LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

FOR hours and even days after last week's outrage in Munich, questions seemed to multiply rather than diminish. Exactly what had occurred? Who was to blame? What really is the Black September group? Did officials in Munich have any choice other than force? Why were initial news reports about the bullet-riddled climax of the drama so misleading?

Our cover story and related articles not only sort out the discrepancies about the shootings but also deal with the event's other dimensions. The main story, written by Associate Editor Spencer Davidson, reconstructs the tragedy in detail. Davidson, who has been writing about Arab-Israeli affairs for years and revisited the Middle East last year, also did the article on the Black September group. This week's Essay, by Associate Editor Timothy James, analyzes the problems of making life-or-death decisions, as both German and Israeli officials had to do. The Press section recounts the difficulties that newsmen encountered, traces the erroneous reports to their source and tells how one reporter beat his colleagues to the bitter truth. Sport continues its account of the Olympic Games themselves.

An event like the Munich murders casts shadows round the world, and a score of TIME Correspondents, from Tokyo to Houston, reported on various aspects of the tragedy. From Paris, William Rademaekers, chief European correspondent, flew to Bonn to cover West German government reaction and to coordinate coverage. European Correspondent David Tinnin, who had also been in Paris, and Bonn Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan, who had been attending the Leipzig Trade Fair in East Germany, rushed to Munich. There, together with Bonn Correspondent Gisela Bolte, one of TIME'S four-member Olympic staff, they worked their way through interviews and press conferences to untangle the maze of conflicting statements, false reports and after-the-fact apologies.

In the Middle East, our Jerusalem staff talked with Israeli leaders and relatives of the slain athletes, while Rome Bureau Chief James Bell, a veteran of Middle Eastern wars and intrigues, got the Arab side of the story in Beirut. "I did have some trouble getting into the Beirut headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization, where I had an appointment," reports Bell. "The place was besieged by young Arabs who were trying to enlist in Black September. They finally let me through, though I don't look much like a fedayeen type." Adds Bell: "I'm more the Winston Churchill type, as was testified to by the Persian mob that nearly lynched me during the Mossadegh days, when Mr. Churchill was distinctly unpopular in Iran."

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