White House Wedding

Sir: Thank you for your tasteful, kind coverage of our President's daughter's wedding [June 14]. Dignified womanhood and the American family received a needed boost through your beautiful color photographs of loving, happy, handsome kin and through your respectful text.

(MRS.) DIANE C. ALLEN Torrance, Calif.

Sir: In a country where millions of people are living at below-subsistence level, where Ph.D.s cannot get jobs in their fields, whose soldiers have more trouble with drugs than with the enemy, where black people are still shot in the street, where prices are skyrocketing, you show us a happy WASP family living in its ivory tower. Dad must be proud.

CARYL STEIN Pittsburgh

Sir: The picture that won my heart was the picture of Tricia and her father at the baseball game. How typically American. She, like any other average kid, seemed to be yelling at the umpire, "Throw the bum out!" That one picture has made me change my way of thinking. It made me realize that the Nixons are really no different from the rest of us.

(MRS.) MARJORIE P. MAYROSE Ellettsville, Ind.

Sir: Your article states that Edward Cox's mother is descended from Robert R. Livingston "who signed the Declaration of Independence." Robert R. Livingston was one of five individuals chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence, but he never signed it because he was called back to his home state of New York to aid in the drafting of that state's constitution.

A relative, Phillip Livingston, signed the Declaration.

DAVID J. SULLIVAN New Haven, Conn.

One Great Thing

Sir: I was quite touched by your article on Audie Murphy [June 14]. It may be that he was on a downhill run, but that's what America is all about. Not everyone is able to do everything great. Murphy was able to do one thing great, and that was to fight for his country. There should be more like him.

JOHN J. GARZI Glen Burnie, Md.

Sir: As one who admires the heroism of Audie Murphy, I do not think that he felt killing was a virtue; nor did he feel that anything he had done was outstanding, but merely what he had been trained to do. Unfortunately, we live in an age when such men are no longer admired but ridiculed and pitied for fighting bravely for a country in which they believe.

SHARLENE MCEVOY Derby, Conn.

Obscurity of the Obvious

Sir: Mr. Donovan's statement in "Coming to Terms with Viet Nam" [June 14] that "we may well have accomplished more in South Viet Nam than in our present mood we give ourselves credit for" is a repetition of a theme that no one has thus far been inclined, or able, to clarify for the ordinary mind. We are still faced with the "obscurity of the obvious." No one can doubt the honor, ability, brilliance, etc., of the men who carried out the policy, but once again we are reminded of the old adage, "If only evil men did evil things, the world would be a rather wonderful place."

J. LANCE STARNES Coushatta, La.

Ready

Sir: When World War I came, the French were ready to fight the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s. When World War II began, the Allies were ready to fight World War I. It is heartening to know, from the arguments of President Nixon and Secretary of State Rogers justifying the present level of U.S. troop strength in Europe [June 14], that we are ready for World War II if it should break out. STEVEN KOENIG Van Nuys, Calif.

New Kind of Warfare

Sir: Assisted perhaps by Quotations from Chairman Mao, the Pakistanis seem to have invented a new kind of warfare. Under the title of "internal affair," they let loose a reign of terror on East Pakistan [June 21]. Injured, starving, cholera-ridden refugees have since poured into India.

Without any declaration of war, this flood of mostly old people, women and children can wreck India's precarious economy. What a splendid bonus to rid yourself of some 5,000,000 unwanted citizens and make your arch enemy, India, pay the price for your "internal" follies.

TARA ALI BAIG New Delhi, India

Bicycle Pollution

Sir: The bicycle does not pollute [June 14]? What folly! Into the production of a bicycle go the production of metals, rubber, plastics and grease with their polluting side products. Into the production of a horse goes nothing not in nature already.

After its task is done, the bicycle leaves behind an unsightly metal frame and useless rubber tires. The horse, on the other hand, leaves a healthy lump of fertilizer.

When we set out to fight pollution, let us not forget to look at all the consequences.

HEIKKI HELAVA New York City

A Salute and a Cheer

Sir: I salute and cheer the Irish Women's Liberation group [June 7]. These women have challenged the last of Ireland's cruel oppressors: the church. The day has finally arrived when at least some Irishwomen are no longer accepting the clergy's teaching that they must bear any number of children, even though they may not be able to feed or clothe them.

MARY S. CAFFREY New York City

Stuff and Nonsense

Sir: Author C. Northcote Parkinson [June 14] should be flogged around the fleet for suggesting that Hornblower was responsible for the timely death of H.M.S. Renown's dread Captain Sawyer. Any Hornblower student worth his salt pork knows that the most likely author of Sawyer's assist down the hatchway was Henry Wellard. Wellard is known to have suffered repeatedly under Sawyer's sadistic paranoia, and was described as "highly agitated" on the night of the incident. The testimony of the Marine corporal, Greenwood, places Wellard with Hornblower near the hatchway, and both Marine Captain Whiting and Lieut. William Bush found Wellard at the scene. Hornblower's later refusal to discuss the incident obviously indicates that he was covering for the boy.

Hornblower a murderer? Stuff and nonsense, sir!

KERRY WEBSTER Seattle

Something Smells

Sir: People writing about words should never use dictionaries that "come to hand" ("an old Webster's," or the practically useless Random House compilation), as does Mr. John Skow [June 14] in checking my "caprifole" (not "caprifoli" as absurdly quoted). Oldish (1957) unabridged Webster does list "caprifole" and this happens to be the only exact translation of Russian zhimolost' (the Lonicera of science), since the usual term honeysuckle is also applied to a number of sweet-smelling plants belonging to other genera (Banksia, Azalea, etc.).

VLADIMIR NABOKOV Montreux, Switzerland

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