Impeachment with Honor

Sir / Mr. Nixon must like "being kicked around" because he gives the press and the people every opportunity to do so. By firing Archibald Cox, he has shown that the most stable democracy in history can become a dictatorship. Impeach with honor and save our country.

CAROL RICO Taunton. Mass.

Sir / I am truly outraged at the President's lack of respect for the law and his lack of good faith with Congress and the country. This man is not acting rationally, in my opinion, and I strongly support a movement for his resignation or impeachment.

A civilized society must maintain respect for the law. No man can be above the law. I supported Nixon for President in 1968; yet I still feel that quick action must be taken.

SHELDON M. WOLK Beverly Hills. Calif.

Sir / Again we are the victims of Nixon's treachery. The fox throws us a bone while he steals off with the chickens. Surrendering the tapes while firing Cox won't wash!

We the people plead that Congress spare us any further agony by continuing with the impeachment machinery.

ANTHONY B. DE ANGELIS Willingboro, N.J.

Sir / If Congress lacks the courage to investigate an impeachment, it had better begin to plan for a coronation.

ANN H. HAUMAN Edmond, Okla.

Sir / How much longer can the country afford a musical-chairs Government conducted by a one-man band? Impeach and convict the man and get this country back on its feet. This can't be the America they taught me about in fifth grade.

JONATHAN TULMAN Worcester, Mass.

Sir / For years we have smugly looked at other countries and held our democracy up for all to see. We have often asked how Nazi Germany could happen. I think we have our own answer now. An apathetic people is fertile soil for any person who wishes power to use to his own advantage. It appears that we are no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but of. by and for the President.

JANET G. STRECHER Menomone Falls, Wis.

Sir / I have no patience with the reasoning that goes, "But he is the President."

He is also inept, incompetent, without principle and, it would seem, a borderline psychotic.

I say get him out of there before he gets us in the kind of trouble he's in.

FRANK CROW Los Angeles

Sir / I feel that President Nixon has abandoned all objectives except winning this cynical and perilous game. The rest is nothing but a smokescreen. Let Henry Kissinger handle foreign affairs. The President must be removed from office.

KATHRYN M. CONNELL Berkeley, Calif.

Sir / I wish President Nixon would take his tapes, real estate, tax refunds, vetoes and trumpets and clear out. Let's give him safe conduct out of Washington if he promises to stay away from the political scene forever and a day.

KATHERINE MARRIN Brighton, Mich.

Sir / Just when it began to appear that the Norn Mother had forgotten us completely, she turned out three men to meet our mortal needs. How refreshing it is to hear "Cox. Richardson and Ruckelshaus" instead of "Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean."

How about designating one day in October as Archibald Cox day to commemorate the return of morality to government.

DALE FERGUSON Harrisburg, Ill.

Sir / Certainly such men as Archibald Cox, Elliot Richardson, William Ruckelshaus and John Sirica should be TIME's Men of the Year.

E.N. PELLETIER Vero Beach, Fla.

Sir / I am most certainly not in favor of impeachment of our President, and I deeply resent the media's stirring up thoughts of rebellion among the masses, instead of encouraging the people of the U.S. to keep calm and do some rational thinking. Do not incite mob rule.

Every President 1 can remember, starting with and including F.D.R., has made some errors in judgment, but I have never seen or heard the media so insidiously encourage the idea of impeachment of our President.

MRS. JACK W. O'GRADY Park Ridge. Ill.

Sir / President Nixon's greatest errors seem to be errors of judgment, precipitate action, strength in foreign affairs at the expense of domestic affairs and a lack of communication with the people, the press and the Congress--certainly not fraudulent "high crimes" against the people of the U.S. necessitating impeachment.

In this case. I feel the remedy is worse than the ailment, certainly at this point in history. What we need is teamwork, not vindictive divisiveness.

ROLAND A. TRIPP Moraga, Calif.

Questioning the Alert

Sir / Kissinger is dismayed that the public questions the Administration's motives for the military alert [Nov. 5].

But surely he must know that to serve an Administration that has systematically lied to the public is to run the risk of not being believed.

JOEL P. BRAINARD Ithaca, N.Y.

Sir / It is interesting to note that many of the people who are so quick to question the necessity of Nixon's military alert are the same people who could not stop praising Kennedy's courage in needlessly bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear confrontation with Russia in the alleged Cuban missile "crisis" of 1962.

ED PATRICK Framingham, Mass.

Nixon's Attack on the Press

Sir / As I watched President Nixon's televised news conference on Oct. 26, I was very disturbed and upset by his ugly attack on the news media.

In my opinion, it was a cheap trick used to try to divert attention from his own wrongdoing. Thank God for the independence of the press! Please do not allow yourselves to be intimidated

JUNE D. BLEAKLEY Greensboro, N C

Sir / In President Nixon's news conference, he reminded me of a gladiator surrounded by a bunch of vicious animals.

I volunteer to stand with him any day against the animals.

JOHN R. KILGORE San Antonio

Sir / I for one would like to make one thing perfectly clear. I am not angry with our President. However, I must say that I am surprised to find that I finally can agree with something he has said: "You can't be angry with someone you don't respect."

EDWARD D. HILLHOUSE JR. St. Charles. Mo.

The War in the Middle East

Sir / Re "Cairo: A New Sense of Pride" [Oct. 29]: Arabs have a lot to be proud of. Their armies outnumbered the Israelis. They had the advantage of a surprise attack. They had unlimited supplies--thanks to the Russians--financed by oil profits. Yet after three weeks of fighting, they were losing, and screamed for a ceasefire. This is the same type of pride demonstrated by Arab terrorists after murdering athletes, airline passengers and schoolchildren.

RICHARD F. HERRMANN San Diego

Sir / In three weeks a tiny nation, suffering under the disadvantages of a sneak attack and of being outgunned and outmanned. bulled its way to within striking distance of both major Arab capitals. Now is that anything for the Arabs to brag about? I fail to see how this makes the Arab forces "able." I hope Israel does not reward Arab aggression with a return to pre-1967 borders.

MARK SQUIRES Philadelphia

Sir / If ever the Arabs were to give an indication of a sincere desire to live in peace and friendly cooperation with the Israelis, the matter of boundaries would pose no insurmountable problem.

But until that time and as long as they persist in their determination to destroy Israel, Israel has no alternative but to keep as much distance as possible between its people and its hostile neighbors.

Israel welcomes peace but not suicide.

REBECCA HORN San Francisco

Sir / I wonder if the Arabs have started asking themselves yet what they have gained now that they and the Israelis have wasted billions of dollars throwing military hardware at each other. Are they now all eating better, getting better medical care, are their children going to better schools, etc., now that each side has captured some bombed-out villages and a few square miles of worthless desert? Insanity!

WALKER RIDEOUT Corpus Christi, Texas

Sir / Re your Essay: if there were as many American Arabs as there are American Jews, the Arabs, too, would be as articulate and influential. Then whom would the U.S. support?

MICHAEL MAREENA Terre Haute, Ind.

Sir / How can the Jews, so devoted to a homeland not seen in nearly 2,000 years, be so insensitive to the Palestinians' longing to return to their homeland? Israeli immigrants today go to a country most have never seen, and all have roots elsewhere in the world.

But to a Palestinian refugee, living in a tent or shack under conditions rivaling those of Nazi camps and dependent upon the charity of other nations, the only home is Palestine, where he and his family have lived for centuries, a country Israel insists no longer exists.

It is the helplessness and bitterness they feel at their predicament that spawn such groups as Al-Fatah and Black September, comparable to the Jewish Irgun.

TERRE FLEENER San Antonio

Sir / Until the Government of the U.S. stops its idiotic support of the Prussia of the Middle East, Israel, I intend to waste as much oil and petroleum products as it is possible to do.

Perhaps in this manner I can help force our Government to alter its policy of malign neglect toward the Arabs and. in particular, the Palestinians.

Only when our oil reserves are depleted and our Government crawls on its hands and knees to King Feisal to lick the oil from his feet, only then will I alter my driving habits, do my wash in cold water and lower my thermostat.

JAMES E. SCHRECK Buffalo

Sir / Fewer than 35 years ago the Nazis successfully exterminated more than 6,000,000 Jews, while the rest of the Western nations looked on with apathy. After World War II, these same nations agreed that in some way the remaining Jews should be repaid for their losses and guaranteed a permanent homeland.

It was a neat trick getting the Arabs to pay the price of Western racism, but is it reasonable to expect them to stand quietly aside, as the Israelis help themselves to more and more Arab land whenever their expanding population dictates?

JUDY CASCALES Belmont, Calif.

Preparation

Sir / Speaking of the emergence of Walt Kelly's Pogo in the early 1950s. TIME wrote: "Editors were skeptical about a whimsical, literate strip full of talking animals: comic pages then belonged to the likes of Dick Tracy and Mary Worth" [Oct. 29].

By the early '50s Li'I Abner, with its fantastic animals, the best known being the Shmoo. had for nearly 20 years proved that whimsy and literacy could be popular. Walt was no imitator: he was one of the most original humorists of our time. But Li'l Abner had prepared the public for his genius.

Since Li'l Abner began to satirize the lunacies of liberalism, it has been written out of comic-strip history in the manner of Nineteen Eighty-Four. To those liberals who fear 1984. I suggest Walt's immortal line. "We have met the enemy and he is us."

ALCAPP Boston

Nobel Prize Guarantee

Sir / The Nobel committee, in its wisdom, has recently awarded the Peace Prize to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and North Viet Nam's Le Duc Tho [Oct. 29].

There is not now, nor has there been since World War II. a lasting peace in Viet Nam. We now have a very shaky and temporary ceasefire. One sometimes wonders whether there is a money-back guarantee on Nobel Peace Prizes.

RON OSTROFF Washington, D.C.

Sir / The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho is like granting Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker) an award for extreme virtue.

LORNE L. ELIOSOFF Toronto, Ont.

It Is She Who Waggles

Sir / You male chauvinist diehards!

Unless they repealed a law of nature when I was not looking, worker honeybees are all female, so "he" doesn't "waggle" or anything else to indicate a distant source of honey [Oct. 22].

RITA B. VIATOR New Iberia, La.

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