Again to the Mat

Sir: With only 18 years of real independence, Czechoslovakia must be more a spirit than a nation. But what a spirit! Again these gallant peoples have gone to the mat for the cause of a freedom they may never enjoy. Dubcek must have known that the Soviets would never allow him to succeed. But he must have known also that they would be forced to use the only powers they can be sure of--deceit, murder, and subjugation--to keep their empire from crumbling at their feet. Perhaps now the "peace at any price" people will see Munich revisited, and come to realize that America must stand firm at the frontiers of freedom.

HUGH L. MYERS Springfield, Pa.

Sir: I have listened with increasing distress over the past several months to the pollyannish placidity of the pronouncements by our government leaders and members of the "intellectual" establishment to the effect that the nature of Communism has changed and mellowed, that the Soviets wouldn't dare interfere in the Czechoslovak experiment with freedom.

To suppose that the Soviet Union would idly sit by and watch the dissolution of their power monopoly is and was an absurdity. All that has changed in the world situation is the escapist willingness of American leadership to believe that the nature of Communism could be anything but Communist, i.e., aggressive, imperialist, and monopolists of "the truth." It has been basically the same people who have been engaging in wishful thinking about Eastern Europe who have been opposed to our Viet Nam commitment to defend a beleaguered people from just such Communist tyranny. They have been unwilling to see the logical extensions of our commitments, and they foster the illusion that the Soviet Union has an interest in a peaceful settlement of the Viet Nam conflict, rather than being its progenitor.

BRUCE KESLER Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir: As a member of the so-called "New Left," I am dismayed and severely stunned by its failure to speak out against the Soviet bloc during the Czech crisis. Despite their loud and somewhat successful denunciation and protest against the Vietnamese war, the vast majority of the members of the Democratic left maintained a stony silence in the aftermath of the tragedy in Prague. A truly democratic left should bring its weight to bear equally against the wrongs of the right and the extreme left. Perhaps it is surprising to learn that the Soviet Union, which represents itself as free, can commit the same acts of aggression in Czechoslovakia as the U.S., which also claims it is free, does in Asia. I can only hope that Czechoslovakia's progress toward realizing a blend of Communist economics with humanist politics will not perish. Long live a free Czechoslovakia!

JOSHUA S. ZANDER Manhattan

Tragedy in Biafra

Sir: Your article on the plight of Biafra [Aug. 23] was timely. There have been far too many Nigerian propaganda articles, and far too few truthful ones on the subject. I find a ghastly parallel be tween the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by Germany, and the attempt by Nigeria to destroy Biafra, which will ultimately result in the death of 8,000,000 Ibos if nothing is done.

In World War II, a stunned world finally intervened. It remains to be seen whether the world will eventually wake up and stop what may turn out to be one of the worst examples of genocide and savagery in history.

LLEWELYN GRYFFYTH Washington, D.C.

Sir: As readers delved through your article on Biafra, most of them most likely sat back in their comfy-cozy easy chairs and said, "Tsk-tsk." Many people abhor this situation, but no one seems to do anything. You stated that "nothing short of military muscle would get supplies through and it [the Administration] is certainly unwilling to risk that." Even though I'm only 15, I can see serious wrongs. And I see something wrong when thousands of U.S. men are getting killed in Viet Nam but no one has enough nerve to help save thousands of starving people. One can certainly say that the great old U.S.A. has really "scummed out."

THOMAS HAUVER Harvard, Ill.

The G.O.P. Convention

Sir: You cited the targets in Mr. Nixon's acceptance speech: the "forgotten Americans, the non-shouters, the non-demonstrators . . . They're decent people. They work and they save and they pay their taxes and they care." Mr. Nixon is wrong. If it were not for the shouters, the U.S. might have remained a British colony. If it were not for the demonstrators, the Paris peace talks might never have occurred. Those people who year after year do no more for their country than "pay their taxes" are the apathetic people. They are the people who would sit around and watch this nation fall apart. Mr. Nixon should promote the dissenters, if he really does care for the welfare of this nation.

DIANE BUTCHER White Marsh, Md.

Sir: For once, let's be pragmatic. The young, the newly inspired downtrodden, and the dissenters have been and still are speaking a message long overdue. But a moment of clear thought will bring to mind the hard fact that these are not the ones who are in a position to do much about conditions that need cor rection. Put another way, is it really possible to imagine a McCarthy having much effect on a recalcitrant Congress? Is it probable that the private enterprise (big business) needed to take the initiative in aiding the ghetto inhabitant would follow any Democrat as well as it would Nixon? A "Nixon unbound," shuttling between conservative and liberal lines, may yet prove to be the Prometheus needed to convert jaw muscle into the strength that undoes a nation's chains.

NEIL G. BARCLAY San Francisco

Sir: In frustration I read of the Republicans' hand wringing and teeth gnashing over the selection of Spiro T. Agnew as the party's candidate for Vice President. He's not a disease; he is the Governor of the state of Maryland, the 20th most populous state in the nation. TIME described Agnew as "a competent if not brilliant Governor," "a pragmatic, administration-minded Governor," "straightforward and unaffected." A man thus described surely doesn't cause me to wring my hands, nor does his record of achievement as Governor of Maryland cause me to gnash my teeth. Perhaps his name has not appeared daily in the news; perhaps he has been so busy doing a Governor's job that he hasn't had time to thrust himself into the news with comic-strip regularity.

GAYLE LAURENCE Lawton, Okla.

Sir: A choice between Nixon and Humphrey is no choice at all. Rather, such an election is a pacifier with which the Establishment hopes to quiet the people, forcing them to endorse and continue the past. I intend to vote with my feet against TweedleDum and Tweedle-Hum. Sweden, here I come.

RODGER KNAUS Berkeley, Calif.

And How It Was Covered

Sir: A lot of people complain that the American press either slants the news, misses the point, or wastes time and words on irrelevancies. After reading "Search Beyond Sadism" [Aug. 16], I think I'm beginning to understand why. While a major political convention was choosing a national ticket, the Chicago Daily News was counting prostitutes; the Philadelphia Inquirer was sitting in a bar with John Wayne; someone called Agnes Ash of Women's Wear Daily was chasing hotel owners; and the New York Times was covering citrus commission ceremonies, Tony Martin's songs and the food in Miami restaurants. Then they have the nerve to say they were bored! Small wonder that there was only one reporter in America who predicted Agnew would make the G.O.P. ticket. He was apparently the only one paying attention to politics.

MANON McKiNNON Atlanta

Erratum

Sir: Your otherwise excellent story on the Campbell Soup strike [Aug. 23] errs on one point. Close study of the labor settlements reached in the copper industry and at Union Carbide shows that the unions did not win company-wide bargaining contracts.

WILLIAM A. LYDGATE Earl Newsom & Co. Inc. Manhattan

Character Actor

Sir: You describe Robert Mitchum well indeed [Aug. 16]! One day in the late '40s, he came alongside as 1 was getting the car out for a run into Hollywood and asked for a lift. He asked if I would mind driving down Gower to the RKO studio and waiting for a minute. I did, and in about ten minutes he came out with two suits over his shoulder. "Something you forgot?" I asked him. "No," he said matter-of-factly. "RKO gets a fat fee for loaning me to Warners, and doesn't share it; so I needed a couple of suits, went in, and snitched these." He cast me in my first role as driver of the getaway car in a robbery -- and he enjoyed it.

BARNEY OLDFIELD Vice President

Litton International Development Corp. Beverly Hills

Too Much to Swallow

Sir: Very interesting article on Anton Webern [Aug. 16]. It reminded me of still another musician who died a bizarre death. The 19th century Polish composer Czeslaw Modrzejewski is probably the only composer to be chewed to death by his own false teeth. The teeth were on a table next to his lawn couch, where Modrzejewski was reclining while attending an outdoor performance. Curiously, it was one of his own marches that set up the sympathetic vibrations in the teeth. They fell from the table; before anyone could reach him, Modrzejewski was fatally bitten by the vibrating dentures.

DAVID L. SCHWARTZ Albany, N.Y.

> After chewing this one over, TIME is convinced that the mythical Modrzejewski died from jumping to occlusions.

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