MacArthur

Sir: Twice I saw him. On the beach at Morotai and in the foothills of Mindanao. There was an aura of greatness about him. He gave the impression of being aloof and austere and was not universally loved, but the devotion he inspired from associates could not have come from a lesser source than greatness [April 10].

Relentless in war, forgiving in peace, he will tower in the annals of our history. One of the truly great Americans has gone to his reward.

KEN GUSTAFSON

Thief River Falls, Minn.

Sir: The photo of MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte is particularly memorable to me, for it is just as I saw him in October 1944 as I waited with hundreds of others on the battered beach of Dulag.

As an Army combat correspondent, I was attached to the recon troop of the 7th Infantry Division, in whose sector he landed. Heavily guarded by the recon troop, he chatted jovially with each regimental commander, asking each time, "How do you find the Nip?"

It was back at the beach, later, that I headed a mad scurry of military personnel and civilian war correspondents to get his "short-snorter" signature. Modestly, and with a smile, he gave it most willingly. Only a few of us got it, though, before his aides brushed us aside and got him back on board. I could place no greater value on any man's autograph than that of General MacArthur.

RICHARD R. BECK

Philadelphia

Sir: Many Japanese, including myself, greet the death of General MacArthur with mixed feelings. The general is in the minds of most Japanese immediately associated with one specific incident.

Shortly after "Emperor" MacArthur (as he was often called) was relieved of his command by President Truman, we heard that he said that all Japanese were "twelve-year-olds." I doubt that the general personally realized to what extent his words wounded the pride of the Japanese.

SHINKO SAYEKI

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: We Turks regarded MacArthur as "the greatest hero," next to our beloved father and builder of the modern Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatuerk.

ADNAN SAKA

New York City

Sir: The publication of the Lucas memo prior to the burial of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was the journalistic error of the century. Publication three weeks later might have been excusable if reference to Truman and various generals had been deleted. While MacArthur was probably correctly quoted, there was no intimation that he approved the memo, as written, for publication, no matter how long after his death. Such journalistic childishness goes so far beyond common decency that it leaves a bad smell.

JOSHUA K. BOLLES

Alamogordo, N. Mex.

Sir: The general was the most brilliant military commander since Napoleon. But his true greatness lay in his absolute devotion to his country, his refusal to compromise his idealism, his personal integrity. In a word, his greatness was his character.

RALPH E. LIDSTER

Whittier, Calif. l

acocca's Mustang

Sir: Your story on Lee lacocca [April 17] was truly a tribute to America. Could he have worked his way up in any other country? I doubt it.

STANLEY KAYE

New York City

Sir: Mustang, Shmustang, isn't it time we banned not the Bomb but the Auto? Autos kill more people than the Bomb. Two cars in every garage, a Mustang in every pot, and nobody walks any more. If anybody takes a walk, he's considered some kind of nut. Pretty soon we won't know how to use our feet any more, and just as they teach in evolution, nature will take our feet away. I'd rather ride a real mustang any time than a steel one.

JOE BRODY

New York City

Sir: I guess the new fastback cars mean my VW will really be in style!

LOUISE HOWE

Chicago

Sir: TIME'S relief at the discovery that the Detroit automotive engineers are indeed not infallible is exceeded only by the reader's relief in noting that TIME itself is subject to human error.

Your article pointed out that the galloping horse on the Mustang's grill is running the wrong way. Could this be the reason that the Mustang on the front cover has the horse running the correct way?

E. W. ASHFORD

Minneapolis

> Artist Safran forgot to err.--ED.

Needless Tragedy

Sir: TIME's story on the Rev. Klunder's death in Cleveland [April 17] is a shocking distortion of fact. The violence at the school site did not occur until after the Rev. Klunder's tragic death, and civil rights demonstrators were not participants in this understandably violent reaction by citizens who were witnesses.

MORRIS H. COHEN

Director

Area Councils Leadership Projects

Cleveland

> In Cleveland, as in other civil rights protests, what began as orderly picketing ended up in widespread rioting. TIME's reporter observed rocks and bricks being thrown by Negro roughnecks even before the fatal accident; he remained on the scene until after the police had rescued the bulldozer operator from the mob, which continued brawling, smashing windows and looting late into the night.--ED.

Sir: If the civil rights movement in Cleveland has an Achilles' heel, the leadership of CORE and the United Freedom Movement is it. These two groups have done more harm to the Negro cause in Cleveland than a boxcarful of Southern segregationists could ever hope to do.

The Rev. Mr. Klunder's death was a needless tragedy that resulted from an atmosphere of violence and "direct action." It, and the events preceding and following it, serves to illustrate one thing: the lack of intelligence among those who have assumed the leadership of Cleveland's Negro community.

WILLIAM G. MURMANN

Cleveland

Mixed-Up, But Admirable

Sir: Your Barbra Streisand story was the most satisfactory cover story in a long time. Reporter Kennedy and Writer McPhee did exactly what they should have done in exposing the young lady in a responsible way. They refrained from injecting the type of mystery that feeds adulation of public figures merely because they are public and difficult to understand, and at the same time they presented her eccentricities so as to prevent the unjust charges that she is motivated solely by a desire for publicity.

She comes out as a little mixed-up, but also as an admirable woman who could never be a member of any chorus.

ROBERT WILLIAMS

Charlottesville, Va.

Sir: I paused long enough in picking up our town to admire Streisand's omphalos.

JOHN N. PEIRCE

Army Corps of Engineers

Anchorage, Alaska

Sir: Barbra Streisand is said to lose her cool when she sings. That's typical--a lot of us lose our cool when she sings. The article was terrific, the cover painting a bit startling, but appropriately so.

J. J. SWEARINGEN

Stillwater, Okla.

Rebel Invader

Sir: How can anyone who calls himself a Christian and an American vote for a man like George C. Wallace [April 17]? How can a state that put John F. Kennedy in the White House in 1960 turn around and give a significant vote to a racist like Governor Wallace in 1964? All I can say is, heaven help this country if all the states have the same attitude as Wisconsin.

ROBERT DURBIN

Baltimore

Sir: It must be admitted that Governor Wallace made his point in the truly American way--with dignity and good manners, via the ballot.

If others did the same, lives would be spared, riots eliminated, and good fellowship would prevail.

WM. J. WATSON

Detroit

Sir: Few outside Wisconsin recognize the significance of the large vote for Governor Wallace in our recent presidential primary. The majority of Wisconsin voters now consider our Governor Reynolds to be a hapless incompetent who should never have been elected in the first place. He has carved out a record so bad that Republican and independent voters would rather cast their ballot for a bigot than a boob. The fact that Reynolds got a large vote--completely out of proportion to his popularity--is to the credit of Wisconsin's voters.

RICHARD W. LUTZ

Oconomowoc, Wis.

Sir: I would like to say that I am sure that most of Wisconsin's Republican crossovers are not against civil rights. I feel that the majority cast their votes against a very ineffectual Governor, and some wished their sentiments to be heard even higher up.

BONNIE SELMER

Cornell, Wis.

Meaty Subject

Sir: Regarding the proposed investigation of beef prices [April 10], I say on behalf of the women of America: it's about time!

We're the best-fed country in the world --and boy, do we pay for it.

(MRS.) NITA B. ALLEN

Henrietta, N.Y.

Variable Confessions

Sir: David Ogilvy did not find advertising columnists so odious in his recent book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, as he did in your article--"They are a perfect total pain in the bum . . ." [April 17].

He wrote: "First I invited ten reporters from the advertising trade press to luncheon. I told them of my insane ambition to build a major agency from scratch. From that point on, they gave me priceless tips on new business and printed every release I sent them, however trivial, bless them."

The trade press, of course, is substantially the daily ad columnists. We break most of the big news. And we are followed more closely and with more interest than TIME indicates.

JACK O'DWYER

Advertising Columnist

New York Journal-American

New York City

Strong Guarantee

Sir: Your April 10 article in U.S. Business, "The Rise of the Cheapies," is incorrect in saying that private brands of automobile tires are generally built to less demanding specifications than the brands with the names of the major tire-manufacturing companies.

Atlas, as the largest maker of the private-brand tires mentioned in your article, strongly protests. Our lines are comparable in quality to any brand, are built for unlimited use, and are backed by one of the strongest guarantees in the industry. J

OHN Y. MAY

President

Atlas Supply Co.

Springfield, N.J.

Sir: Anyone in the tire business who is genuinely concerned with safety will agree with the general point you conveyed, i. e., beware of cheapies. A consumer reading this item gets the strong implication that all "name brand" tires provide satisfactory performance, while all private brands are built to "less demanding specifications." Actually, this is not the case. While your article has done a service in steering consumers away from unsafe tires, it has done a great disservice to the private brands that sincerely strive to provide an equal or superior tire when compared to the majors.

R. M. GARDNER

Florham Park, N.J.

> TIME was in error in not pointing out that many private-brand tires are of top quality, and that, as with name brands, they have a wide range of price and performance.--ED.

Lustrous, Not Lacking

Sir: News about the quality of our orchestras seems to take a long time to cross the Atlantic. Your story [April 17] lumps the London Symphony together with other London orchestras as being "sound, if occasionally lackluster." I have searched in vain through our press cuttings for the last two years to discover when and whether a critic has called the playing of the London Symphony "lackluster," but instead I discovered hundreds of enthusiastic press comments, such as the [London] Times's comment last year: "Let there be no mistake about it; the London Symphony is one of the world's great orchestras."

ERNEST FLEISCHMANN

General Secretary

London Symphony Orchestra, Ltd.

London

Sension About Titheses

Sir: The Society for the Preservation of Titheses commends your ebriated and scrutable use of delible and defatigable [April 10], which are gainly, sipid and couth. We are gruntled and consolate that you have the ertia and the eptitude to choose such putably pensable titheses, which we parage.

Away with an, in, un, dis-and especially indis-!

PETER JONES

Melbourne, Australia

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