Sparta or Moscow?
Sir:
May I suggest that atomic warfare, like chemical warfare, is a thing of the past? Neither side dares to use the atom bomb . . . [Then] what is Stalin waiting for? Only for us to bankrupt ourselves to the point where we can no longer afford to keep an army in the field. Then he (or his heirs) will move--but fast. How can we offset this? 1) By having fighting forces which will live a Spartan existence; 2) By having civilians who will live a Spartan existence.
Problem: Are we willing to live like Spartans now so that our children won't have to ?
LEWIS WILLIAMS
Philadelphia
The Human Sea
Sir:
One important fact seems to have escaped the attention of all parties concerned . . . Whether or not the prevailing strategy of fighting a "limited war" in Korea could bring the Chinese Reds to their knees or to their senses: the Peiping regime has not poured its best troops into Korea and has not, therefore, suffered losses that really count or hurt . . .
Except for a hard core of officers and a number of NCOs who may be said to belong to the Communist elite, the great majority of Chinese Communist troops that have been thrown into the battles in Korea are either former Nationalist soldiers whom the Communists do not trust or new conscripts or local militia forced in there to make up the "human sea . . ." These troops are strictly "expendables" in the grand scheme of Mao Tse-tung and his Kremlin masters .
CHI PING Hsu
Pusan, Korea
Guided Missiles
Sir:
As a former abstracter for the Guided Missiles Library at M.I.T., I would like to congratulate TIME, May 21 for the most well-written and accurate account of guided-missile development that I've read in a national periodical.
ADELAIDE A. DEL FRATE Arlington, Mass.
Here & There With Ubiquity
Sir: In TIME'S May 2 1 issue you have an article about Professor David White of Boston University and his efforts to simplify the writing of the Boston Herald. At first it seemed a good idea, then I wondered. If the newspapers never use words not easily understood by the average man, vocabulary? . . .
J. DOUGLASS HALE
Lubbock, Texas
Sir:
I accuse Dr. White of "foggy" writing. Such concise words as "ubiquity" and "inculcates" can hardly be called foggy. "Esoteric," if you must, but not foggy . . .
EVELYN C. TIRRELL Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
... Dr. White's "ubiquity" poll of 72 passers-by of the Boston Public Library might (conceivably) be matched against a future poll of 72 people either going into or coming out of the library. The compared or contrasted results could tend to show that a number of people not only know what "ubiquity" means, but that some are actually bound on errands of erudition. (Whoops--there I go!)
ALDEN GIFFORD STEVENS JR. Hartford, Conn.
Sir:
. . . There are words in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address that probably would dumbfound the same passersby. If newspapers are to coddle illiterates, their vocabulary must be restricted to probably 750 out of the vast word-hoard of our flexible English tongue. Variety is the spice of language as of life, and linguistic exactitude is a badge of civilized mentality . . .
EUSTACE CULLINAN
San Francisco
Sir:
... I agree with Professor White that words like "ubiquity" have no place in newspapers, least of all in headlines. But even he might ponder awhile over a synonym for "ubiquity" which takes up only eight units of headline space.
JOHN H. CRIDER
The Boston Herald Boston, Mass.
Sir:
How can you be so inconsistent as to publish "Fog Cutter" and use a word like "whickering" in the same issue? . . .
RICHARD G. TALPEY Madison, NJ.
Correspondence Course
Sir:
In all the discussion of the Truman-Mac-Arthur dispute, none of the comments which I have read related anything about a very significant news item of ten years ago. An unnamed Army officer had written a letter to Senator Harry Truman criticizing the foreign policy of the U.S. Mr. Truman had made his answer in what is now known to be his characteristic way: he wrote a letter. In this letter, which was made public at that time, he spoke very plainly his opinion of military men who try to direct foreign policy. His handling of the MacArthur question shows at least that the President possesses one very admirable and rare trait: consistency . . .
JOHN E. STEELY
Walnut Ridge, Ark.
Added Action
P:For his amiable acquiescence in TIME'S new twist to his old steer, thanks to Cartoonist Loring.--ED.
Whose Business Is It?
Sir:
In your excellent May 21 article on the Perons you ask what the U.S. can do about [their "Fascist-model state"]. Just why should we do anything about it? Trying to reform the domestic affairs of other nations has brought us to our present crisis, causing us to betray China and refuse the help of Spain.
JOHN CLARENCE PETEIE Christ Episcopal Church Harlan, Ky.
Sir:
If we should elect a moss-backed conservative party into office, what could the Argentine descamisados do about it ?
Nothing, of course, it would be none of their business . . . "What can the U.S. do about it?"
JOHN S. RIVER Butte, Mont.
Sir:
. . . What you should do is leave those people alone--they, like everybody else, have enough problems . . .
MANUEL LOPEZ Evansville, Ind.
Sir:
After reading your lucid account of the descamisados' Il Duce, I deduce that Evita rules by a 2-1 vote, inasmuch as she controls two of the three key pressure groups. Viva la Presidenta!
A. J. FLOERSCH
Albuquerque, N. Mex.
Verifas et Sortes
Sir:
You failed to note in your May 21 article on Harvard's [endowment] finances one of the earliest methods of meeting a budget.
I have in my possession a lottery ticket belonging to my great-grandfather, Asa Walker, which states that the bearer is entitled to one-third the prize if drawn against No. 6069, with 13 shillings deductible for the benefit of the third class of Harvard College.
Though undated, I presume it to be about the Revolutionary era. For the record, said Asa Walker was a respected deacon of the Unitarian Church of Ashby, Mass, whose forebears were the strictest of Puritans. Shades of Kefauver!
ESTHER MONTGOMERY STRONG
Englewood, NJ.
Comparisons
Sir:
. . . After 40 years in the Roman Catholic Church and 15 years as a Catholic priest, the chances are that I know more about the Church and more about the good & bad of Catholics than Paul Blanshard can ever hope to know. That's why I find his picture of the Church not just fantastic but hilariously funny, like a movie cartoon of the blind men and the elephant. The comedy is dulled, however, by the fact that his book [Communism, Democracy and Catholic Power --TIME, May 21] will be read by many people . . . and the results will be anything but comic, unless we wish to consider hatred as funny . . .
REV. ROBERT J. WELCH
Iowa City, Iowa
Sir:
Like an adolescent going through the Decameron avidly picking out "the dirty parts" and missing all that makes it great literature, Mr. Blanshard seems to go through Catholic writing looking for juicy tidbits he can lift out between strategically placed quotation marks, that he may condemn the Church seemingly with her own statements. To anyone familiar with the contexts so used, to say nothing of the spirit of the Church, this device is amusing if contemptible; but to the naive or uninstructed it can be misleading to a degree prejudicial to justice . . .
KATHERINE A. GIBSON Salem, Ohio
Sir:
. . . Many of my friends and I pray constantly for Paul Blanshard . . .
RITA M. MCPHERSON Boston
Bradley, Churchill & Temptation
Sir:
At a time when Anglo-American unity was never more necessary [General Omar Bradley] broadcasts his criticisms of the conduct and strategy of several of our top generals. As these are the very men with whom General Bradley will have to cooperate should another war break, it is difficult to see what useful purpose is served by this muckraking.
Heaven preserve us from talkative generals, or at least let them emulate the greatest man of the century if they must write books.
Winston Churchill has resisted the temptation to indulge in personalities, but his memoirs are no less readable for his restraint.
KENNETH L. BRANSTON
Bramley, Surrey, England
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