The President's Ear

Sir: Bravissimo to Presidential Assistant John Ehrlichman, who asks the Nixon Administration: "Do we have to do this at all?" and "Why can't the states do this?" [June 8]. For 25 years we have seen the Federal Government assume functions it was never created to perform. At last there's a man close to a President's ear who is posing the absolutely essential query in a Government that's supposed to be limited.

WOOLSEY TELLER Indianapolis

Sir: During the 1968 campaign it was said by Republicans that R.M.N. had somehow, during his eight long years in political exile, marinated from an "old" Nixon into a "new" Nixon. In other words, he changed from a rather inimically cantankerous McCarthyite witch hunter into a resolutely innovative and pragmatic national leader. It was a metamorphosis that I unwittingly thought was entirely possible. Men like Henry George, Woodrow Wilson, John Dos Passes, Al Smith, Arthur Vandenberg and John McCprmack had all managed to change their convictions; perhaps Nixon had, too. But, as your article on the President's palace guard makes clear, I was wrong.

JOHN L. LEWIS, '71 University of Houston Houston

Sir: A fire quietly burning, the air conditioner operating to balance the temperature, a Mantovani playing in the background. This is the scene described on nationwide television as Commander Nixon peers out over the Washington Monument from his favorite room in the White House. Add to this Nixon's uniformed "palace guard," his isolation from criticism by Kissinger, Mitchell, Ehrlichman and Haldeman, and the result is what appears to be a man overly impressed by his own position and growing more detached from reality.

(SP/5) JAMES A. ELLIS West Point

Hardhat Award

Sir: It seems unbelievable that a President who tells us that peaceful dissent is good can accept a "hardhat" award from the construction workers of New York in view of their recent bombardment of war protesters.

BOB STERLING N. Miami Beach

Sir: The construction workers' display of "patriotism" on Wall Street made a travesty of everything the American flag truly represents. They brandished Old Glory in one hand and a lead pipe in the other, and in so doing perverted the very democracy for which they think they stand. As for the march on lower Broadway, there has not been such a burlesque of belligerent flag-waving since Hitler and his boys employed similar muscleman tactics. Is this the stuff of which patriots are made? I think not.

(PFC) EDWARD SNOWDON U.S. Army, Viet Nam APO San Francisco

Solid Myth

Sir: Let us not hear any more about "the solid South." The virtual re-election of George Wallace to the governorship of Alabama provides sufficient evidence of this myth.

What decent-minded Southerner can be "solid" with such a blatant racist?

FREDRICK A. HAWKINS Durham, N.C.

Mapmaker's Peace

Sir: It seems to me that the American invasion of Cambodia without consulting its government demonstrates that Cambodian sovereignty is at most problematic. Therefore the negotiators in Paris could redraw the map so that the area now designated South Viet Nam would be called Cambodia.

Such a plan would delight ARVN, because its martial abilities are invoked more fully on Cambodian soil. The Communists would no longer have to deploy their forces from the Central Office for South Viet Nam, which our recent raids have shown scarcely exists anyway. And America's desire for peace would quickly be satisfied, since President Nixon has promised the withdrawal of all our troops from Cambodia by June 30.

STEVE WHITFIELD Newton Highlands, Mass.

Sir: Could you imagine Richard Nixon as President 26 years ago telling General Dwight David Eisenhower, "I don't want you going any more than 20 miles into France. We just want to destroy the German sanctuaries to prevent more Americans from getting killed. Also, we want a pullout of all American troops by June 30. You know--put the enemy back six months or so to help with our Englanization program."

JIM DORE Downers Grove, III.

Missile to Missile

Sir: Re the Middle East [June 15]: Have we learned our lesson? Apparently not.

Once again the two superpowers rush madly toward a confrontation in which neither power can hope to exert complete control. This time it is Egypt instead of Cuba.

Once again it is the Soviet ambassador assuring us that the missiles being installed are for defense only--this time against the tiny state of Israel instead of the much larger U.S.

Once again an American President vacillates in his commitment and discredits American resolve. This time, strangely enough, it is Nixon instead of Kennedy.

Once again, when it is almost too late, the U.S. will have to move decisively to maintain the balance of power. And once again we will be eyeball to eyeball and missile to missile. But this time, who will be the first to blink? Most certainly not the Russians!

GERALD GAISER Granada Hills, Calif.

Cause of Crisis

Sir: "The Economy: Crisis of Confidence" [June 15] was as lucid an exposition of a difficult-to-understand fact of our economic life as I have read.

It would seem that as in so many other areas of our national life, Richard Nixon the intractable, the hardliner, is the problem.

RICHARD MCGAHAN Greenfield, Mass.

The Heavenly Cities

Sir: Ed Banfield's views [June 1] come as a breath of fresh air. The urban conditions in this country are heavenly when compared to the conditions of city life in any other country in the world. Let those who cry wolf migrate to Rome, Cairo, Calcutta, Lima, Havana or Hong Kong and then see how long they remain there.

GEORGE A. SIMON San Jose, Calif.

Sir: It is high time that someone had the courage, as did Edward Banfield in The Unheavenly City, to avoid the usual half-truths and attempt to take a realistic approach to the problems of cities and urban racial relations.

It is well, too, that he alerts the do-gooders to the futility of their efforts. These people will be needed to find real solutions, and they will not do so as long as they have confidence in their present inadequate programs.

HAROLD HALPERN Chicago

Sir: In his defense of the unheavenly city, Edward Banfield says that the American city is turning out an increasingly wealthy citizenry. He even feels that the cities' traffic congestion can be enjoyable!

I fear that Mr. Banfield judges wealth and the standard of living by electric can openers, color TVs and brand-new convertibles. Will such things bring true happiness to the urban man who is standing knee-deep in garbage, afraid to let his children go outside because of smog warnings? I think not.

How long are we going to keep sacrificing our environmental quality to somebody's distorted concept of wealth and economic growth?

DAN DEEKINS Millington, Tenn.

Where Are Our Parents?

Sir: Unknowingly, you have solved a mystery. For some time, I have wondered about the parents whose "darling" children are out burning the university. Alas, the parents are at the clinic, with Masters and Johnson [May 25], learning to be sexually compatible.

JANE SNYDER Birdsboro, Pa.

Sir: Masters and Johnson's approach creates a real danger by ruling out the one ingredient that places humans above animals: love. By breaking down man's sexual act into stages and temperatures, and using surrogate partners just to perfect a technique, they cancel what good they might be doing by reducing the act to simple copulation.

MRS. ROLAND N. HANSEN Rochester, Minn.

An Appropriate Bird?

Sir: Let us not mourn the imminent demise of the bald eagle [June 8]. Another bird would now reflect our national standards far better.

I suggest the cowbird. It is a social parasite. It neither builds its own nest nor rears its young. It lays its eggs in the nests oi other birds. The cowbird was not always parasitic but learned from experience that foisting its young off on other birds was a very successful way to perpetuate the species without the arduousness of nest building, feeding and rearing its offspring.

With so much of our population on the dole, living and reproducing at the expense of more diligent persons, the women's liberation movement growing by leaps and bounds, monogamy being replaced by promiscuousness and family life threatened, what bird could better qualify?

MATHILDA HENKEL Red Wing, Minn.

Sir: The Bolivian government has been conscious of the need for conservation of its alligators for many, many years. Its restrictive laws guarantee survival of these species and a normal supply of raw skins to the local industries for many years to come.

It seems obvious that Governor Rockefeller signed the law banning alligator skins in New York [June 8] without finding out what Bolivia has done to protect these species. The action will cause the Bolivian government to lose several millions of dollars.

Conservation is necessary, but the Governor's law is quite evidently meant for public appeal only. In the case of the Bolivian alligator skins, it is not necessary.

ESTEBAN JACOBOWITZ Jacobowitz & Cia. Cochabamba, Bolivia

Mushrooming Comment

Sir: With regard to John Allegro's "mushroom" theology [June 8], it may be that some scholar in the future, arrogating to himself a similar kind of mushrooming philological method, will remark that the name Allegro means "lively" or "fast." He might also notice the similarity between "Allegro" and "allegory." And if he should reach the conclusion that "John Lively" was simply a metaphor for a fast-talking type who never really existed, who could blame him?

THOMAS N. SCHULZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sir: If Jesus was a mushroom, then as his followers, we are only spores.

RUTH H ALLI DAY Chicago

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.