"Better Ready Than Dead"

Sir:

Your cover article on civil defense [Oct. 20] is perhaps both a symptom and a cause of mankind's present retreat from the idea of the obsolescence of war in the nuclear age. It seems that both we and the Russians are indeed beginning to assume our survivability as nations after such a war--if only we dig well enough beforehand. This kind of mutual self-confidence may well help to bring on the war we seek to avoid.

JEAN LITFIN

Queens, N.Y.

Sir:

A national campaign to build fallout shelters should start immediately. Communist rocket rattling might cease if our whole country could shout "Better Ready Than Dead."

JUNE ORNSTEEN Gladwyne, Pa.

Sir:

The statement is made that there are no plans at present for a federal fallout-shelter building program. Later in the magazine we read about our continuing foreign aid program.

How can one reconcile a situation where there are billions for foreign aid but not one cent for the protection of our American families? We are urged instead to build a private shelter. But survival is not a private matter. It is of national concern.

Let charity once again begin at home.

JOHN H. DOUGLAS Chevy Chase, Md.

Sir:

I must be a square. I just can't get with this popular race suicide, helter-skelter-shelter fad, as pleasurable as it sounds.

Can't everyone see that there isn't going to be an Atomic War? Russia knows we won't drop the first bomb. Are they going to risk destruction by starting something? I think not. They won't have to. They're winning anyway.

RUSS GILMAN

Los Angeles

Sir:

Are the Russians being panicked by their government and press? Of course not. Are they being urged to go underground and await the conqueror in terror? Of course not. The American press is playing right into the hands of the Communists by publishing such cravenness.

CARL VON LAUTZ Jericho, Vt.

Sir:

My family and I plan to spend our last radiated hours in the woods or on a beach. Let the more foresighted and morally secure have it out with submachine guns at their shelter doors.

PETER G. EARLE

Middletown, Conn.

The Army & the Armored

Sir:

I appreciate deeply your story on the 3rd Armored's General Abrams [Oct. 13]. I had the privilege of being part of his personal tank crew as driver during World War II. If or whenever (I pray never) the Russians attack the general's sector in Germany, you can bet he will be in on the counterattack but from the turret of his tank, which I presume he has named "Thunderbolt," with clouds painted on the sides and streaks of lightning in the clouds. Those of us who served with and under him knew long ago that he would be recognized in the very near future as one of the greatest on tank warfare.

ROBERT L. STILLWELL New Orleans

>General Abrams' present tank has no name or markings--ED.

Sir:

Congratulations on your article on the often unsung U.S. Army in Europe as typified by the 3rd Armored Division and their really first-class commander, C. W. Abrams.

As a recent alumnus of these forces, I am particularly happy to see that, along with the more colorful (perhaps) weapons and weapons systems, these Regular Army units in Germany are beginning to get some recognition for the job they are doing. Moreover, you couldn't have picked as your example a more competent and professionally proud Army leader than my ex-battalion commander, General Abrams. It's a real pleasure to read where someone is actually talking about killing Russians instead of conferring with them over a subject that is really beyond the conference stage.

G. S. PATTON* Major, Armor Armed Forces Staff College Norfolk, Va.

Sir:

Your cover story about the general affected me contrary to the way I think you intended it should: while I remain as fearful of the Russians as ever, I am now equally fearful of our own Army.

Actually, though, it's not fear any more but a kind of dreamlike feeling. I mean what ought one do? Laugh? Cry? Be Angry? Sad?--knowing that one's continued existence is possible only because, though they have Genghis Khan on their side, we have Attila the Hun on ours.

JAMES IRONS

Riverside, Ill.

Sir:

It is with avid interest that we read Jean Pomykala's letter [Oct. 20] in which she states that it is difficult for her to decide whether Communism or war is worse.

As future officers, dedicated to the defense of our country, we find it hard to believe that an American citizen could have that conviction. If it had not been for our airborne troops in the years 1941-45, the condition of America would possibly be different in 1961.

She states that a man trained to yell "Airborne" is already partially dead. However, we are convinced that the soldiers who gave their lives in the defense of our country are not "partially" dead.

CADET MICHAEL J. KILEY CADET BILL R. BLACK United States Military Academy West Point, N. Y.

Cracking the Porcelain

Sir:

As a loyal TIME reader, I must take exception to your saying I "snorted" when speaking of the White House wallpaper [Oct. 20].

It never occurred to me that what amounted to my own personal opinion, when translated into printer's type, could have had the repercussions that followed. In no way did I wish to belittle the most generous gift of the National Society of Interior Design, but was merely expressing my own views on the pros and cons of the use of old wallpaper v. new wallpaper taken from original blocks.

I would never wish to "crack the pale porcelain exterior" of any young lady, and I have never "snorted" at anyone.

MILTON GLASER President, American Institute of Interior Designers Richmond

Mad About the Nude

Sir:

What a horrible Art section you had in TIME [Oct. 13] ! For awhile I thought I had some girlie magazine. Fortunately, I got to read it before my 15-year-old son did--so I surreptitiously razored out two pages of nudes.

I never dreamed I would ever have to censor TIME for my children's sake.

BETTY L. SMITH Waco, Texas

Sir:

Bravo for a welcome change from meaningless scribblings. Bet you knew the nudes would stir the prudes.

WALTER T. WILSON Atlanta

Sir:

Having studied in the U.S., I have personally experienced the puritan attitude that most Americans have toward the human body.

Unfortunately, most people are extremely shy about any nude, but no doubt you have contributed your praiseworthy share to the abolishment of the body taboo, which forbids so many people to consider the human body as being natural, pure and therefore beautiful.

ROBERT L. A. TROST Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Mary's Beads

Sir:

I do not want another day to pass without writing to you my heartfelt thanks for the extraordinary article entitled "Mary's Beads" [Oct. 13]. Over the phone, friends of mine read it to me from New York to San Francisco. As I heard the words and sentences with that wonderful exposition of the essence of the Rosary and its power, my heart went back to you in tribute, in praise and in gratitude.

(THE REV.) PATRICK PEYTON, C.S.C. Family Rosary Crusade Sacramento, Calif.

Sir:

Our 500 Sioux children at Holy Rosary Mission say the rosary every day, praying for peace. We wish that the rest of the world, including Khrushchev, would join us. Then we could have "peace on earth and good will to men."

SILAS LEFT HAND BULL Pine Ridge, S. Dak.

Sir:

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking [Matthew 6: 7]."

DEELDA PAYTON

Connell, Wash.

Sir:

Far from "Mary's flowers," the rose was considered as profane for a century or so, due to its naughty association with Cupid, the Romans, et al. Rose heps (not hips) can easily be made into beads, and rose petals can be rolled and pressed into beads. These were within the reach of the poorest congregations and easy to count. The church sanctified the rose after finding that it couldn't root it out.

MRS. CHARLES CHIPMAN JR. Hendersonville, N.C.

The Splendor of Kazan

Sir:

My writer's pride demands that I deny to you that the script of Splendor in the Grass [Oct. 13] was "heavily edited" by Director Elia Kazan. This frequent criticism is leveled against him unfairly.

WILLIAM INGE

New York City

Sir:

I am a friend of Elia Kazan. He has directed a play of mine.-Perhaps I am, therefore, disqualified from commenting on your critic's incredibly cute and vulgar personal attack on him in the review of Splendor in the Grass.

One somehow gets the idea from what your critic has written that Kazan is a blight on the theatrical scene, distorting if not destroying everything he touches. Yet the truth is that almost any playwright, actor or designer is honored to work with him and finds it a rare and enriching creative experience.

ROBERT ANDERSON

New York City

Heaven's New Home

Sir:

With space craft of all kinds due to be "up there" looking around for things that some people believe are none of our business, it is obvious that the Rev. W. G. Pollard is getting heaven out of "ordinary space" none too soon [Oct. 13]. Nobody is going to invade "the fifth dimension" in a hurry, and perhaps it will never be even clearly envisioned except by those who frequent the twilight zone. Khrushchev may not buy this new heaven, but, fortunately, he can't prove it isn't a reality.

F. M. MORTON East Marion, N.Y.

Sir:

This space-age world can its hopes revive God's in his heaven, dimension five.

ELIZABETH J. MURPHY

Arlington, Va.

Sir:

Now we know where heaven is. But where is hell? Is it perhaps in a two-dimensional space? This would be devilishly uncomfortable for the damned and justly so. Or are heaven and hell one and the same place? After all, one man's heaven is another man's hell. Imagine the atheist in eternal contemplation of God, whom he so viciously denied. And the blessed could see and enjoy his embarrassment.

ADALBERT STEPHENS Los Angeles

Zoo's Author

Sir:

I was very pleased to see TIME publish three pictures of the Lehman Zoo for Children in Central Park [Oct. 13] and a very well-written brief of its use for and by the children. I also noticed, however, to my chagrin, that no mention was made of the architect.

Running an article on fairy stories without mentioning Hans Christian Andersen or Mother Goose would be unthinkable. The zoo did not spring from the ground like a soap bubble, and it does seem as though TIME might include a nod to the author.

EDWARD COE EMBURY New York City

^ A wink and a nod to the Lehman Zoo architect: Edward Coe Embury.--ED.

Argument on the Road

Sir:

We are greatly shocked at TIME'S Oct. 6 handling of the Nevada interchanges. It is regrettable that by context you accuse us of boondoggling in the building of the structures or freeways in reference. We have a beautiful and efficient freeway here that is a sound investment of road users' dollars.

GRANT SAWYER

Governor Carson City, Nev.

>TIME'S source was a U.S. Bureau of Public Roads report with which the Governor disagrees.--ED.

Little European Boys

Sir:

Why in this ever-lovin' blue-eyed world should American women try to look like little European boys (as decreed by George Masters in "Fashion," Oct. 13)? If little European boys are anything like little American boys, they are dirty, noisy, dirty, rude, dirty, untidy, etc. The basic fact remains that we are obviously (I hope) not little European boys, so what's so insecure about preferring to resemble what we actually are instead of a swarm of l.E.bs.

ANNE B. MANNING Raleigh, N.C.

Sir:

Thank goodness not all American women look like little European boys. I would not even recommend that they look like American boys. Let's just keep women looking like women.

KENNETH G. O'HARA Cleveland

*Tea and Sympathy. Son of the late General George S. Patton.

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