Lonely Beacons
Sir: Federal Judge Frank Johnson [May 12] and many others like him make it possible for me to have pride in being from Alabama--which is a difficult thing nowadays. In the end it will have to be Alabamians who win the battle of darkness against George Wallace and the ideas that he represents.
THOMAS A. BLOUNT North Carolina State University Raleigh
Sir: Your choice of Judge Johnson as a cover subject was a wise, albeit a too-long-delayed one. Many of us native Alabamians have long admired Johnson's clear, courageous and compelling legal decisions--many of them lonely beacons of judicial reason on a small island of sanity in the midst of a wild, raging sea of irrationality.
JIM VICKREY Auburn University Auburn, Ala.
Sir: As a former Southerner (I was brought up in Columbus, Ga., and attended Auburn University for a while), I was delighted to see your cover story on Federal Judge Johnson. It is good to see such a sane, sensible, rational and courageous man receive this attention in your magazine. For too long, unfortunately, the South has been characterized in the national news media by people like the Wallaces and other such mongers of hate and prejudice. While, in a democracy, they are entitled to be heard, they have received far more coverage than they deserve. Your article will help to redress this imbalance, I hope, by having presented an excellent portrait of another kind of Southerner and a truly great American.
Judge Johnson would make an excellent Supreme Court Justice, but it would be a shame to take him away from his Alabama district, where he has done such a magnificent job.
CHARLES E. PATTERSON JR. Assistant Professor of Government Lehigh University Springtown, Pa.
Salute Returned
Sir: Somewhere between George Washington, who could not tell a lie, and Franklin Roosevelt, who could not tell the truth, lies (pun intended) Lyndon Johnson, who evidently can't tell the difference. I do not like the man. But I wholeheartedly support America's efforts in Viet Nam.
Your cover story on General Westmoreland [May 5] succinctly captured the whole sense of our commitments and intentions for carrying that war to its inevitable conclusion. Had Johnson thus forcefully and unmistakably phrased our goals long ago, we would now be much closer to a victory, with no nation unaware of our national resolve.
Let us not hide behind the declaration that we want the South Vietnamese to enjoy the blessings of the democratic way of life. We can hope that this will be one of the most beneficial side effects of our military victory there, but the truth is that Southeast Asia is still strategically a vital region in our national defense structure and must be defended. To that selfish but important end, I earnestly suggest that the nation get on with the job of supporting Westmoreland, whose interpretation of his assignment richly deserves a return salute from the nation whose interests he so nobly defends.
RICHARD J. MYERS West Nanticoke, Pa.
Sir: By using a field commander in time of war as a spokesman for his own conduct of that war, President Johnson reveals either gross tactlessness or, more terrible, ignorance of or disregard for American tradition. Whatever the right or wrong of the Viet Nam war, those Senators and Congressmen who applauded this performance make the cause of democracy that much harder to sustain.
The U.S. will itself be sustained only by sounder practice of democracy and will be able to speak to the world only when its practice matches its profession. I don't suppose that Ho Chi Minh understands that dissent does not mean disloyalty; one would hardly expect that of a Communist. But one might expect it of Americans. With the Administration doing its best to intimidate its critics, loyal dissent may be the only patriotic stance left to us.
PAUL S. SANDERS Amherst, Mass.
Sir: I have read considerable criticism of permitting General Westmoreland to appear in this country to give his estimate of how the war in Viet Nam is going. Isn't it better to listen to someone who knows what it is all about than to listen to those doves, who only think they know all about it, and most likely do not? We have permitted enough expression of disagreement about this war. After all, four different American Presidents have seen eye to eye on it.
HOSEA D. ANDERSON Austinburg, Ohio
Sword & Shield
Sir: Your cover story on Greece [April 28] is as ludicrous as the present military regime in Athens, which thinks it can save Greece by banning miniskirts. You casually label former Premier George Papandreou a leftist. But George Papandreou was the Premier who put down the first Communist bid for power in postwar Greece, and he resigned in 1963 rather than be kept in office by Communist-line votes in Parliament. You paint a picture of Constantine as a vigorous, enlightened monarch "popular with the mass of the people." If that is true, why was the army so afraid the people were going to repudiate him in the May 28 elections by voting for Papandreou that it had to move in to stop them? As for the military men who carried out the coup, their 1984 decrees and pronouncements speak for themselves.
PETER WHITE Boston
Sir: Three cheers for the Greek army! It has saved Greece from the Communist butchers twice in 20 years: during the Bandit War of 1947-49 and again on April 21, 1967.
Don't kid yourselves about Andreas Papandreou & Co.'s being anything but camouflaged agents of the Kremlin. In fact, Papandreou just about said so himself during a speech in Athens last February when he denounced U.S. involvement in Viet Nam as a "colonial war."
The Commies cannot fool all the people all the time. The Indonesians kicked them out, then the Ghanaians, now the Greeks. Splendid!
PETE MARINAKOS St. Louis
Between Us
Sir: "Canada Discovers Itself" [May 5] was a compliment to our often unrecognized northern neighbors.
Living in Detroit, mere minutes away from Windsor, Ont., I have often been guilty of considering Canada just a "sixty-cent bridge toll." Being of French-Canadian descent, I thank you for awakening in me an awareness and an appreciation of my Canadian heritage.
RENEE M. CARTIER Detroit
Sir: As usual, TIME zeroed in on its subject with an insight that is almost alarming. There was more truth in your two-page Essay than there has been in the many tomes written on the Canadian character and personality to date. The most significant aspect of the Essay was that it appeared in an American publication. Your long-overdue realization that Canada is a strong, mature nation has, for Canadians, a far greater value than the U.S. pavilion at Expo 67.
ROGER D. YACHETTI Hamilton, Ont.
Sir: One thing is the search for a Canadian soul; quite another is a "massive, historical inferiority complex . . . without question the biggest in the Western world." As a Canadian journalist who has visited and/or worked in every nation of the hemisphere--an advantage obviously not enjoyed by your Essay writer--I can objectively assure you that Canadians have a good deal less inferiority complex than most people and, what's more, infinitely less reason for having it.
JOHN ALIUS
United Press International Mexico City
Sir: I found myself swelling with pride for "my home, my native land" as I read "Canada Discovers Herself." It contained the real truth of Canada's dilemma in its lead paragraph, relating to Canada's "massive, historical inferiority complex." Few have tried to explain that feeling of inferiority, but I was reminded of the words of one who did, John Fisher--broadcaster, writer and press secretary to former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker--who once said, "Between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. is the u.s. us."
Canada's real strength lies not in her natural wealth or in her proximity--geographically and politically--to the U.S., but in her people. I proudly chose to become a citizen of the U.S. some years ago, but I still retain my great pride in having been born a Canadian.
STEPHEN A. ROWAN CBS News Saigon
Sir: During five years on the sociology faculty of a major Canadian university, I became intrigued with the concern of Canadians with their "national identity."
A group of McGill University students probably summed up their own dilemma best in the school's annual show about ten years ago, when they had a Canadian guide respond to a mythical visiting princess' question about the "Canadian identity" as follows: "But don't you see: the trouble with Canadians is they spend half their time convincing the Americans they're not British, the other half convincing the British they're not Americans, which leaves them no time to be themselves."
RICHARD LASKIN Associate Professor of Sociology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago
Sir: The fact that Canada is not culturally, economically or politically a reality is becoming more and more obvious, as much amongst English Canadian intellectuals as in the French Canadian milieu. In fact, a united and bilingual Canada is a practical impossibility. How could you ask an English-speaking British Columbian or a French-speaking Gaspesien to learn a language he will probably never need? That would be like asking a New Yorker to speak Hawaiian for the good of the nation.
As far as U.S. influence is concerned, I would go further than your Essay and say that there is no visible, or even perceptible, difference between an American and an English Canadian. So much for the English Canadian.
But Quebec and French Canadians are a different matter. In fact, Quebec is probably the only place in Canada where the "American way of life" is not completely established. Canada is not nearly so united as you seem to think, and it is going to take more than that tasteless, ugly, maple-leaf flag to convince French Canadians that they are better off as Canadians than as Quebecois.
N. DEMERS Universite de Montreal Montreal
Catapult from Suva Sir: TIME'S Essay "The Churches' Influence on Secular Society" [April 21] is a masterly conspectus--accurate and balanced in its historical review, fair and perceptive in its contemporary description, sobering and challenging in its outlook toward the future. It is far and away the ablest and most trustworthy setting forth of these highly complex and controversial issues within two pages of which I know. Space permitting, it would have been rounded out by an account of the scores of novel untraditional and imaginative "ministries" through which some of the most gifted younger leaders are attempting to catapult the church into the maelstrom of today's American society.
HENRY P. VAN DUSEN Suva, Fiji Islands
How to Cash In
Sir: Your article "Easy Go" about the cashless society [April 21]--whether people want it or not--left the question unanswered.
I, at least, do not want it.
I like the look of cash, the feel of cash, the pleasant way it makes my wallet bulge when it is full.
If we are to live in a computerized society where everything is tabulated and deducted as soon as purchased, I will have to live within my income, and I definitely do not want that.
No more calculating how long before the large check I sent a company in the East will return to the local bank and be deducted from my account to see how much of a margin I have to purchase something I want now but won't be able to afford if the check comes back too soon.
No more deciding to pay the small bill instead of the large one so that I can have just a little more money for that beautiful new dress in the window that costs a little more than I have if I must pay for all the purchases immediately.
No more the fun of knowing I have a little more in my account than is listed in my checkbook, because if something costs me $14.20 I will deduct a round figure of $15. If done enough times, this leaves a nice little unsuspected chunk of money.
No more using the pleasant tactic of putting the right checks in the wrong envelopes so that by the time the companies return the checks and give me a chance to send them to the right place, I will have enough in the bank to cover them.
Just to know that every time I stand at the purchasing desk, the clerk, the company and the bank know whether or not I have enough to cover the purchase takes all the sport out of shopping.
Please, allow us consumers to have some fun!
BEV A. SCHULZ Baldwin Park, Calif.
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