All Power to the President?

Sir / We did it to ourselves, we voted for "four more years." but we did not realize that President Nixon believed that "less is more." He has wasted no time in showing us. however, by removing himself from public view and offering less and less explanation of what he is doing and why.

We are getting more, though-more cuts in appropriated programs, more attempts at Government control of the press, and more statements that the Defense Department has "no information to substantiate" unpleasant "allegations" about the bombing of North Viet Nam.

President Nixon seems to feel that he has a mandate to draw all power to himself. I hope that the Congress will do its best to remind him that he should be less autocratic and more responsible.

THOMAS E. POLAKIEWICZ

Walnut Creek. Ga.

Sir / Your story on the war is disgustingly biased. The President has done the right thing, and the rest of the world can go to hell if they don't like it.

TIM KINGSTON

Denver

Sir / I went to the American embassy in London to express my opposition to the bombing of North Viet Nam and was told there was nobody to protest to nor a book of grievances I could sign. What I could write, however, was a message of condolence in a book to be sent to Harry Truman's family.

I hope that Bess never has to read that book, because a glance at the joltings showed that many persons used its availability to put on record the anti-bombing sentiments they were nowhere else allowed to express. "Hiroshima=Hanoi" and "Nixon, would you let this happen to Tricia?" are only two samples of the vitriol.

PAUL GAMBACCINI

Oxford. England

Sir / "After the Bombs. What Peace?" Why. pieces all over the place: scattered limbs, wreckage of a hospital, two divided nations and a shattered Constitution.

JAMES KILBURY

Ithaca. N.Y.

Sir / I have figured it out. Nixon is saving peace as a very special present for our 200th birthday in 1976.1 just can't wait.

MAGGIE WATERSTREET

Hampshire. Ill.

Sir / How about supporting our country instead of North Viet Nam?

WALTER BARNES

Atlanta

Sir / I cannot express the unutterable shame, guilt and helplessness that I feel upon realizing that I helped put Mr. Nixon back in a position to continue to wage a war -in such a brutal fashion-that everyone admits to have been a mistake in the first place.

ROBERT SCHWARTZ

College Park. Md.

Sir / Your article on "Nixon s Blitz" was anti-American. You say that Nixon broke off the peace talks in anger. You failed to say that he brought home more than 500 000 troops from this war that he inherited. You speak of.our escalation, but you say nothing of Hanoi's invasion of South Viet Nam.

You fail to realize how many of your subscribers voted for Mr. Nixon because he knows more about getting us out of this war than you do.

JOHN W. SCHRADER

New York City

The Quarry

Sir / I must say that your article "Restrained 'Freedom' " [Jan. 1] clearly shows another attempt of the Nixon Administration to manipulate the attitudes of the press. Clay T. Whitehead. as director of the Office of Telecommunications Policy, outlined the ultimate extinction of the fourth estate. The quarry, of course, is the national networks, who have been a target of criticism since the day President Nixon was inaugurated. Why doesn't the President let the Federal Communications Commission act as it was intended to. as an independent agency of the Government, assigned to regulate radio and television in this country? I do not think that this office was meant to be used as a censor. The President and Vice President seem quite able to defend themselves without outside aid.

MICHAEL J. GELFAND

Coral Gables. Fla.

Sir / Obviously there is no way that a government can judge licensees of communications media without being censorial. Such control is untenable in any supposedly free society. It is a far. far better thing to let the public see or hear pap or a hundred divergent ideas or opinions or reports than a hundred identical, controlled or partially controlled handouts.

MARSHALL E. KULBERG

Hampton. N.H.

Sir / The networks are anti-Administration, and the news that is chosen by the networks to be shown to the public proves it.

To be more fairly and evenly divided, why do the networks not add to their long lists of liberals and hire conservative news-writers, newscasters and news analysts? In that way the liberal documentaries can "blast Nixon," as you put it, and the conservatives can pick up the pieces.

MR. AND MRS. JOHN T. TYHANIC

Palmdale. Calif.

Money and Comfort

Sir / Hearty congratulations on establishing the new section THE SEXES [Jan. 8], and on the three perceptive stories.

It seems eminently fitting that the first two authorities quoted are named Money and Comfort, for certainly money can do much to develop comfort in relations between the sexes.

WILLIAM S. HOWLAND

Miami

Sir / Congratulations on a good job on "Biological Imperatives" in the new section THE SEXES. Please correct two oversights: the book, Man and Woman, Boy and Girl, was co-authored by Anke A. Ehrhardt and myself, and it is available as a paperback for $3.50 (Johns Hopkins Press).

JOHN MONEY. PH.D.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore

Sir / Your comment on my remarks in "Swinging Future" omits the reason that led me to predict an increase in this kind of behavior. Mate exchange is a traditional human expedient to provide surrogate kin. Kin today are in short supply, and in a zero-population-growth society they will be fewer still. Today's swingers may not realize the origins of their behavior, but its significance goes beyond sexual restlessness.

ALEX COMFORT. M.B.. D.SC.

New York City

Sir / Regarding your article entitled "Biological Imperatives": isn't it typical of this society that doctors should convert an infant with deformed genitalia into a female "with the realization that he could never be a normal man." The fact that "she" could never be a normal woman either does not seem to bother the sex experts.

MARIANNE SHEY, M.D.

Newton, Mass.

Misplaced Library

Sir / Because of the familial relationship of the two schools' founders (Exeter's John Phillips and Andover's Samuel Phillips), the schools' geographic propinquity, and the close friendship of Exeter (the Phillips Exeter Academy) in Exeter. N.H., and Andover (Phillips Academy) in Andover, Mass.. it is not surprising that the caption under the photograph of the Kahn-designed new Academy Library at Exeter [Jan. 15] inadvertently placed it on the Andover campus in Andover, Mass. The library is. of course, here in Exeter.

PAUL SADLER JR.

Director of Publications The Phillips Exeter Academy Exeter, N.H.

The Same Words

Sir / Looking for a spectacular Second Coming of Jesus Christ [Jan. 8] as a way of solving the world's problems is a philosophy of despair. It assumes that Jesus' way of bringing about the kingdom of God through the faithful work of his followers will not succeed.

If he were to return in visible form, would he not once again say: "Love your enemies"; "Walk the second mile": "Blessed are you if men persecute you and revile you falsely on my account"; and "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world"?

(THE REV.) A.M. BILLMAN

Harrisburg, Pa.

Sir / Congratulations on the definitive article "Is the End Near?" concerning the "growing thousands" of Christians who are watching the signs of the times. I do take issue with the seeming overemphasis on petty differences.

I expect that nearly all of the "growing thousands" are awaiting the Second Coming not with a sense of impending doom but of glad anticipation.

DAN E. CARL

Bellevue, Wash.

The Right to Live or Die

Sir / As Dr. William Poe of Duke University states in your article about the care for Harry Truman [Jan. 8], "...physicians are not trained to accept death as an alternative." Should it be otherwise? Philosophically, one can debate the cycle of life and death, but surely a doctor must uphold life above all else. Who is to decide when the quality of life is unacceptable for another person? I think that the question is one of human freedom more than medical ethics, as it is often presented.

I think that any doctor who yields to death as inevitable before the fact, no matter what the circumstances, is taking more responsibility for another life than any man should have. May I point out that there is ample living testimony to modern medical miracles, men who have survived "inevitable" deaths.

THOMAS KRANJAC

New York Medical College New York City

Sir / While no definite answer exists, we must all agree that there is some sense in which a man must always retain the right to die, either by his own decision, or, in the case of advanced illness, by the decision of those closest to him.

Certainly a man or woman who is informed of a terminal disease should be allowed to decide, with the help of a doctor, to slip into death naturally without prolonging the agony.

ASHTON NICHOLS

Charlottesville. Va.

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