Bearing Arms

To the Editors:

Who'll fight for America [June 9]? I will. On any American shore.

John P. Nyberg Englewood, Colo.

I would, but my countrymen won't let me.

Linda Gotthardt Ashland, Ohio

I don't want my daughter to have to go out and die for an oil company.

Margi Dukore Kaneohe, Hawaii

If the country truly needs us, we will go. Let's just be damn sure we know who the bad guys are.

Cliff Scogin Dallas

Who can expect us to care about protecting our freedom or country when we neglect our environment, neighbors and families? It will take Soviet soldiers breaking down our back doors before we realize what was worth protecting and saving.

Viola Ahrens Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

So many of the "tell me my rights, not my responsibilities" herd seem to think an adequate military force causes wars. Do they think a well-equipped and fully staffed fire department causes fires?

Robert Stewart

Bakersfield, Calif.

A draft can prevent a shortage of privates, but not of corporals and sergeants, and it is the corporals and the sergeants that we lack. Reinstatement of conscription cannot solve the manpower crisis. Adequate military compensation, coupled with a new G.I. Bill, can.

William L. Armstrong

U.S. Senator, Colorado

Washington, D.C.

War has changed since 1945. What is needed now is intelligence and experience, not just a strong body. A 50-year-old woman can push a button or fix a computer as well as an 18-year-old boy, so let's apply the draft to all citizens under the age of 60 who are not veterans.

Ivan Strand Aspen, Colo.

To the Right with Reagan

Correspondent Strobe Talbott made it sound as if Reagan's anti-Communism [June 9] was somehow irrational. The sooner we have a foreign policy based on a genuine understanding of Communism, the sooner there will be some hope for the survival and expansion of democracy in the world. To be a true democrat, one cannot be less than antiCommunist.

Jean V. Poulard Michigan City, Ind.

"Man the fallout shelters! Prepare the survival kits! To hell with detente!" These will be the rallying cries of American foreign policy should Reagan win the presidency. The time has come for us to realize that we either have to learn to live with the Communists or die with them.

John R. Clark Shamokin, Pa.

Impatient Cubans

So the Cuban refugees [June 9] are outraged at their "mistreatment"? They can't take the boredom of waiting while hundreds of thousands of tax dollars are poured into re-establishing them here in the U.S. If the cost of freedom is a few extra days spent sitting around with your buddies, you've got off cheap.

Frances Pelzman New York City

Each and every one of the Cuban refugees who took to the streets in Fort Chaffee should be provided with a parachute and airlifted back over Cuba.

Deborah A. Whitaker Hagerstown, Md.

My first reaction to the announcement that Cuban refugees would be allowed into the U.S. was "Good." Then, after all the violence at places like Fort Chaffee, I began having second thoughts. I was so angry I wanted them all sent back, until I realized what they had been through under Castro. It must seem hard for people not used to democracy to understand why it takes so long.

David Chase Saugerties, N. Y.

Nixon's Insights

Your comments concerning Richard Nixon's The Real War [June 9] present us with a very sad paradox: that a leader with such brilliant insights into the correct conduct of foreign policy should also be so blind to the realities of constitutional law that the Republic cannot afford his genius.

Mike Varney Seattle

You state that Nixon "skips over the fact that a repressive regime may fall of its own weight." The most repressive regimes in the world are Communist and they don't fall. Yet many anti-Communist regimes that are not nearly so oppressive fall because we pull the rug out from under them when they don't completely fulfill our standards of democracy. Then the Communists and other radicals take advantage of the confusion, and we wind up on the short end.

Robert C. Avrett Jr. Littleton, Colo.

Travolta Is Enough

I am tired of hearing about John Travolta's failing films. Travolta is the fantasy, not his films, and that's the reason I pay $4 to see his movies. His sexuality and sensitivity are reason enough to anticipate the release of Urban Cowboy [June 9] and be completely satisfied with the results. John Travolta is not the Brando of the '80s--Marlon Brando was the Travolta of the'50s.

Pat Lodde Milwaukee

Refugees from Love Canal

What kind of country would hesitate to spend whatever is needed to relocate its own countrymen from the hazards of Love Canal [June 2]? We scarcely think twice about huge expenditures involved in taking in and relocating 80,000 Cuban refugees. Have those in power forgotten where charity should begin?

Carol H. Warren Englewood, Fla.

Love Canal should be designated a national monument and dedicated to the unborn martyrs of the War of Technological Insanity.

Greg Gerritt Farmington, Me.

Our Misteak

Mr. Babcock, my life-science teacher, taught me that human cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes. He has a sign on the wall of the classroom that says, TEACHERS NEVER MAKE MiSTEAKs! In your story "Genetic Flap" [June 2], you say that human cells have 46 pairs. Who goofed?

Gayle Shupack King of Prussia, Pa. Not Mr. Babcock.

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