The View from Saigon

Sir: The Saigon skinback [Oct. 11] was the longest-windedest in TIME'S clitic trenchant history. I'm with the newsmen in the field.

HERB BRIN Editor

Heritage Publishing Co.

Los Angeles

Sir:

Having followed your coverage of Viet Nam and the Ngo family for better than a year. I find an aspect of Diem totally ignored. French rule here only ended nine years ago. Diem refused to serve the interests of the French, and perhaps has no more willingness to serve the American Government. Before becoming President, he was a man of steadfast principle: that he would only serve a free and independent Viet Nam.

I would only suggest that the ambassador speak for our Government, not lesser officials or correspondents.

R. CHARLES STEVENS International Voluntary Services Danang, Viet Nam

Sir:

The resident correspondent in Saigon for the National Catholic Welfare Conference News Service, Columban Father Patrick O'Connor, has reported much in accord with the conclusions reached lately by independent correspondents sent over by TIME and other media. Thus you reported in the Sept. 20 issue that "the Buddhist rebellion was directed by monks who were also consummate politicians, who were less interested in redressing religious injustices than in overthrowing the Diem regime." Father O'Connor reached somewhat the same conclusion in an Aug. 2 dispatch:

"Buddhists in South Viet Nam have been selling the American public a bill of goods. They sold it first to some of the foreign correspondents in Saigon. They have represented themselves as undergoing religious persecution. By now, they have been depicted in the press around the world as suffering from 'a host of restrictions on their religious freedom, refusal to grant them freedom of worship, discrimination practices,' and so on . . ."

Concerning your statement (Sept. 20) that the resident correspondents "seldom miss a chance to overemphasize the ruling family's Roman Catholicism," Father O'Connor reported as far back as June 24 that "some foreign press reports continue to use expressions like 'Roman Catholic-dominated government' and 'Diem's Catholic minority government,' which Catholics here feel are inaccurate, unfair to the church, and an incitement, however unintentional, to religious animosity."

Father O'Connor summed up his observations on the Saigon story: "Many U.S. correspondents come and go in South Viet Nam. Only about half a dozen can be called in any sense permanent here . . . Ever since September 1954, some French commentators, journalistic and others, have been forecasting for President Ngo Dinh Diem the collapse they apparently hoped for . . . There is plenty to criticize, as in most governments, especially those recently developed and under enemy fire. But there is certainly far more to be criticized in Red-ruled North Viet Nam."

(THE REV.) JOHN P. DONNELLY Director, Bureau of Information National Catholic Welfare Conference Washington, D.C.

Western Climate

Sir:

Your [Oct. 4] story on the President's Western tour deserves a compliment for accuracy. We Westerners were informed the visit would be "nonpolitical," but I, for one, was not surprised at the true nature of the trip. Kennedy will continue to lay eggs in the West until he stops treating us as just "so many votes." I may vote for Goldwater just to get a man in the White House who realizes that the U.S. extends thousands of miles west of Hyannis Port.

RICK SHERMAN Seattle

Sir:

You note that President Kennedy received a "cool reception" here at the University of North Dakota. Surely the assembly of some 25,000 people in one place in a state boasting only nine to the square mile is not indicative of a lack of interest. He received the warmest reception I have seen accorded here to a public figure.

DONALD J. PEARCE Head Librarian The University of North Dakota Grand Forks, N.Dak.

Stool Pigeon

Sir:

Can a man who has sworn blood brotherhood with a group and then "squeals" on them be trusted in anything? I would not believe J. Valachi except where the truth would help him. His present action shows you are right in describing him as a "two-bit punk" [Oct. 4].

PERA C. KIRKPATRICK Wichita, Kans.

Sir:

Last night I watched a telecast of the hearing. The charges were not only based upon hearsay testimony but were made more than 30 years after the alleged events, on information that was admittedly learned by the witness, in many cases, years after the occurrences and from unnamed persons.

Allowing this type of evidence in a publicly televised hearing makes the subcommittee's performance a disgrace to the legal profession as violative of essential concepts of law and justice.

THEODORE S. JAFFIN New York City

Challenge & Response

Sir:

The Oct. 4 issue reporting churchmen "waking up to race" was stimulating. You will be interested to know that Methodist Bishop Richard C. Raines of the Indiana area has sent letters to the 1,000 Methodist ministers and lay leaders in the state offering full support for implementation of the policy of open worship and open membership. During the next few months, 350,000 Methodists are being asked to act on these matters in their local congregations.

JOHN D. WOLF District Superintendent Northwest Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church South Bend, Ind.

Unhappy, not Angry

Sir:

In your [Oct. 11] article on the Americas, in relation to the military coups in Latin America, TIME'S account twice charges the Senators, including me, who recommended some remedial action, with being angry, and then, having planted this adjective on us, rebukes us for our anger. I assure you there was nothing angry about me or the various Senators who signed the telegram to the President. We were unhappy that the Alliance for Progress appeared to be in danger of going by the board, and that the efforts to develop democratic regimes in Latin America seemed destined to fall under the blows of military juntas.

ERNEST GRUENING U.S. Senator (Alaska) Washington, D.C.

Tear-Gas Gun

Sir:

New York purchasers of the tear-gas Pengun [Oct. 11] may weep more than would-be holdup men. Your article is ambiguous as to purchases in New York City, described in TIME as a place where "it is not illegal."

LEWIS HARRIS New York City

> New York City police point out that the sale or possession of instruments or devices used for tear gas is an offense punishable by $50 fine or 30 days in jail, under the city's Administrative Code section 436-5.0.--ED.

Boston's Backwardness

Sir:

Cheers to TIME for its report on "Boston's Backwardness." After the predominantly one-sided view in the press here, it was like a message from the outside.

As a student, I spent twelve stultifying years in that city's school system. As a teacher, I am one of those "young teachers who avoid Boston." I have vowed never to teach in Boston until the public school is taken out of politics.

NAOMI J. WALDMAN Whitman, Mass.

Sir:

We appreciate your calling attention in your article of Oct. 4 to Boston's public schools. The article, however, is inaccurate in two statistics, and we find your general conclusions overly harsh.

Rather than 18 guidance counselors, we have 28, some under the title "vocational assistants." Still far too few, of course.

Thirteen schools are 85% Negro, not 30. Two others are predominantly colored. Boston high schools are in general well integrated.

We agree that our schools cry out for improvement, but your article gives no credit whatever for the fresh air that is seeping in.

HERBERT P. GLEASON President

Citizens for Boston Public Schools Boston

Our Bears

Sir:

Your Oct. 4 story is calumniatory to the Yellowstone bear. We suspect the Russian bear is toothless, clawless, sexless and brainwashed into its anthropomorphic antics. Yellowstone unregimented bears gather along the roadside midsummer time to enjoy the free performance of nearly two million park visitors, biting very few considering the expanse of toothsome human epidermis proffered daily. Our bears are indignant at your slander.

LON GARRISON Superintendent Yellowstone National Park Gardiner, Mont.

Curple Curves

Sir:

Your Oct. 11 fashion story is a gem of obfuscated hindsight. Formfit and Emilio Pucci fired the first unembarrassed shot in the war against the monobuttock with the introduction of the natural-back "Viva" panty girdle in 1957. We have not done any "feeling," crawling or walking toward "falsiefication" since that time.

JOHN W. KUNSTADTER President Formfit Co. Chicago

Sir:

My congratulations to the author of that fashion note "Curving the Curple" on his near creation of a literary gem on a subject that under prosaic treatment would have been something worse than gauche.

KEITH F. SCOTT Circuit Judge Ninth Judicial Circuit Macomb, Ill.

Devore's Dream

Sir:

Come to think of it, what would Gary Grant look like stepping out of his Rolls-Royce in a cloud of Sy Devore's lined lint?

EZRA R. BAKER New York City ^

>Like 10% of the gross.--ED.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.