to unveil the unmilitary mystery. When Gorman, also a steady TIME-reader, saw the reason for the bulge, he ordered Smith to "share his knowledge" with the platoon by reading aloud while marching.

Smith picked up where he had left off reading a WAR IN ASIA story titled "The Enemy." While his feet obeyed the captain's flanking orders, he yelled out our report on Red China's new anti-American propaganda: "Look with contempt on the U.S., for she is a paper tiger and can fully be defeated . . ."

Said the captain to the platoon: "I can teach you how to fight. Listen to Smith read TIME as you march and you'll know why you're fighting." Wrote Rookie Smith: "Our platoon now boasts that it is the only one that can march and simultaneously study the enemy firsthand, via TIME."

Many people, including some who write dictionaries and newspaper headlines, say that news is "a report of a recent event." But here at TIME, we think that what has already happened is only half the news. Just as important is what might happen--what today's event tells about the future.

To see what we have in mind, look at this week's BACKGROUND FOR WAR story, "Iran: Land of Insecurity," with its full-color photographs and two-dimensional maps. The area covered by this report, the Middle East, contributes little bold type to today's headlines. Reason: blessed with the initiative, the Communists chose to put Korea in the news rather than Iran. Overnight, their next choice will become the focal point for all news-gathering agencies.

To spotlight the crucial areas, our WAR IN ASIA section has a standing head called "Danger Zones." Just as U.S. foreign policy fails when it responds only to Communist pressure, so the editors would fail you if they reported only the noise of immediate clashes. To take the initiative in the struggle against Communist imperialism, we must know the grounds upon which they--or we--may seek the next decision

"Iran: Land of Insecurity" is based principally on exhaustive reports from TIME Correspondent Enno Hobbing. It is news in the sense that what the U.S. is or is not doing in the Middle East will affect the future course of events just as much as the stuff in the headlines.

Cordially yours, James A. Linen

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