Standing by Our Friends

To the Editors:

No! Not another damn nickel! Let 'em fight their stinkin' war with sticks and stones! Enough is enough. Kathleen A. Deming Captain, U.S.A.F. (ret.) St. Paul

We listened with horror as your President said:

"We will stand by our friends, we will honor our commitments. We will uphold our country's principles."

It jogged our memories to a speech made by another President but ten years earlier:

"We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired. We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement."

America is now at its nadir, but we did not realize that even with your Watergate experience you could once more plumb such depths of mendacity and such hypocrisy. James Alexander Rentoul Howard Norman Oxford, England

My protest is: We tried everything but winning. Alan J. Wurts Houston

Mr. Ford may well go down in history as the last cold war President.

A new day is dawning; a day in which we will realize that we cannot police and "protect" the world; a day in which we will have to decide what really is vital to our national security; a day in which we will have to get along with all forms of governments.

Mr. Ford needs a vision, America needs a vision, of a world in which our claim to "vital national security interests" in Indochina will be thought to be as ridiculous as China claiming the same in Latin America. We need a vision of a world in which we can trust the diversity of other peoples, and refrain from our childish and futile attempts to buy friendship with weapons. Luther Lewis Davis, Calif.

We persuaded and prodded the South Vietnamese to make a fight that was really more in our interest than in theirs. We helped them until the going got too tough, and then engineered a "peace" treaty that was actually an abandonment. After enormous sacrifices, after their country had literally been bulldozed from one end to the other, they broke and ran, leading some smugly safe Americans to denigrate their courage. We plan now to leave them facing their bloodthirsty enemy with empty guns. What infamy! Lewis Willis Canton, Ga.

Celestial Taping

Re the death of Chiang Kaishek, what a pity that TIME has no correspondent with a tape recorder in the next world!

The tape of the meeting of the Generalissimo and General Joseph W. Stilwell, even with Chinese and English expletives deleted, would be monumental and would surpass any produced in the Oval Room concerning Watergate. Burrows Sloan Jr. Princeton, N.J.

No Monopoly

Your story on farms [March 31] contained more Agriculture Department propaganda than it did facts.

You question whether the Government has the obligation to insure farmers--or any other group--against losing money; however, you fail to point out that the Government has bailed out many large companies with political clout (e.g., Lockheed, Penn Central).

Government's obligation has been to ensure that farmers are able to remain in a business faced with extreme fluctuations in prices.

One basic fact should not be overlooked: farmers have never had the right to set a price for their products. Because of this, a laissez-faire approach to agriculture would soon result in economic and social bankruptcy, with vertically integrated food companies taking up the slack.

Certainly the people of this nation have no desire to see agriculture take on the same monopoly structure now so evident in the oil industry. We have already seen what a shared monopoly can do when it wants to raise prices. James Abourezk U.S. Senator, South Dakota Washington, D.C.

Which Douglas?

How dare you intimate that Justice William O. Douglas should resign his seat [April 7]? Throughout my entire lifetime he has been the voice of the people--the maverick who stood up for the underdog. I have no doubt that he is still the capable and forward-thinking jurist that he has always been. Janice Leber North Hollywood, Calif.

"In the case of Douglas, the hope is that he can recover sufficiently before he causes damage to the court."

In my humble opinion, ever since he was appointed by F.D.R. in 1939 he has been guilty of irreparable damage to the entire country. Jack Wilson Lincoln, Neb.

Refreshing Jerry

Your article concerning Governor Jerry Brown [April 14] revealed a refreshing philosophy of government diametrically opposed to that extant in Washington, so well documented by Hugh Sidey's comments in the same issue. Governor Brown has reintroduced a forgotten human trait: common sense. Walter L. Peterson, M.D. San Francisco

Now, along with "I do not choose to run," "If elected, I will not serve," and "I would rather be in my grave than in politics," let us teach our children the ringing disclaimer of Jerry Brown: "Are you kidding? I think even the governorship is a pain in the ass." Chester Prince Ambridge, Pa.

Giving the Gift Away

I was pleased to see your article on the Encounter movement [April 7]. It was unfortunate that your story revealed intimate details that can only be appreciated at the Encounter weekend.

You told those couples who have yet to be "encountered" what their "gift" is before they have had a chance to open it. Jane Schwartz Merrick, N. Y.

Thank you for bringing to mind the greatest experience in our married life--our Marriage Encounter weekend. Four years later we continue to write each other love letters and we dialogue. Bob & Maria Hernandez Beverly Hills, Calif.

Media Overboard

I must take exception to the lie in your review of my novel The Promise of Joy [April 14], in which you state that "Drury describes the Chinese variously as 'yellow hordes,' 'pagan hordes' and 'mongrel hordes.' "

Drury never uses these descriptions. They are used initially by the liberal demagogue, ex-Senator Fred Van Ackerman. They are first censured, then pitied, then embraced by leading members of the printed and broadcast media who, confronted by the possibility that China will defeat Russia in their atomic contest, resort to whatever slogans desperation suggests to try to swing American public opinion behind the Russian cause. I describe this process step by step, as the media's panjandrums reluctantly but inexorably leave sanity behind and begin hysterically to raise the bugaboo of "the yellow peril."

I never resort to such terms myself. I am, in fact, consistently sympathetic to the Chinese throughout. It is only the media I portray as going overboard. Allen Drury San Rafael, Calif.

John Weitz Fashion Note

Regarding that photo in your April 21 issue of Weyand, Ford and Kissinger, the truth is that it was snapped at the very moment the President had said: "Look, mister, you may be headwaiter of this restaurant but I'm with Kissinger, so I don't have to wear a jacket." John Weitz New York City

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