Man of the Year

Sir: The boy of last year has become this year's Man of the Year. He is sloshing around in mud so that I'm free to write this letter. The soldier on the line in Viet Nam.

PETER K. BROS Alexandria, Va.

Sir: Wretched Humanity, terrorized in China, Southern Arabia and Yemen; dying of hunger in India and Palestine; beset by war in Nigeria, the Near East and North and South Viet Nam; stifling in slums and poverty the world over; and enslaved in East Germany and countless other nations.

(MRS.) EMILY BENDER

GIORGIANA BENDER Vienna

Sir: The ghetto rioter and the hippie. One is protesting that he does not have, the other is turning away from what he has. Future historians might wonder why they didn't exchange places.

(MRS.) BETTY C. CHARLES Sedalia, Mo.

Sir: Harold Holt, who made Australians realize that we are a part of Asia and the closest friendly ally of the U.S.

MICHAEL J. BUCKLEY Sydney

Sir: Representative Wilbur C. Mills, who may have kept America from sinking farther into a British-like welfare-state morass--and saved the value of our dollar. (MRS.) PATRICIA C. PEACOCK Kailua, Hawaii

Sir: For his ability to perceive beauty and meaning in that which overflowed with ugliness: Warren Beatty.

JIM DETERLY

BRUCE TRIPLETT University, Miss.

Sir: Timothy Leary, who has given parents something to worry about: our kids.

MRS. CATHY COOL Homer, N.Y.

Sir: Ralph Nader.

(MRS.) BETTY BAUER Santa Maria, Calif.

Sir: The Man in the Moon. Nobody in this world deserves it.

WM. E. BRODERICK Arlington Heights, Ill.

Sir: I am 19 years old. In 1967, I neither burned draft cards, dropped out of society, demonstrated against the war in Viet Nam, meditated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, shot acid, popped bennies, smoked bananas, participated in the sexual revolution, grooved in the East Village, married a man thrice my age, grew organic vegetables in Topanga Canyon, nor forced flowers and love on passersby. As a paragon of abstinence in a world of shameless self-indulgence, I nominate myself as Girl of the Year, in hopes that such an honor will make next year a little more exciting.

DEIDRE A. McCoRMiCK Tarrytown, N.Y.

Tossing Thunder Eggs

Sir: Not as a parent but as a teacher, I can attest to the thesis of your Essay,

"On Being an American Parent" [Dec. 15], that today's pampered youth yearn for discipline; finding it withheld at home, they often seek it in the classroom. Although it's In to complain about assignments and deadlines, most students, not yet ready for independence, find security in this kind of regimentation. Many a class troublemaker who harasses his teacher is selfconsciously pursuing a reprimand. I recall one unruly college freshman who came unbidden to my office with a plea that I shall never forget: "I know my behavior is lousy. Can you make me stop?" Yes, I probably can, but is it my job?

NANCY SEFTON Portola Valley, Calif.

Sir: Bravo! Maybe some of those 80-hour-a-week fathers will see that killing themselves to earn enough money to "give the kids everything" is in effect shortchanging them. If your excellent article doesn't scare the pants off them, maybe it will scare them into wearing them.

LINDA DAWSON CUSACK Annandale, Va.

Sir: I feel compelled to comment on the "disciple family." I would no sooner "save the hoot owl" with my family than I would "collect thunder eggs." And furthermore, my parents would not "hire a wolf to howl at the door" in order to have a common crisis around which the family can rally. If familial solidarity is dependent upon crises and thunder eggs, then I am all for a broken home. The very values for which the disciple family stands are, essentially, those values that the youth of today is intent upon rejecting. The value judgment that girls are not given contraceptives because they are more interested in becoming women than in sleeping around, is an absurd answer to the so-called sex problem of the generation. It is not an assessment of the problem, it is a denial of its existence and of its causes. I feel sure that if I had to "build a telescope" with the entire family, I would be driven to sleeping around. It is evident, indeed, that your solution of the disciple family does not solve the problem of "being an American parent," it only ignores it.

But at least you will have a lot of thunder eggs.

JODY GARDNER Sharon, Mass.

Atoms & Ponies

Sir: Your Essay on the budget lists "the $4.6 billion public-works bill for fiscal 1968" as a target for cutting [Dec. 8]. Unfortunately, you followed the practice of most American news media in failing to mention that more than $2.5 billion of that total is the budget for the Atomic Energy Commission. While not disputing that items in the public-works section of the bill could be cut, I feel journalistic accuracy should reflect the dual nature of the Public Works and Atomic Energy Commission Appropriation Bill. You might wish to express your opinion on whether the AEC portion should be cut. HOWARD W. ROBISON Congressman 33rd District, New York Washington, D.C.

Sir: May I propose an additional cut with which I am sure millions of Americans will agree? If the mail service is as poor in other parts of the United States as it is in Albuquerque, I propose cutting the entire budget of the Postal Department and returning to the Pony Express.

DAVID H. PEARLMAN Albuquerque

Look!

Sir: TIME'S description of the massacre at Dak Son [Dec. 15] is the most moving and horrifying account I have ever read. Innocent civilians may occasionally be the victims of American bombing, but vicious, coldblooded, and calculated murderers, we are not.

G. WARFIELD HOBBS, '69 Yale University New Haven, Conn.

Sir: I felt a desperate urge to go out screaming to all the protesters and Viet-niks, "Look! For God's sake, open your eyes and look!"

J. A. RAESON Philadelphia

Sir: What a poignant statement on the nature of man: the Montagnards, considered primitives by all parties engaged in Viet Nam, become the tragic victims of the "civilized" Establishment they strive to emulate. Still in awe of matches, they must have fallen to their knees in reverence before the flamethrowers!

DAVID HOLMES Bernalillo, N. Mex.

We Appreciate

Sir: Congratulations to the soldier-to-be Kenneth Dunn, who so courageously said to an audience of protesters, "I'm willing to lay my life down if necessary so that you can bitch and protest, but I don't suppose any of you will understand that"

[Dec. 15]. I wonder what would happen to our nation's morale if our protesters would suddenly understand that.

JAMES K. RIDENOUR Charlottesville, Va.

Sir: Most of us do understand Mr. Dunn. We appreciate and need him.

WILLIAM D. GORMAN Bayonne, N.J.

Bone to Pick

Sir: Your article reporting that I stated there was a great deal in common between the leadership of the U.S. and France and agreement between the governments in basic principle [Dec. 15] is untrue and therefore grossly misleading. I said that my conversation in Paris convinced me that the peoples of the two countries, as they have in the past, share common ideals and values, and that the two nations can afford to emphasize their historical and cultural relationships. I feel strongly, and have never said or implied otherwise, that there is properly much concern by the U.S. with differences in policies that have developed between it and the De Gaulle government.

GEORGE ROMNEY Bonn

>The Governor's concern is understandable. The quote, however, was correct as printed--and tape recorded by a correspondent of the American Broadcasting Company.

Claude Clawed

Sir: Concerning the story about Florida's Governor Claude Kirk [Dec. 15]:

No one can irk

More people than Kirk.

His smile is a smirk.

He'd rather play than work.

He talks like a jackass

And acts like a jerk.

JIM ANDERSON Coral Gables, Fla.

Sonic Boon

Sir: TIME has stated the case for an American-built supersonic transport forcibly and articulately [Dec. 8]. As one who feels a growing concern for the U.S.'s balance of payments problem and the maintenance of our historical leadership in civil aviation, I applaud and congratulate your understanding and advocacy.

CHARLES C. TILLINGHAST JR.

President

Trans World Airlines, Inc. Manhattan

Belay That

Sir: You write of Captain Bligh pacing the fo'c's'le of the Bounty [Dec. 15]. Never could this have happened. No sailing ship master would dream of such behavior. The fo'c's'le is the crews' quarters in the bow of the vessel and on the deck above are located the windlass and related ground tackle. You may be sure Captain Bligh confined himself to his own quarterdeck abaft the break of the poop at the stern, and to his "great cabin" which was "officers' country"--a term still used in the U.S. Navy--and forbidden to enlisted men except on official ship's business.

G. WINTHROP HODGES Lieut. Commander, U.S.N.R. (ret.) Westhampton, N.Y.

>Sorry, we had the wrong poop.

Note on the Score

Sir: The story on the 125th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic [Dec. 15] drew a great deal of information from the forthcoming book The Third Philharmonic by Howard Shanet, to be published shortly by Doubleday and Co. This book is the result of seven years of research by Mr. Shanet. He should be credited for the use of his material.

KAREN SCHNITZLER The Sterling Lord Agency Manhattan

> TIME is happy so to do.

Busting a Gut

Sir: Congratulations on your expose of the "gut" courses [Dec. 15]. These gems of education exist in all schools, and it is about time they were appraised. I think, though, that your article lacked one important element, the viewpoint of the students. It is they who must put up with or subscribe to the snap courses.

WILLIAM GREENE Port Clinton, Ohio

Sir: Help! I'm being held captive in a school that has no gut courses.

SUSANNA HOFMANN, '71 Colby College Waterville, Me.

Sir: As a student who gratefully pads his pre-med requirements with "gut" courses, I salute any instructor with sufficient individuality to defy the anxiety mill which is today's university by inflating it with devaluated A's.

JOHN R. WEBB University of North Dakota Grand Forks, N. Dak.

Sir: Meteorology 100 at the University of Wisconsin may have been a "gut" course when you heard about it, but the ever-alert Wisconsin faculty obviously took note of the gut phenomenon, because the course is now known to be quite difficult. 1 am getting my first college F's in it. My parents read your magazine. Please be more accurate.

MARGARET CHESKIN Madison, Wis.

Queen's Champion

Sir: When you said that Cardinal Spellman always "had a love for Catholicism's old Latin liturgy" [Dec. 15], you echoed the sentiments of millions. It's like putting a queen in curlers and slacks: she's still a queen, but she's not queenly any more.

PHIL AIKMAN Spokane, Wash.

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