Beatty, Wow! To the Editors:

Warren Beatty [July 3] is what Hollywood is all about: good looking, successful, but a bit mixed up. Yet, the public loves him-as it loves Hollywood-anyway. Travolta's O.K., but Beatty, wow!

Lisa A. Forte New York City

He is a self-made man, and-he is perfection. He is my hero.

Lynn Mayeda Los Angeles

Although Warren Beatty has made significant contributions to the film industry through acting and producing, regarding him as a "major film maker" after producing three films (Bonnie and Clyde '67, Shampoo '75 and Heaven Can Wait '78) in eleven years is ridiculous.

John D. Carpentieri Englewood, N.J.

In a film season that has been a desert of parched mediocrity, Heaven Can Wait appears like an oasis to bring a refreshing spirit back to the American film. Mr. Beatty is indeed an angel.

Barton Randall San Diego

Why do you persist in adorning the cover of your magazine with the shining faces of Hollywood's creations? First we had John Travolta, and now we are treated to Glamour Boy Warren Beatty. Surely in this world there is more important news than the fact that Mr. Beatty's idea of sin "is to eat ice cream!"

Elizabeth S. Brewster Evansville, Ind.

TheSchlaflyERA Mrs. Schlafly [July 3] is labeled as a polemicist, as being responsible for ERA'S decline, of defeating ERA in the Illinois state legislature. Mercy, mercy me! One small lady did all that? Don't the legislators get any credit for arriving at their own conclusions?

(Mrs.) Esther Carmany Canton, Ohio

After reading your story on Phyllis Schlafly and ERA, I find myself wondering about Phyllis Schlafly. If she were a Congresswoman, would she have canceled her congressional obligations whenever her husband thought she had been away from home too much?

Jan McCracken Lakewood, Calif.

Some of the nicer things screamed at my daughters and me by the anti-ERA band as we stood in silent vigil at the Illinois state capitol were, "Your daughter will be drafted," and "She will have to live in the barracks with men, and the men will attack her." Another told us that we were homosexuals and lesbians.

Mrs. Schlafly and her band of 500 did more to convince my girls that ERA was worth fighting for than I or any literature I could have given them.

Judith Imber Esterly Belleville, Ill.

First Citizen Begin Donald Neff s assessment of Menachem Begin's first year in office as Israeli Prime Minister [July 3] shows only that the former freedom fighter and first cit izen of Israel can't be controlled by his so-called allies. Begin has never been any man's puppet. His dream of an Eretz Yisrael is his life, and on the vital issue of peace and security for his people, there will be no dictation of policy from non-Israeli sources.

William Hughes Baltimore

Your article "Begin: 'Beyond the Pale' " was the most vicious, vitriolic, venomous type of "reporting" I have ever read.

The truth is that Mr. Begin is a Jewish patriot, honest, compassionate and peace-loving, as are the majority of Israelis who support him and are pleased with his leadership.

Hart N. Hasten Indianapolis

It is nothing new to see Israel so stubborn. What appears to be new, however, is to have an Israeli leader so frank and open in expressing his country's desire.

Hamididdin Yahia Houston

Reopened Wound The American Scene article on the reunion of Viet Nam P.O.W.s [July 3] reopens a wound in the American consciousness that has never really healed.

Personally, I would like to keep this subject in the public eye for as long as it takes to educate those "ignorant civilians" for their own sake.

Lonnie Christiansen Dallas

P.O.W.s hailing Nixon, cheering Reagan? That is final proof that punishment and suffering neither deter crime nor forge wisdom.

Mary Ellen Hurd McLean, Va.

The country owes a profound apology to all Viet Nam casualties, not because it was an immoral war but because during the critical years we had a Commander in Chief without the guts to issue the orders for winning it.

Warren B. McBirney Lakewood, Colo.

I have news for Ronald Reagan, who was quoted as saying "Americans should never go to war unless we intend to win." In the next war nobody wins, because it will inevitably end in total destruction from nuclear Ping Pong.

It is time to stop that patriotic mumbo-jumbo and to erase the archaic, preconceived notion that wrapping ourselves in American democracy and righteousness is a surefire ticket to victory in a nuclear holocaust.

Mary Olwell Jersey City

A New Wrinkle Your story on the fashionable Sloppy Chic [July 3] ends with the sentence "In time, Americans may even perceive the beauty in a wrinkled face." Your writer fails in his human evaluation; wrinkles in a face are evidence of an individual's character, in a wrinkled dress, the lack of it.

Edward Anthony Ann Arbor, Mich.

Would God Help the Devil?

Re the "Skokie affair" [June 26]: it seems incredible that the American Civil Liberties Union should be put in a position where it is obliged to defend its enemies, people whose aims are to destroy it and the society it represents. It is as if Napoleon were to say "Right, men, we will fight the British until victory is ours.

Now I want my three best battalions to go and give the British a hand." The answer is simple: God has invested in us the authority to suppress what is wrong and known to be destructive. Can you imagine God saying "I'm against the dev il, but I help him out now and again?"

Michael Mangos Arequipa, Peru

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