The Intellectuals

Sir:

It was reassuring to see that you gave Jacques Barzun equal cover status with Marilyn Monroe. Intellectuals need not turn to across the Atlantic for stimulation and enrichment, for there is a whole world here. Your "thumbs in the suspenders" attitude is exactly what the rest of the world so vehemently resents in us Americans.

BERENICE COHEN The Bronx

Sir:

"Parnassus, Coast to Coast" could have read "Parnassus v. Dun & Bradstreet, Coast to Coast." Mindful of the decadence of a Europe and Asia which worshipped intellectuals and of the progress of an America which ignored them (though using some of their ideas), Mr. Average American would rather be a prosperous pragmatist than an impoverished pundit.

LAWRENCE MEEHAN Kearny, N.J.

Sir:

Your essay on the plight of the intellectual was a brilliant job. However, the more accurate statement of his dilemma is summarized in your Art section. When the vice chairman of Houston's Bank of the Southwest gave as his reason for rejecting William Zorach's sculpture that "the bank looks mighty pretty just plain," he summarized the attitude of millions of other Americans toward culture and the arts.

DAVID ANTMAN New York City

Sir:

You forget the unhappy plight of the intellectual American Woman. She who delights in thought and its communication and longs to take part in this great American Dream has no place. As a woman, she is shunned by the American man ("Something's wrong with her, she thinks too much!"). In order to extend her life, she has to wait for the European or European-educated man to come and dig her out. (Alas, he may never.) With only narrow channels for her broad, enquiring mind and practically no one to talk to--even intellectual men assume one cannot find a brain in combination with a low decolletage--she gradually loses her objectivity, gives up and retreats into quiet reflection and neurotic loneliness.

TERRY ROBERTS New York City

Sir:

Bravo for TIME'S eminently just and fitting observations on intellectualism in the U.S., and for giving J. Robert Oppenheimer the place he deserves. Both right-wing and left-wing intellectualism are necessary for maintaining political balance.

WALTER GERSTEL

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

To the Parisian, the names Malraux, Sartre, Camus bring instant recognition and respect; Barzun's apologia notwithstanding, intellectual influence here is clearly not comparable.

ANDREW S. KENDE Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Your photographs of the intellectuals of today look remarkably alike--peering, wondering, baffled, scared.

ZEKE BECKETT

Berkeley, Calif.

Missing Man

Sir:

In your June 4 article on the vanishing Jesus de Galindez, one well understands that Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. is not responsible for the disappearance of Galindez; on the other hand, he does work for Rafael Trujillo. Surely it's common knowledge that Trujillo belongs to the most nightmarish category of dictators that kills, tortures, deceives and terrorizes. Mr. Roosevelt Jr. gets $30,000 a year for recommending Trujillo to us. May I ask whether anyone is reminded of 30 pieces of silver?

JOHN COLEMAN Barcelona

Sir:

Franklin D. Roosevelt is still very much an idol for millions of Latin Americans. Of course, young Roosevelt has to make a living, so I guess that is the reason he has not spoken out very strongly against the Trujillo regime.

JAMES C. PARISH JR. Editor Central America and Mexico Houston

Hurricane's Wake

Sir:

I have just read "Charlie's Hurricane" in your June 4 issue. Here is one professional you will never see in the AFUS uniform.

Personally, I would rather have a daughter in a house of ill repute than a son in the AFUS.

WILLIAM F. SAUNDERS JR. Captain, U.S.M.C.

Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps University Park, Pa.

Sir:

If a superbureau like AFUS is so efficient for the armed forces, why not go a step further and combine the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, State, Labor, etc. into a single department? This would, of course, leave the President with practically nothing to do as there would be no need for a Cabinet.

CASTNER W. RAPALEE Lieutenant Colonel, Air Force Reserve Geneva, N.Y.

Sir:

Oh no ! No AFUS! Pride and tradition are the services' lifeblood--and this would be the death blow to each. The same uniform--bah! The same promotion list--phooey! Would our intrepid young flyers ever consent to this? Would you demolish the Halls of Montezuma? Would you assassinate Benny Havens? Would you desecrate the Navy Blue and Gold? The effectiveness of any armed force lies chiefly in the morale and spirit of its components and not in a cold, efficient, economic steamroller.

E. E. HAZLETT JR. Captain, U.S.N. (Ret.) Forest Hills, N.C.

Sir:

With three-quarters of the earth's surface covered by water, with the SAC headed for obsolescence by guided missiles, a single military service would be a naval service using ship and airborne rockets and guided missiles, sea and air launched.

F. P. MITCHELL Captain, U.S. Navy Yorktown, Va.

Sir:

AFUS spells a calculated drive for power by air-power extremists and vested interests and is no help to the cause of real service unity or progress.

D. N. MCDOWELL Fredericksburg, Va.

Sir:

The U.S. Armed Forces could take an example from Great Britain. In that country, each service realizes that the other is important, but the Army and the Navy both frankly and sensibly admit that the Air Force is more important than either of them.

T. FRISCH

Montreal

Sir:

You failed in your well-reported article to mention one important, proved truth: wars are won by the bloody method of taking and holding ground. Bombing cities for us to rebuild and slaughtering enemy civilians to foster hate does not relieve the infantry of its mission; thousands like myself would turn in our suits if we believed the Air Force, in a quick or long war, could relieve us of the duty of taking 90% of the service casualties as we take the ground.

HUGH G. MARTIN JR. Lieutenant Colonel, Infantry Ft. Jackson, S.C.

Steaks from the Sea

Sir:

Biologist Bonner's statement concerning the practicability of domesticating some algae-eating animal (a "sea pig") as a source of meat for the highly populated world of the future [May 28], recalls a description of the manatee, or sea cow, which the Spaniards apparently saw for the first time in the islands of the Caribbean Sea and noted by Francisco Lopez de Gomara in 1552: "The flesh of the manatee tastes more like meat than like fish. When fresh it tastes like veal and when salted, like tunny, but is better and keeps well. The Indians often kill manatees as they pasture along the river banks, and when small they may be taken in nets." The chief drawback encountered in Gomara's all-purpose animal is that it apparently pastured on real grass rather than algae and perhaps, after the novelty wore off, it didn't taste so good either; but "sea pig"? No thanks.

WILLIAM M. RUSSELL

El Paso

Maine in the Abstract

Sir:

After reading your June 4 Publisher's Letter and understanding the good will and importance of William Honneus' color slides because of their accuracy, it grieves me greatly to have the vast number of your readers getting such an impression of the Maine coast as seen by William Kienbusch. I hope your paintings won't change the mind of the tourist who has been planning a Maine trip.

C. H. REED Unity, Me.

Fair-Play Code

Sir:

Your May 28 story on the signing of the Fair Campaign Practices Code by Len Hall and Paul Butler made sprightly reading, but it ignored some important points. Our code is not designed to turn bigots and demagogues to sweet reasonableness but set up a standard against which to measure them. If politicians want to use the code as a club and beat each other with it, swell.

CHARLES P. TAFT Cincinnati

Tribute

Sir:

A deep obeisance to you for an outstanding Memorial Day tribute to "The Civil War" [June 4]. There are only a few of us left who have not succumbed to that nauseating euphemism, that ill-conceived distortion of recorded history--"The War Between the States."

LEONARD ORMEROD North Miami Beach, Fla.

Sir:

With your beautiful pictures of Civil War battlefields you also show two maps, one with Arkansas, but not a single pin point to indicate that we were in that war too. Can't we rate at least a pinpoint acknowledgment? Pea Ridge opened up the Mississippi River for Shiloh and Vicksburg.

GEORGE H. BENJAMIN Little Rock, Ark.

Sir:

You are to be commended on your very wonderful article and pictures. Am also happy to note that the American side was depicted and we were not inundated with Confederate propaganda.

W. T. RAWSON Rochester

The Scope of Orgonomy

Sir:

Concerning your brief June 4 report on the sentencing of Dr. Wilhelm Reich [for violating an injunction by distributing orgone energy boxes]: the agents of the FDA have conspired with others to kill a great discovery. The tremendous scope and accomplishment of orgonomy, in a world in which lifetimes are devoted to the study of an ear or a nose, has in one way been a hindrance to its penetration in society. The ramifications of orgonomy into all branches of science, stemming from the single basic discovery of orgone energy, the erstwhile hypothetical ether which science, for good reason, has never been able to abandon, stagger the average and academic imagination. People cannot readily grasp a science whose track leads from the understanding of neurosis to "Cosmic Orgone Engineering." They become suspicious, get scared off by the magnitude of what confronts them. Yet all of Reich's great findings are factual, demonstrable, irrefutable, as were those of Galileo. How much longer will it be before officials, the press, the public shake off their apathy, accept the largesse of orgonomy, and fight to defend it?

WILLIAM STEIG Cream Ridge, N.J.

P:The caption of Cartoonist Steig's own famed version of a man in a box: "People Are No Damn Good."--ED.

Pam-Pam Pioneers

Sir:

The May 7 Cafe de la Paix article was very interesting; however; the information respecting the Pam-Pam restaurants is inaccurate. I alone am responsible for the creation of the name, as well as the creation of the Pam-Pam restaurants. I am still sole owner for the rights of the name Pam-Pam.

DAVID PEERY Mexico City

Tourist Abroad

Sir:

Recommended reading and an excellent traveling companion for those touring Europe: Years of Trial and Hope by Harry S. Truman. Preface--"Any schoolboy's afterthought is worth more than the forethought of the greatest statesmen."

WOODROW W. WARD St. Thomas, Ont.

Sir:

While visiting the Beethoven shrine, the great Paderewski on being asked to play the Moonlight Sonata on Beethoven's piano, modestly replied: "I am not worthy to touch it." But "Give 'em Hell" Harry sat right down and played a sonata of Mozart's on Mozart's own piano, right in front of Mozart's portrait. I can imagine the irascible ghost of Wagner muttering "Squirrelhead!"

HENRY CLIVE

Studio City, Calif.

Sir:

If it were not for that squirrel-headed general, Harry would be in Stalag 17 or better in Yakutsk digging for iron.

RURIK HALABY

Brummana, Lebanon

-Who ran a tavern near West Point in the 1820s and was, according to Cadet Edgar Allan Poe, the "only soul in the entire Godforsaken place." Mellowed by Havens' hot ale flips, cadets used to sing (to the tune of The Wearing of the Green) their unofficial West Point song: Come fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up in a row, To singing sentimentally we're going for to go; In the army there's sobriety, promotion's very slow, So we'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, Oh!

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