Who Is the Man?

Sir: There can only be one choice for 1970's Man of the Year--the American prisoner of war.

JOAN JACOBUS

Clifton, N.J.

Sir: The man with guts--Walter Hickel.

GEORGE JOHNSON

San Francisco

Sir: It has to be Nader. I think he cares about me.

GEORGE W. BLANK III

Downingtown, Pa.

Sir: How about that Lithuanian sailor we so readily threw to the wolves? Or did someone remove the quotation from the Statue of Liberty?

(MRS.) JUNE BOLDT

Amherst, N.Y.

Sir: You describe the Man of the Year as the person who has had the greatest influence for good or ill on mankind in the preceding year. In this and every other year until the population explosion is controlled: the third child.

T. ANDREW TRIMINGHAM

Manhattan

Sir: Thomas Jefferson, who started what is going on today when he wrote that a government should be altered or abolished when it becomes destructive of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

TOM LEVITAN

Baton Rouge. La.

Sir: Could there be any other than Vince Lombardi? Few men have equaled him, yet all respected him.

(MRS.) WENDY WETZEL

Madison. Wis.

Sir: Pierre Elliott Trudeau. By keeping his cool, he has shown the world that terrorists can be dealt with.

ROBERT ANES

Brantford, Ont.

Sir: The Buckleys, William F. and James L. Two men who have made conservatism a viable alternative for America.

PATRICK DUFFY

Los Angeles

Sir: The guy who is caught in the crunch of our rapidly changing society: the urban policeman.

T.A. CONNOLLY

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir: The college student. Political oppression, Viet Nam. Cambodia, Nixon-Agnew, drugs and racism polarized students this year into a political force that must be recognized.

STEVEN STURM

Brooklyn

Sir: Willy Brandt, for trying to build a bridge from Bonn to the rest of the world and his efforts toward making a better Europe.

LEMAN S. BAKER

Texas City, Texas

Sir: Cesar Chavez.

BRUCE M. SMITH

North Leeds. Me.

Sir: Pope Paul VI.

RAY L. SHERWOOD

Aurora, Ill.

Sir: Father Daniel Berrigan, S.J.

ROGER C. CAMPBELL

Worcester, Mass.

Sir: Burt Bacharach.

STEVEN L. SOBOROFF

Tucson, Ariz.

Sir: Kate Millett.

MICHAEL J. CLYNE

Manhattan

Again the Spotlight

Sir: I find the suggestion that President Nixon is considering more raids on North Viet Nam's prison camps [Dec. 7] quite disturbing. Faced with Green Berets on the outside and hostile but unarmed prisoners on the inside, it is only logical to assume that the guards will attack their enemy at his weakest point by eliminating the prisoners. Such a horrible denouement would only serve to spotlight once again the combined brutality and stupidity which is the Viet Nam War. Would the epitaphs of the prisoners read, "We had to destroy them to save them"?

BRIAN F. WOOD

Eggertsville, N.Y.

Sir: Your article was an outstanding reminder of the plight of U.S. P.O.W.s, and of how little this country has done to help them prior to the raid on Son Tay. If one thing is more heartbreaking than the experiences of the wives and families of the P.O.W.s, it is the story of the prisoners themselves. God bless the men who conceived and carried out the raid. Let's hope that next time they will be successful.

LARRY D.STEPHAN

Edwards A.F.B., Calif.

Sir: Xuan Thuy will be delighted to receive 100 tons of mail requesting the release of American P.O.W.s. It will display how deeply Americans yearn for their release. Now Hanoi says that all P.O.W.s will be released--when and only when we get out of Viet Nam. Knowing the strength of American sentiment to have prisoners released will strengthen Hanoi's resolve: Hanoi will figure that when all Americans want the P.O.W.s released badly enough, they will get out of Viet Nam.

(MRS.) SANDRA SCOTT

Norwich, Conn.

Natural Extension

Sir: Re "The Latest American Exodus" [Nov. 30]: Many young people believe that they are citizens of the world. They feel they have as much right to change their country as their politics or religion. It becomes a natural extension of a growth that transcends nationalism. If expatriation will help create a world community of contented people, America, through its expatriates, may finally be doing something right.

JON K. WASHA

Upper Brookfield, Australia

Sir: I just returned from a year and a half of working on a U.S. military base in Germany. The quietness and exquisite beauty of Germany intrigued me very much, and I often thought about living there permanently. One day I mentioned this to a young black soldier. His reply was: "Nothing is happening here. I feel as if I am wasting my time. I have to get back home and help my people." That made me begin to re-evaluate my position. Life was easier in Europe, especially on an American salary, but it can become a real copout.

CAROLYN SANGSTER

Des Plaines. Ill.

Sir: I've been approached countless times by many fellow Americans about retirement or working abroad. There is no pat answer I can offer, but it's no longer inexpensive. However, particularly in London and in England, I can understand the desire of those who are middle-aged (as I am) to live at what we term a more civilized pace. It is not so competitive. There is time for living. In spite of rising costs, the theater, concerts, etc., remain within sensible bounds. There is, I believe, another reason: the escape from the impersonality of concrete to something of another age. At heart, there are many squares left in this world who love the old things the cities here have to offer.

But if the young wish to become involved with the exciting challenges of life, they will find it is not here but remains largely in the U.S.

R.L. GROSS

London

Drawing the Line

Sir: If a New Jersey superior court judge can deny the right of a couple to adopt a child on the basis of their being atheists [Dec. 7], what then prevents the state from taking a child from natural parents whose convictions likewise "prevent the child's freedom to worship as she sees fit"? There may be a distinction, but if Judge Camarata's decision is upheld, there may not be one for long.

DENNIS H. FLANIGAN

Ames, Iowa

Sir: To deny a child the right to a family because the parents are not churchgoers seems to me a giant leap forward to the age of the Spanish Inquisition.

Doesn't Judge Camarata realize that it is more emotionally traumatic for a child to be taken from its parents and possibly grow up homeless than it is for the child not to attend church? It is no wonder the Burkes do not believe in God.

(MRS.) CAMILLA GREENE

Philadelphia

Sir: When are we going to reach the age of enlightenment concerning people? Judge Camarata's decision is based on the premise that all good guys come from religious homes and all bad guys from some other kind of home.

If the Burkes are good, kind, loving, possess high moral and ethical standards and want the children, what more should any of us ask?

(MRS.) EVELYN G. FISHER

Pompton Plains, N.J.

Bah, Humbug

Sir: Your review of Scrooge [Dec. 7] could have been written by the old grouch himself before transformation. It was a perfect family movie. Dickens himself would have enjoyed it.

Bah, humbug to Jay Cocks.

(MRS.) CYNTHIA CORTRIGHT

Detroit

Pet Name

Sir: In your story on Khrushchev's reminiscences [Dec. 7], you report an odd linguistic controversy about the proper affectionate and intimate variation of the name Svetlana in Russian. Nikita Khrushchev says Stalin called his daughter Svetlanka. But in Russian the ending nka is usually used in talking to pets, as in Anton Chekhov's story about the dog Kashtanka. Stalin's daughter says her father always called her Svetochka. Since Stalin, the author of Marxism and Linguistics, fancied himself an expert on the Russian language, as on everything else, it still may be hard to argue with him.

But I would maintain that the proper form is Svetlanochka.

MISHA ALLEN

Toronto

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