Diplomatic Not-So-Niceties

Sir: Your revealing article "The Second Phase in Paris" [Dec. 6] gave me serious doubts as to the sincere .desires of the four parties concerned to achieve a "just and honorable peace." It seems absurd that mature men, especially those honored in the ranks of world diplomacy and charged with the awesome responsibility of ending a war that has become one of the most unpopular and ethically debatable in history, could spend months haggling over such minuscule points of procedure as the shape of the conference table and the number of doors leading to the main hall. It was estimated that the number of allied and enemy casualties during the week of Nov. 24 well exceeded the 2,000 mark. I hardly think that this squandering of human life can be condoned by a failure on the part of the negotiators to agree among themselves on such trivia. If they cannot quickly settle these questions, what faith can we place in them to negotiate a lasting settlement of the war?

CHRISTOPHER STONE

University Park, Pa.

Sir: I suggest that the negotiation site be changed to a heavily bombarded sector of the DMZ with continuing military action all around. Then the diplomats would dispense with all the diplomatic niceties about what kind of conference table to use and would negotiate an end to the whole stupid mess.

ANTHONY L. DIBIASIO

Cranston, R.I.

Never Better

Sir: I was surprised to learn from your article on .Robert Finch [Dec. 13], that 1 was "ailing." I thought I felt fine.

Several years ago I underwent throat surgery to remove a cancer. The operation was a complete success but it left me with some hoarseness which makes me sound like a cross between Ev Dirksen and Andy Devine.

Since I have announced that I intend to seek re-election in 1970, I fully expect that there will be, as there have been in the past, irresponsible efforts to distort the facts about my health. I hope that TIME and other responsible publications will not fall for this political trick.

I have just fulfilled a campaign speaking schedule which took me to 30 states, from Florida to Alaska. I never worked harder, felt better or approached the new Congressional session with more enthusiasm, and if there is ever a problem with my health, I will be the first to say so. (My golf handicap was just cut by two strokes.)

GEORGE MURPHY United States Senator

Los Angeles

Loco Motive

Sir: "Who Stole the Locomotive?" [Dec. 6] brought back some unique memories. Right after the war, the Hungarian state-owned MAVAG works was ordered to build scores of locomotives for the Soviets as "war restitution." I was in charge of a team of engineers, working in a small town near the Russian border, that commissioned and transferred these engines to the competent Soviet authorities.

On the very night of their arrival, one locomotive from the first shipment of eight was stolen, never to be recovered. Upon probing the possible motive for such a seemingly irrational act as the theft of a locomotive, I discovered that in meeting the prescribed quota of ton-kilometers-per-engine hauled, the harassed Soviet railroad official indeed stood to gain by having an extra and unaccounted-for one up his sleeve. Ironically, this locomotive got abducted before my men had a chance to change its axles to the wider track of the Russian railroads--as her crew must have found out when the narrower European standard tracks ended some 40 kilometers inside Russia.

JOHN D. ALROY

Union City, N.J.

Closed, Not Open

Sir: President Thomas Johns (Pikeville College) preaches that confrontation and polarization of ideas make "people aware of their own thinking" [Nov. 29]. Regrettably, education in our society is so close to this state of affairs that we are rapidly losing our awareness of how others think. In short, confrontation methods are developing educational activists who close their minds to opposing issues in society and thus "optout" on the unique and basic purposes of higher education. Protests in the form of recent school-bond rejections by our generous but nettled taxpayers, suggest a greater sensitivity to the purposes of higher education than is shown by this college president and the professors and students who carry on adulterous love affairs with their own thinking.

NORMAN WM. FREESTONE

Los Angeles

Turning the Tables

Sir: I, a nascent but enthusiastic neophyte in Latin scholarship, found my studies rewarded as I read your article, "Edibility Gap" [Dec. 6]. Included in your photo of ostentatious restaurant menus was one of obvious Roman vintage touting the gustatory delights of a New York establishment with acute illusions of classical grandeur. Atop the menu, in flawless (if somewhat perfunctory) Latin, were the words of the poet Catullus: "You will dine well at my table." Whereas the rest of the menu appears hopelessly verbose, its author was here perhaps all too brief, for, loosely translated, Catullus actually wrote: "You will dine well at my table if you are lucky--provided that you bring your own dinner, a beautiful girl, wine, wit and laughter . . ."

SERAFIN L. CRAIG

Chicago

Sir: No study of menu language would be complete without this item from ROD'S 1890s (Morris Township, N.J.): "London Broil--Sliced Beef, with the inevitable mushroom sauce."

JEROME E. SALNY

Morristown, N.J.

Sir: Menuwise, I will never forget the day in 1960 when I stopped hungry at a drive-in with pretensions in Denver. There listed was an open-faced sandwich, "succulent slices of roast beef with delicious au jus." So help me.

CHRISTOPHER GLENN Manhattan

And Still More Nominations

Sir: I suggest for your 1968 Man of the Year a man who while he lived did more to bring men together peacefully than most of us thought possible, and who, after his tragic death, provides those of us who believed in him with the inspiration to carry on his dream: Dr. Martin Luther King.

DAVID BLANCHFIELD

San Diego

Sir: The Black American, for his courage to act on his beliefs, faith in the ultimate good of America, and patience in waiting so long to realize the American dream for himself.

BRUCE HAMPSON

Albuquerque

Sir: The incredible Edward Kennedy, for his courage beyond tragedy and for giving us all the courage to go beyond the hurt.

JIM BANGS Glendale,

Calif.

Sir: The American fighting man. Never before have so many done so much with so little moral support.

THOMAS MONTGOMERY

Anderson, Ind.

Sir: The American astronauts. Without their courage, our success in space could not have been accomplished.

BILL GRAF

Ridgefield Park, N.J.

Sir: For his unique ability to take credit, jobs and headlines from better men, Charles de Gaulle wins by at least the length of his nose.

JIMMY DEKLE

Raleigh, N.C.

Sir: Tiny Tim: he says it all.

SOL D. MORRISON

Los Angeles

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