The Moon and the Earth

Sir: We needed that. Those three brave and simple men, flying farther and faster to more forbidding frontiers than ever before, were an inspiration we have needed and must not now let slip. In tormented 1968, symbols of pride and constructive achievement were singularly lacking in our national life, but to end on such an upswing might be just what we need to urge us to work harder, moan less, and move into 1969 with a new resolve to overcome our earthbound problems.

ELIOT T. PUTNAM JR.

Assistant Chief of Mission CARE/MEDICO, Tunisia

Sir: You might be directed to the words of Thomas Merton, who died just before the end of this strange year: "What is the good of exalting the 'greatness of man' simply because the concerted efforts of technicians, soldiers and politicians manage to put a man on the moon while four-fifths of the human race remains in abject misery, not properly clothed or fed, in lives subject to arbitrary and senseless manipulations by politicians or violence at the hands of police, hoodlums or revolutionaries? Certainly the possibilities and the inherent nobility of man are stupendous, but it is small help to crow about it when the celebration of his theoretic greatness does nothing to help him find himself as an ordinary human being."

1968 was the year of Eugene McCarthy as well as of the moon. It was the year of Biafra and Viet Nam, of King and Kennedy, of Prague and Chicago, of law and order, riot and revolution. You have copped out.

JEFF PETERTIL Oak Park, Ill.

Sir: Is it that the criterion for greatness is success? Or is it that 1968 was so terrifying a year for human relations that we must salute a concrete accomplishment made possible by the less human of human virtues, efficiency? I don't quite know. But, to me, 1968 was a year of human commitment. More of mankind than ever before became genuinely concerned for their fellow man. There was more hope arid more despair, more excitement and more tragedy. But, above all, commitment. 1968 was not a year to salute the successes of science; it was a year of hope for the future of men.

JIM LOBE

Paris

Sir: We on earth, all of us, do thank you, our astronauts, for your marvelous message, your outstanding example of heroism and humility, your perfect teamwork along with thousands of fellow Americans. You will lead today's youth out of the morass of self-pity and destruction, you will teach the new generation the world over to follow on the road of selfdiscipline, hard work and heroic achievement that is the behavior of a true American citizen.

MANUEL RODRIGUEZ ANDRADE

Alicante, Spain

Sir: I sometimes wonder what would have happened if there had been a Congressman Ugh way back then to ask of what value was fire, considering the problem of substandard caves. Thank heavens for those who asked way back why not instead of why, and for those who throughout history agreed with Norwegian Explorer Fridtjof Nansen that "it is ... of no purpose to discuss the use of knowledge--man wants to know, and when he ceases to do so he is no longer man."

Columbus missed the riches of the East, but he'll never know how close to Wall Street he came.

DANIEL JOHN SOBIESKI Chicago

Call for Realism

Sir: Re "Dilemma of the Code" [Jan. 3]: While in Korea in 1950, I had rather serious thoughts about my ability, if I were captured, to abide by our Code of Conduct. General Woodward's action has now provided considerable support for my belief that any man can be persuaded to rationalize the placement of his signature on a fallacious document. The enemy need only find the proper stimulus.

Why not make our code realistic? Proclaim to the world that a captured soldier is regarded as a puppet while in enemy hands. As such, he will mouth words or write documents as his captor dictates. Thus, the propaganda value of a "confession" will become insignificant, and the helpless prisoner will be spared opprobrium for being human.

JAMES H. STEWART, M D.

New Orleans

Where Lies the Justice?

Sir: The Israeli attack at Beirut [Jan. 3] was monumentally stupid. Some Arabs are moderates as far as Israel is concerned, and would like to work out solutions at the conference table if Israel and their own people would permit. Others are militants and see no answer but the gun and the grenade. Israel's attack pulled the rug from under the moderates, whom they should aim to strengthen, and added tremendously to the backing of the militants.

The U.S. has supported Israel, although such support is directly contrary to the interest of the U.S. Israel has nothing to offer this country. Our dealings with her are a one-way street--outgoing. All our economic interest is with the Arab nations who hold over 70% of the free world's known oil reserves, plus the short trade route to the Far East--both of which are vital to our English and European allies.

GORDON M. JONES

Evanston, Ill.

Sir: O.K. But I bet the North Koreans wouldn't hijack an Israeli ship!

STEPHEN J. CUNNINGHAM JR. Blacksburg, Va.

Sir: I never thought I would live to see the day when the spiritual leader of millions of Roman Catholics would send his condolences upon the destruction of twelve empty airplanes and never utter a word against the wanton slaying of twelve human beings who perished in a Jerusalem market explosion while doing their Sabbath shopping.

RABBI NORBERT WEINBERG Congregation Adas Israel Fall River, Mass.

Sir: What a sense of balance and equity there is at the U.N. and our State Department! Nigerians kill Biafrans, Russia invades Czechoslovakia, Arab terrorists kill Israelis, and Israel bombs airplanes and a terminal without killing one person. Who does the U.N. condemn? Israel. What a travesty of justice.

JERRY STEINMAN West Nyack, N.Y.

Sic Transit Gloria

Sir: Gloria Steinem's "feminine mystique" is showing [Jan. 3]. I can see nothing negative or unflattering in Mrs. Nixon's comment that she "never had time to think about who I wanted to be or to worry about who I admire and identify with." The comment is forceful, feminine and honest, and one that is surely echoed in similar words by thousands of other hardworking, happy, family-oriented and ultimately successful American women.

(MRS.) BARBARA G. JACOBS Miami

Sir: Add this to the inventory on Steinem --dumb! The divorce rate among the young marrieds can be traced back to the cliche propaganda of the Friedan/Steinem ilk who perpetuate the cult of the beautiful, ever youthful, career-minded, glamorous, intellectual, competitive and glib nitwit who falls apart at the sight of an unmade bed or dirty toilet bowl.

And what the hell does "emotionally blackmailed into domesticity" mean? Who is the blackmailer? Who is the blackmailed? Is there one woman in the world who doesn't know that caring for your man means laundry, marketing, cooking and great mounds of garbage? It also means not getting yourself worked up over someone "giving you your identity." You either have it or you don't.

CLAIRE GOLDBERG Beverly Hills, Calif.

Testimony for the Testament

Sir: Your review of S.G.F. Brandon's books in "A Political, Patriotic Jesus" [Jan. 3] was very perceptive. His thesis that the Gospels provide an anti-Semitic view of the trial of Jesus that incorrectly tends to exonerate Pontius Pilate has, of course, much currency--indeed, any Jewish involvement on Good Friday is being questioned by some writers. But one wonders if the pendulum of interpretation may not be swinging too far.

The fact remains that, according to all contemporary Judeo-Roman sources, the trial of Jesus could have taken place essentially as portrayed in the New Testament. A very important but little-known gauge of the reliability of the New Testament accounts are the purely Jewish sources and traditions, which require the death penalty for Yeshu Hannosri (Jesus of Nazareth), such as Sanhedrin 43a of The Babylonian Talmud. The stoning of Jesus' brother James during the absence of the Roman governor in 62 A.D. is another shred of important evidence. The Gospels, then, are not necessarily anti-Semitic for their portrayal of a Jewish prosecution at the trial of Jesus, as is shown in my book Pontius Pilate (Doubleday).

Rather, it was a tragic error of the later Christian church to derive an anti-Semitic attitude from Jewish involvement in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. The church forgot that the prosecution was acting in absolute good faith, that even so it represented only a small fraction of the Jewish populace, and that responsibility for its role is not transferable. Indeed, to be anti-Semitic because of Good Friday is as ridiculous as hating Italians because a few of their forebears once threw Christians to the lions!

PAUL A. MAIER Professor of Ancient History Western Michigan University Kalamazoo

Within the Scheme

Sir: By observing that John Steinbeck "tended to diminish humans to the condition of animals, to reduce his characters to their simple biological needs and desires," [Dec. 27] Edmund Wilson commits the critic's unpardonable sin of applying his own standards to another's work. For to make this observation, one must first assume that man is, as Christian philosophy dictates, the earthly king of the universe. This assumption, however, goes entirely against the grain of Mr. Steinbeck's philosophy, which was based upon an intense, pantheistic love of nature, and led him to "animalize" his characters in order that he might free them from their sanitized, alienated existence and place them with utmost dignity within the grand scheme of the universe.

MICHAEL J. ALLISON Long Beach, Calif.

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