Separating the Boys

Sir: The childish pronouncements on the draft [June 3] of those who would enjoy the harvest without the labor are empty and redundant. Joe College '66 is a sad, disgusting example for my children to have to follow. He tempts me to resign to avoid contributing to the security in which he is free to demur and complain.

GARY D. BELCHER

Captain, U.S.A.F.

San Angelo, Texas

Sir: Whenever the Class of '66 feel sorry for themselves, they should count the graves at Arlington, or the crosses on Iwo Jima, or the Chosin headstones, and then thank God that they have the privilege of an education and free choice of career. And instead of fearing the unknown, they should look forward to military service. Most ex-servicemen will tell you that some of their best times and most lasting friendships were in the armed forces.

HOWARD G. BLAIR

Peoria, Ill.

Sir: Although my advanced age (29) might preclude rational discussion with members of the Class of 1966, I would remind them that few if any Americans have been enthusiastic about the prospect of military service. It is, as it was, an experience unmatched in monotony, unequaled in frustration, unsurpassed in futility--but unavoidable if peace and freedom are to be maintained. If the world is full of contradictions, it is also full of opportunities and hope, and it is a challenge to graduates individually to correct the one by pursuing the other.

CHARLES R. MCDOWELL

Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent

Department of Public Instruction

Phoenix, Ariz.

Sir: These boys may be over 21, but they won't be men until they realize that no war can be fought at a convenient time or place. We have only today's war, and it must be fought today, on today's battlefield.

CHARLOTTE DUNN

San Diego

Sir: Why, pray tell, did Wilson wait until his senior year to apply for an academic deferment? Why did he not plan ahead for an obligation that has become as inevitable as income taxes? Why did he avoid the ROTC program, which takes at least some of the uncertainty out of pre-Army life? Come off it Gary, David, Douglas, Paul! How about a little less whining and a little more determination as we thank God that we were not born in time for Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Omaha Beach and Guam. Those young guys were inconvenienced too, you know. Because they were, you've got your precious freedom and college education.

CHARLES R. GRIZZLE

Burbank, Calif.

Sir: I agree with the students who object to military service. For some people the military is a complete waste of time. For those who will learn a useful skill or gain valuable experience in human relations and management, military service might be worthwhile. For others, like those working toward an academic career, it is valueless, a loss of time that could be put to better use. Furthermore, what does a future history or biology professor have to offer the armed forces that anyone else does not have? The military does not need everyone of eligible age. Let it bypass those who will contribute least and lose most by being required to serve.

RICHARD A. HORVITZ '66

Harvard College

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: English Novelist (The Old Wives' Tale) Arnold Bennett once said: "No one can possibly be satisfied, or happy, who feels that in some paramount affair he has failed to take up the challenge of life. For a voice within him, which none else can hear but which he cannot choke, will constantly be murmuring: 'You lacked courage. You ran away.' It is happier to be unhappy in the ordinary sense than to have to listen to the end of one's life to that dreadful interior verdict."

R. MASSEY

Hinsdale, Ill.

Verdicts on Viet Nam

Sir: How can President Johnson expect us "nervous Nellies" [May 27] to unite behind his unwinnable, unnecessary, unjustified, unconstitutional war in Viet Nam? He's sending our fine young men over to that jungle to be slaughtered and maimed. However much his domestic policies may be commended, in Viet Nam he advertises his gaucherie in foreign affairs.

ROY EDWARD WOLFE

San Francisco

Sir: As a serviceman in the Army, let me tell the public that every American soldier is dedicated to this war. We do not seek personal glory, but we do look forward to seeing Communism defeated and to seeing a nation restored to a democratic way of life. We not only fight the enemy with weapons of war in the field, but we also fight poverty, illiteracy and disease.

(SP5) PHILL C. ARCHBOLD

Viet Nam

Carrying the Mail

Sir: You report [May 27] that "80% of all the U.S. bombing of North Viet Nam" originates from four airfields. Permit me to offer a correction. Since the beginning of air strikes against North Viet Nam, more than 50% of such strikes have been flown from U.S. Navy aircraft carriers off the coast of Viet Nam. With only two attack carriers continually on Yankee station launching these strikes, that figure may seem incredible. It is, nonetheless, accurate, and a tribute to the skill and determination of the officers and men of these ships to whom a 16-hour day of hard physical labor, tension and danger has become their expected routine.

(REAR ADMIRAL) H. L. MILLER

Chief of Information

U.S. Navy

Washington, D.C.

Here's Sand in Your Eye

Sir: Thank you for an interesting cover story on Juan Marichal [June 10], unquestionably the second-best pitcher in baseball. Marichal is great--Sandy is greater.

BRUCE T. J. STINEBRICKNER

West Hempstead, N.Y.

Sir: Your choice of Marichal as cover subject is tantamount to driving a Volkswagen when there is a Cadillac in the garage.

GEORGE ELLIOTT

Monrovia, Calif.

Sir: I was intrigued by the reference to the so-called "dead ball" days before 1930. While "Home Run" Baker's twelve magnificent flights over the fence may not set the record books aflame, a certain George Herman ("Babe") Ruth managed in 1927 to hit 60 home runs, a record that stood 34 years until Roger Maris hit 61, benefiting from an expanded schedule.

JAMES J. HORAN

Fair Lawn, N.J.

Locking the Door Before

Sir: As a consultant on Asian Communism at the University of Southern California and as a former newspaperman, I compliment TIME for its excellent cover story on Thailand's attempt at peaceful social revolution [May 27]. In Southeast Asia last summer with a State Department mission, I came to see that there is no substitute for concern--before the guerrillas come. As you show, both the U.S. and Thailand have learned this well.

ROBERT LAWRENCE

Los Angeles

Sir: First, Buddhist monks do not beg for their food. They are offered it willingly and graciously by people who, in so doing, gain "merit" to augment their spiritual lives. Second, Udorn, Ubon and the parts of Bangkok that are neon-lit especially to indulge U.S. servicemen are to many other peoples an indictment of Western civilization. American-style nightclubs, restaurants and bowling alleys tend to disrupt longestablished, often exquisitely delicate patterns of life. For this we will increasingly be asked to answer. Third, the insect sauce is delicious with roast chicken!

GREGORY MARONICK

Peace Corps Volunteer

Bangkok

Dust to Dust

Sir: I have just compiled a second edition of a directory listing 800 little magazines [June 3]. You cite only four, all of the stuffy, academic ilk that would have been dead long ago (with the possible exception of Sixties) if forced to go it alone like the truly independent and gutsy publications where virtually all significant writers get their start. You can't really think that those four mags represent the field. Did you ever hear of The Smith? Poetry Newsletter? Manhattan Review? Ole? Earth? Probably not, because you live too far off the ground.

LEONARD V. FULTON

Editor and Publisher

Dust

El Cerrito, Calif.

In Their Wonderful Flying Machine

Sir: With all due respect to the helicopter industry, permit us to take exception to your statement referring to the Bensen gyrocopter as "the closest thing to a flying chair yet made by man" [May 27]. Textron's Bell Aerosystems Company has been flying for nearly a year a rocket-propelled device known as the Flying Chair. In addition, Bell has developed another rocket-propelled device, the Pogo Stick. These devices have been flown more than 2,500 times with 100% reliability. The Flying Chair doesn't quite match the flight duration of Mr. Bensen's craft yet, but we're working on that.

ALBERT W. SPINDLER

News Bureau Manager

Bell Aerosystems Co.

Buffalo

Not Necessarily So

Sir: About Gallup's finding that the public is "far ahead" of educators in willingness to accept innovation in schools [June 3]: in education, as in medicine, innovation is not necessarily desirable. I wonder how many people would ask their physicians to prescribe a drug on the sole recommendation that it is new. Given that novelty per se is not an appropriate criterion, the educator must turn to other criteria--perhaps research findings. But, although there are studies supporting the notion that team teaching, programmed tests, and the Initial Teaching Alphabet, for examples, are in some way superior to traditional techniques, it is not difficult to find research reports that contradict this conclusion. We must provide the educator with assurance that if he innovates, the data will not soon go against him. Perhaps the solution lies in establishing Research Evaluation Centers to reconcile contradictory findings.

WILLIAM B. GILLOOLY

Assistant Professor of Education

The Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore

Challenging the Report

Sir: In your excellent article on mid-career training for journalists [June 3], you cite the complaint of some editors that reporters often fail to return to their old jobs. But can this be accepted as a serious argument against programs that enable newsmen to increase their knowledge? Among the 40 alumni of Columbia University's five-year-old Advanced International Reporting Program, the first of the new programs supported by the Ford Foundation, most have returned to their former organizations--and in almost all cases, to more challenging assignments. Those who have moved on have usually done so with the sympathetic approval of former editors. Only one has gone into public relations and one into politics.

JOHN LUTER

Program Coordinator

New York City

Quite Certain

Sir: As writers of what you refer to as "the universally loathed, laughless, tasteless" Carol Channing Special [June 3], we are confused. Having carefully watched ourselves on the delayed tape of the Emmy telecast, we are quite certain that we did not receive the Emmy for our good looks.

HAL GOLDMAN AND AL GORDON

Universal Studios

Universal City, Calif.

Father, Come Home to Me Now

Sir: Replica pubs [June 3] indeed! Here in this Detroit exurb we have long loved the Town Pump as a home away from home. It's possible to have your laundry delivered at the Pump and then lose your shirt at Horse, a tough, three-handed card game. Pinochle players have their own corner; the Euchre Club meets Wednesday night. Pool shooters have their table (darts are too damn dangerous). You can buy farm-fresh eggs or homemade horseradish, or leave messages on the bulletin board. No voluptuous nude behind the bar here; there is a slightly salacious wall mural painted by a customer of long ago. Summertime finds a horseshoe court set up on the edge of the parking lot, with a picnic table for kibitzers hiding in an elderly maple's shade. Regular patrons sign up for seats on chartered buses to games of the Detroit Tigers, Lions and Red Wings. Oldtimers still talk about some of the more notable excursions, which have taken as long as three days to make the 70-mile round trip to Detroit. Owners John Plegue and Harry Allor are patient but firm, and violators of good-conduct rules are banished--sometimes forever. Probably 98% of the customers are on a first-name basis with each other. And the small-town news at the Pump is far fresher and at least as accurate as that published weekly in the Anchor Bay Beacon. When the price of beer recently advanced from 15-c- to 20-c-, scarcely a murmur was heard. After all, that's a small price to pay for such amenities. Dear wife, I'll be home late tonight.

ROBERT M. LIENERT

New Baltimore, Mich.

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