Falklands Battle

To the Editors:

Latin American leaders who are condemning the U.S. for its actions are missing the point [June 7]. U.S. foreign policy is not anti-Argentina or anti-Latin America, but rather anti-aggression. If Britain had invaded Buenos Aires, our Government would have undoubtedly sided with Argentina.

Michael Gunin

Dallas

Secretary of State Haig should have gone immediately to the Organization of American States and pleaded that Argentina is wrong. Even if the members disagreed, they would have respected us for coming to them first.

Mike J. Mousseau

Plattsburgh, N. Y.

The U.S. should not forget that in an East-West conflict, its important allies will be the South Americans. The Europeans, with or without missiles, will probably last a few days, while North and South America will be the real fortress for the Western world.

Egon Strauss

Buenos Aires

The British government knows very well that we are its greatest ally. Nevertheless, they put us to the test by asking for our support in the Falklands crisis. It was a backing that Britain almost certainly could have done without. Consequently, we ruined our delicate relationship with Latin America. In the struggle against Soviet expansionism, a strong U.S.-Latin American bond is as important to Great Britain as it is to us.

Anthony Schiano

Old Bridge, N.J.

Latin Americans were not stunned when Argentina refused to take part in the U.S. grain embargo against the U.S.S.R., thereby leaving us holding the bag--alone. They have also not been upset when two of their countries threw in their lots with OPEC, which put the screws on us.

They are all smiles when they stand at our door with their hands out, only later to raise those hands, clutching American arms, against us. The whole world knows the sympathies expressed by Argentina during World War II.

A doublecross? Turnabout is fair play.

John Turner

Chicago

The Argentine junta claims it is fighting colonialism. In this instance it is the Argentines who are the colonialists. They have conquered by force an island whose people do not want Argentine rule.

James W. Whorton

New Llano, La.

Peripatetic Pope

As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I believe that unity among Christians is impossible in the context of events as presented in "A Pope on British Soil" [June 7]. Reunion can occur only when the Pope acknowledges he is equal to all of his brother bishops and cannot act against their wishes. The Pope does not have the universal right to rule. Christ alone is the head of the church. The Orthodox Church will accept no other answer.

Daniel J. Gorham, Editor

Axios

Los Angeles

Why is it that discussions of Christian reunification are always considered from the perspective of bringing the stray denominations back into the fold of Roman Catholicism? In the opinion of the world's 133 million Eastern Orthodox, this is unrealistic. The Orthodox have strayed the least from the doctrine established by the disciples of Christ.

Paul M. Ablan

St. Paul

Surely the chasm between Catholicism and Protestantism cannot be closed by gestures, visits and embraces.

(The Rev.) Robert Dunlop

President, Baptist Union of Ireland

Brannockstown, Ireland

You write of Vatican II as if it were the greatest thing since ice cream. Many Catholics see Vatican II as a surrender of traditional Catholicism to the vagaries of ecumenism. We "papist Catholics" would rather remain separated from the Protestants than join in a watered-down church that is no longer Roman Catholic. If the Anglicans and the Lutherans wish to unite with us, we will welcome them back. It was they, not we, who broke away.

John Edward Paul Carlucci

American Papal Loyalist Society

Everett, Mass.

One of God's greatest blessings is the disunity of Christianity. Were it not for religious pluralism, the world might still be living in the poverty, superstition, disease, ignorance and bloodshed that existed until the Reformation.

Aaron Hiller

Nashville

Never before have I appreciated more our freedom from state-sponsored religion. In this country, church is a choice. If we are wise, it will remain so.

Constance Robertson

Peoria, III.

Art of Bossing

As a mail-processing clerk in the U.S. Postal Service, I was pleased to read of industry's new-found interest in training supervisors [June 7]. Nothing can wreck morale faster than a supervisor who is disrespectful, insensitive or unfair. By contrast, the smallest gesture of consideration from the boss is often repaid by better work and less sick leave. Had U.S. business awakened to this 20 years ago, our country might not have such poor productivity and craftsmanship today.

Peter Andersen

Minneapolis

Troubled Children

The opinions expressed in your article "Dealing with the Problem Child" [June 7] are not held by all mental-health professionals who work with disturbed young people. Some individuals in their late teens and early 20s have difficulty in separating from the family. These young people typically do not work or go to school. They sleep late, often abuse themselves with drugs or alcohol and do not abide by household rules. If the young person persists in his excessive dependency, the parents may "put him out" for his own good as well as theirs.

Stanley E. Hibbs

Psychologist

Atlanta

Your story exemplifies the lack of understanding on the part of many parents. The pervading message connotes that parents can win by tightening the reins. In many cases, excessive behavior control helps develop the problem child, and more control only exacerbates the situation. The best therapy is prevention. Parents should foster motivation in their child. It is parental reluctance to relinquish responsibility and to rejoice in the goals attained by the child that leads to family altercations.

Jeffrey Joseph Buran

Plattsburgh, N. Y.

Parents with a problem child would do well to seek help from one of the growing number of doctors and psychologists, and a sprinkling of psychiatrists, who hold that the condition is caused genetically or by a biochemical imbalance and requires more than psychiatric treatment. Ask any one of these frustrated parents. They will tell you how ineffectual psychiatry can be.

Nona Dearth

Holliston, Mass.

Horrors of Leprosy

Leprosy in Senegal, and many other Third World countries, wears a different face from the one you presented [May 10]. Gross mutilations are highly evident among the cases seen on the streets. These victims have scabs or open sores at the ends of their fingers, hands or feet. As the scabs fall off and the sores progress, there go a few more millimeters of flesh. The annual bill of $2 for treatment with dapsone is a substantial sum to the leper seeking alms to fill a prescription.

Rob and Deirdre Rowley

Dakar

Resurrecting Emerson

I would like to reassure Reader James Schaap, who is "hard-pressed to find a public school where Ralph Waldo Emerson hasn't been replaced by tales of streetwise punks" [May 31]. Many of my students are streetwise, but also enjoy Emerson. His philosophy is applicable to the young person today who understands that with our economic turmoil "no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him."

Terry Helms Hecker

Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Trekking

Your jaded Essay on travel distressed me [May 31]. Only in recent years have so many 8-to-5 workers been able to do what the wealthy have been able to do with ease for centuries, partake of the pleasure and excitement of travel.

Elaine Breinig

Oak Park, Ill.

After having visited 82 countries, I keep asking myself these questions: How fast should those millions of Chinese change to technology or open private businesses? Why do Germans seem so hungry and pushy, and why do the Japanese lose their politeness when they leave their country? Why do the Soviets practice so much birth control and the South Americans so little? Why did so few people survive the 11th century pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Spain?

Craig Thorn Jr.

Hudson, N. Y.

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