Ambassador to Everywhere

Sir / Lady Bird [May 21] is being wasted. This lovely woman should be a U.S. Senator, ambassador to everywhere, a member of the Cabinet, a distinguished columnist, president of a university, etc. She is a national asset.

JAMES THOMAS MURPHY

Crown Point, Ind.

Sir / Thank you for the interview with Lady Bird Johnson on the absence of [Lyndon's] presence and the presence of his absence. The piece was meaningful to anyone adjusting to the loss of a loved one.

JOAN M. MACEY

Binghamton, N.Y.

Let's Hear It for Antioch

Sir / Hallelujah! At last we have an educator who is willing to let the institution die that education may live [May 21]!

MICHELLE DUNCAN

Oklahoma City

Sir / You wrote that for days people tried to figure out what the chaos and anarchy-promoting president of Antioch College meant by comparing his campus "to a well-balanced fishbowl populated with guppies, goldfish and piranhas." How utterly obvious! The militants he pampers will destroy every last guppy and goldfish in his "liberal" fishbowl.

AARON REICHEL

New York City

Sir / The New Directions program, with its ideals of cultural pluralism and ethnic diversity, did not upset the balance of the "fishbowl" but rather created the balance. I believe that the changing quality of our student body is not inconsistent with national trends.

If prospective students have second thoughts about entering Antioch after reading your article, then possibly they should stay home with their mothers another year and reconsider.

JIM VOIGT

Yellow Springs, Ohio

Hitler as Satan

Sir / I can realistically view Hitler as a man as you suggest in your Essay, "The Hitler Revival: Myth v. Truth" [May 21]. But the more insignificant he appears as a human being, the more astounding his power to mesmerize millions of apparently normal minds appears.

Made desperate by the threat of chaos, the Central Europeans embraced Hitler as a messiah. Broaden the threat of chaos to worldwide dimensions, and another Adolf Hitler will be equally acceptable to the vast majority.

I am too tough-minded not to entertain the probability that in both instances the mere man is a medium for manifesting the power of Satan.

Is this the reason "Adolf Hitler's presence never vanishes"?

F.S. DONN

Berkeley, Calif.

The Grand Slam

Sir / Upon viewing the Margaret Court-Bobby Riggs match [May 28], one could not help noticing the inadequacy of one player and the total brilliance of the other. It did my heart good to see women slammed back into reality.

MIKE QUASS

Elkhorn, Wis.

Sir / From now on, as far as I am concerned, any feminist who wishes to state her case should take it directly to Court. Only an emasculated magazine could deny that Bobby Riggs is the Man of the Year.

NEWTON E. FINN

Chicago

The Early Lightweights

Sir / A point was made in "God's Muscle" that "most of the heavyweight preachers are theological lightweights" [May 21].

One of the amazing things about God is that he permits ordinary men to do extraordinary things. The first group of "theological lightweights" was headed by a fisherman about 2,000 years ago. They passed along the word of Jesus well enough for TIME to still find it newsworthy.

MARY E. SMITH

Thorndale, Pa.

Evolutionary Outgrowth Sir / The grossest misinterpretation of my therapy process is revealed in your story on the encounter movement [April 30]. You say: "No effort is made to understand the emotions that have so painfully--and dangerously--been aroused." The very essence of my approach is to trace the etiology of the neurotic feeling to the childhood relationships with significant people in the patient's life. And my therapy consists of a continued and prolonged effort to reeducate, reconstruct and support the patient in his/her efforts to find a constructive way of dealing with emotions.

My group process is an evolutionary outgrowth of my analytic experience. I resigned from my analytic institute; I was not "dismissed."

DANIEL H. CASRIEL, M.D.

Psychiatric Director The Casriel Institute of Group Dynamics New York City

Don't Kill the Goose

Sir / Robert Lee Vesco [May 21] is the biggest news here since the volcano Irazu erupted ten years ago. Let's hope the opposition doesn't try to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

SAMUEL BLOTNER

San Jose, Costa Rica

Sir / Costa Rica was the country I least expected to become a pirate's sanctuary. Costa Ricans have always prided themselves on calling their country "the Switzerland of Latin America" because of their government's political integrity.

What President Jose Figueres is doing to his country is embarrassing and shameful for his countrymen and other Latin Americans as well. When there is a large amount of money involved, politicians find it hard to understand some basic moral principles.

ROBERTO BENOIT

Guadalajara, Mexico

The Ultimate in Ultimatums

Sir / I was appalled to read that in response to an ultimatum by the kidnapers of the U.S. consul general in Guadalajara, Mexico, 30 prisoners were released from jail and flown to Cuba [May 21].

I think the ultimatum should have been reversed. Unless the consul general was released by a given time, the 30 prisoners would be executed.

GEORGE KALISH

Philadelphia

Game Plan for Americans

Sir / Bravo! Lacrosse [May 21] has gone unheralded for too long. The game itself is well suited to the American temperament: rugged, explosive, deceptive, high scoring, brutal, and involving teamwork.

EDWIN H. WIEST

Hershey, Pa.

Watergate: The Hideous Reality

Sir / Now perhaps we Americans can understand why the German people were unable to comprehend the hideous reality of the Nazis' organized lawlessness.

JEANNINE LE BLANC

Lafayette, La.

Sir / I don't know of anyone who voted for the Ehrlichman-Haldeman ticket last November.

BARBARA BOWER

Fort Smith, Ark.

Sir / How long, dear Lord, how long? Is it necessary for President Nixon to don sackcloth and ashes and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue at high noon in order to placate the fourth estate?

R.W. CLARK

Houston

Sir / Many people are comparing Chappaquiddick and Watergate. I feel this is unfair. One does not excuse the other. Chappaquiddick brings up the question of a public official's private life. Watergate questions the honesty and integrity of an individual in his capacity as a public official.

BARBARA CHIARELLO

Dallas

Sir / Your May 14 cover story is superb, both as reporting and historical writing. It was made assigned reading in my large class in Western Civilization.

RICHARD GREAVES, PH.D.

Associate Professor Florida State University Tallahassee

Sir / I have only this to say about the Watergate affair: it surely takes one's mind off food prices.

(MRS.) GERTRUDE L. STEINHAUSER

Homer, N.Y.

Sir / Re your May 21 cover portrait of John Mitchell: steely, O.K., but stainless--come now!

VERNON CRAWFORD

Atlanta

Sir / As the President might say, "Let me remind you that the finest stainless steel has to go through the hottest fire."

ROBERT HOYT

Edmond, Okla.

Sir / Shouldn't the silver appear more tarnished?

KITTY LEONARD

West Orange, N.J.

Sir / The best result of Watergate may be penal reform.

ROBERTA SZABO

Brookfield, Wis.

Sir / Because of Watergate, many McGovernites have reassumed the holier-than-thou position that they found so comfortable during the last election. I should like to point out that although many people may have altered their opinions of President Nixon, the vast majority of Americans would find the possibility of a McGovern presidency as distasteful now as they did in November.

LEE K. WHITTLE

Salem, N.H.

Sir / To those naive, diehard ostriches who cry "Foul!" on the rather unlikely premise that events of the Watergate incident's magnitude and scope have been going on all the time, I propose the following analogy: If you should ever spot someone attempting to steal your car, don't be angry. After all, this goes on all the time.

KEITH D. VAUGHN

Niceville, Fla.

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