Amnesty: Room for All

Sir / As a former Navy officer and Viet Nam vet. I say let those who were forced into the difficult decision to leave the U.S. as deserters or draft dodgers come back home to complete amnesty [March 25].

There is room for us all in this country, both physically and intellectually. I am vexed with the demagogic use the issue is getting at both ends of the political spectrum. There are dozens of more important issues that should demand our attention in this critical time.

Perhaps the exiles could help us find some answers.

ALLEN C. JOHNSON

Laramie. Wyo.

Sir / As a commissioned infantry veteran of Viet Nam, I have never held a particularly strong opinion on the amnesty issue. However, after re-entering the job market, I find that the four years spent in the service were of no value whatsoever in securing a means of supporting my family. My contemporaries who did not serve are four years ahead of me.

I do not particularly regret having served. However, don't ask me to accept the deserters back with open arms. They voted with their feet.

JACK SELECKY

Sterling Heights, Mich.

Sir / The real heroes of the Viet Nam War are not the men who went willingly to war, but the thousands of men who, because of their deep conviction that this country's involvement in the Viet Nam War was morally wrong, became deserters. These men should be welcomed home with unconditional amnesty.

GERALDINE SEGAL

Baltimore

Sir / It is a shame that every member of Congress does not have the nerve to take a public stand on the question of amnesty for draft dodgers and deserters before this year's elections are over.

That bit of information would give the people their inherent right to send the pro-amnesty Congressmen back home.

ROBERT W. CALDWELL

Wichita, Kans.

To Cure or to Care

Sir / Having worked as a nurse in an intensive-care nursery. I am heartened by your article "The Hardest Choice" [March 25], which graphically reveals to the public the dilemma of whether to preserve the life of a defective newborn.

Allowing a baby to die in a unit that is technically equipped to sustain life indefinitely is indeed agonizing. That, however, is not so agonizing as seeing parents devastated by a diagnosis that their baby is severely damaged yet will survive. The medical profession as well as the public must pause to consider whether the efforts to cure are not interfering with our ability to care.

MARTHA W. DANKERS

Stanford, Calif.

Sir / Those unable to reap full benefits from their natural rights are apparently to stand aside from life for the sake of the more fortunate. Injustice is to be corrected by expunging its victims. We must distinguish and ruthlessly discredit that portion of our reaction built on a horror of the apparently grotesque. Our primitive urge to destroy that which is unlike and yet like ourselves is extremely compelling: perhaps it is the major force behind moral catastrophe.

TOM HARTMAN

Rochester

Watergate as Bagatelle

Sir / A Hungarian proverb says. "A gentleman is never in a hurry, never pays and is never astonished." I am only a third of a gentleman: I never hurry, but I always pay and I am often astonished. I am greatly astonished over the mentality of certain Americans. You have a President, one of the ablest in your history, who has talent, guts and a superb conception of international relations, but you will kill him. The whole Watergate business is a bagatelle. Instead of impeaching Nixon, change your Constitution, elect him for seven more years, and send to jail for anti-American activities everybody who is against him.

GYULA BANDO

Nice. France

Sir / Your story on Mr. Nixon's counsel James St. Clair is well done: he is a good man doing a tough job. As the indictments continue to roll in and the wagon trains start to encircle the White House, however, it becomes increasingly evident that Mr. Nixon omitted perhaps the most powerful "enemy" of all from his list: truth.

JOHN BRADY

Terre Haute, Ind.

Sir / Since no job is more taxing than the presidency of the U.S.. the President should not have to pay any taxes. Presidents are American citizens and should be treated as such, but they are never ordinary citizens and should never be treated as such.

(MRS.) MARY FENNER

Midland. Mich.

Sir / It is hard to comprehend the morality and sense of responsibility of a man who savagely guards a tattered personal dignity at the cost of dragging through mud and slime the most august political office of the U.S. Why won't this man resign? America is trudging through a leaderless period, and it has long been obvious that Nixon, whether guilty or innocent, is no longer capable of filling the leadership gap.

JONATHAN EATON

Herzliya. Israel

Sir / Incorruptible leaders are in short supply. There are few men who qualify, and even fewer women. India has its Indira Gandhi and Israel has its Golda Meir, but whom do we have?

Pat Nixon and Lady Bird Johnson, that's who. These intelligent and capable citizens have been exposed to all the sordid aspects of politics and have been stained by none of them. They have never compromised their integrity. Republicans should nominate Pat Nixon for President in 1976. Democrats, nominate Lady Bird Johnson.

ELIZABETH BROCKMAN

St. Petersburg. Fla.

Bravery in Brazil

Sir / Many thanks for your article on conditions in Brazil [March 25]. It is tragic that the American public remains, as a whole, ignorant of one of the largest and most dynamic areas of the world.

Americans who want to further the cause of human rights and social justice must be embarrassed to see our nation giving moral and financial support to oppressive governments like Brazil's. The severity of the poverty in places like Sao Paulo or Recife ought to demand of us a dramatic response. The brave example of men like Dom Helder Camara, a man struggling to bring justice to his people, should draw more than just a footnote acknowledgment.

BROTHER KEVIN O'ROURKE. S.T.

Stirling. N.J.

Sir / As an American residing in Brazil since 1961, I have seen Brazilians tire of corrupt, temperamental and even unpatriotic politicians and turn to the best--perhaps only--element in this developing society capable of good government: the armed forces. The people believe the military's current motto: "Ten Years Building Brazil."

ELLIS LONG

Sao Paulo. Brazil

Limited Deterrent

Sir / If capital punishment [March 25] is not a deterrent to the mass of criminals, as so many people believe, it is certainly a deterrent to the one executed. At least that individual no longer plagues his fellow man.

PETER W.CUSHNIE

Milford, Conn.

Heart Surgery

Sir / Your story "Overdoing Heart Surgery" [March 4] has clearly conveyed my views concerning the indiscriminate use of coronary bypass surgery. Currently many persons are unwittingly submitting to this major procedure without ever having had an adequate trial of optimal medical therapy. In his letter to the editor [March 25], Dr. Donald Effler has characterized this disclosure as a disservice to the patient. It should be evident, however, that the only disservice arises from the medical practitioner's failure to utilize complete and proper therapy or from the surgeon's inclination to claim or promise more than he can reasonably expect to deliver.

Studies in progress in several centers have thus far failed to demonstrate any significant difference in the incidence of death and heart attack between patients who underwent the bypass operation and comparable patients who did not. Since the surgical results in the institutions involved in these cooperative studies are appreciably better than the national average, Dr. Effler is unable to refute my contention that "more lives have been lost through bypass surgery than have been saved by it."

HENRY I. RUSSEK, M.D.

New York City

Dubious Dedication

Sir / He was exonerated in the Philippines and hailed as a hero in Japan. Lieut. Hiroo Onoda [March 25], the Japanese soldier who would not surrender until directly ordered to do so by his old commander, was thus honored despite the fact that he is suspected in the killings of at least 30 Filipinos and the meaningless wounding of 100 others since the war's end. Is this the kind of dedication to duty that does honor to oneself or one's country?

GERALD P. WIGGIN

West St. Paul, Minn.

The Monitor and the Virginia

Sir / The Confederate ironclad ship that the Monitor dueled with was the Virginia, not the Merrimack [March 18]. The Union Merrimack burned (it was wooden, obviously); but the Confederate forces resurrected her, rebuilt her, ironclad her and christened her the Virginia. They would never have used the name of a Union ship.

J. DOUGLAS HALE

Tempe, Ariz.

Sir / The first ironclad man-of-war was the Korean "turtle ship" that led the fleet of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and in 1592 burned and sank some 248 invading Japanese vessels.

Yi was struck by a cannon ball during his finest victory in 1598 in a fight with some 500 ships of the Japanese, and his dying orders were to fight to the finish.

Both in Seoul and in Tongypng are noble bronze statues of the admiral in full armor with his long sword in hand.

HARRY D. EASTON

Long Beach, Calif.

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