Mafia Unmasked

To the Editors:

The confession of high-level Mafioso Tommaso Buscetta [WORLD, Oct. 15] is a victory for Italian and American authorities. However, we should remember that the Mafia is similar to Communism, fascism or any form of terrorism. It is an alternative political system that arises out of poverty, ignorance, anarchy and corrupted institutions.

Eduardo Lerro West St. Paul, Minn.

Thanks to U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani and Palermo's magistrate Giovanni Falcone for taking on the Mafia and risking their own lives in the process.

J. Scott Horrell Sao Paulo, Brazil

Unless the causes that have regenerated the Mafia over the years are identified and fought, no crackdown can eliminate the group.

Christos C. Anastassiades Limassol, Cyprus

The U.S. Government's deal with the Sicilian Mafia in 1943, allowing the Mafiosi to regain their positions of power in return for help during the Allied invasion, sickens me. It is worse than the Mafia's barbaric custom of chopping up bodies.

Arlette Liwer The Hague

In spite of the Mafia, in spite of terrorism, inefficient bureaucracy, traffic jams and politicians, we Italians have a good life. Why? Because we live in Italy.

Oscar Bartoli Rome

Presidential Forensics

The facts are plain. Walter Mondale won the first debate [NATION, Oct. 15]. Ronald Reagan will win the election.

Robert Loigman North Caldwell, N.J.

President Reagan acquitted himself just fine in the debate. Mondale sounded like a broken record.

Rodney S. Monteith Alexandria, Va.

In retrospect, Reagan should have refused to debate. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and leave no doubt."

Sam Pisicchio Napa, Calif.

It is not surprising that the President lost his concentration. Mondale makes people yawn.

Fred Hughes Honolulu

The voter's choice is between a man who will continue to spend us into a depression and a man who promises to tax us into a depression.

Vincent Benedict Jr. Ardmore, Pa.

For the first time, Americans saw the President without his advisers or his TelePrompTer. The result was not encouraging. He came across as inept, uninformed and confused.

Joanna Fulton Westport, Conn.

There is a serious age issue in the election campaign--the age of Mondale's ideas. His theories may have had merit when Hubert Humphrey proposed them years ago, but they are too outdated to be relevant today.

Roy W. Sommers Pennsville, N.J.

I was not sure about Mondale's ability to assume the burdens of the presidency until I watched him debate. Now I can say: Mondale, go to it. You have the President on the run.

Annette Wesgaites Rock Glen, Pa.

It was sad to see Reagan as an old man stumbling and looking horrified at the candidate he is supposed to defeat. The shiny armor was stripped away in the first debate, and the country must have seen what I saw. Reagan is all fac,ade.

Rebecca S. Wolinsky Granby, Conn.

Americans will vote for Reagan not because they agree with him but because they do not want continually to hear Mondale's negativism.

Corinne Larrimore Del Mar, Calif.

Mondale may not be as charismatic a personality as Reagan, but when he speaks, it is with intelligence and conviction, not bluster.

Ken Scott Honolulu

Sizing Up Gromyko

Hugh Sidey's article "Taking Gromyko's Measure" [NATION, Oct. 15] offers a refreshing analysis of U.S.-Soviet diplomacy. The next step toward a more meaningful East-West dialogue is up to the U.S.S.R. The Politburo must produce a strong and viable leader, just as the Americans have done, who can take it upon himself to communicate with the West without fear of reprisal from his own government. Then perhaps the two superpowers will re-create the conditions under which earlier successes were accomplished, like that achieved for SALT I by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev.

Todd Morrison Paris

Pierced Armor

I am appalled that our Army is being provided with equipment [NATION, Oct. 15] that is not tested under live firing conditions because the costs would be too high. What happens if one day our soldiers are faced with an enemy's live fire and this untested equipment fails?

Marjorie Milnes Tunkhannock, Pa.

Why did the Army authorize the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle when it had not been subjected to realistic tests? It sounds like a $1.5 million white elephant, just like the Sergeant York antiaircraft gun.

Bernhard Biederbeck Lebanon, Ore.

False Face

Your account of the race in Oklahoma's First Congressional District [NATION, Oct. 15] was much appreciated. However, when I saw the caricature labeled Jones, my mind flashed back to Lyndon Johnson's reaction when he first laid eyes on Peter Kurd's official portrait of him. "That," said President Johnson (and I was standing there when he said it), "is the ugliest thing I ever saw."

James R. Jones, U.S. Representative First District, Oklahoma Washington, D.C.

Since the cartoon mistakenly depicts his opponent, Frank Keating, it is not surprising Congressman Jones found it ugly.

Celebrating China

Less than 5% of the parade honoring the 35th birthday of the People's Republic of China [WORLD, Oct. 15] was taken up by the country's armed forces, yet 50% of your article dealt with China's military strength. You barely mentioned the other advances being celebrated, accomplishments that if known would promote a better understanding by the West.

Allison M. Wood Camp Hill, Pa.

It is absurd for Deng Xiaoping to say that peaceful unification with Taiwan is irresistible. The Taiwanese are determined to pursue a democratic government. China and Taiwan have such differing political, social and economic ideologies that any talk of unification is impractical.

Fang-ming Chen Seattle

Individualism Praised

Roger Rosenblatt describes the concept of rugged individualism [ESSAY, Oct. 15] as "pure hokum." Unfortunately, his observation derives from a common misunderstanding of the term. It refers not to social loners but to intellectual individualists, such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, who pursued their own view of the world and were permitted to do so by the unique social environment of America.

Matt Weinstein South Miami, Fla.

If rugged individualism in America is nothing more than a delusion, then it is a benign delusion that should be encouraged. I watched a friend paint his house not long ago. He got more paint on himself than on the structure. Nevertheless, his self-image was reinforced, and he has not been the same since. It is not who we are that is important, but who we think we are.

Ron Swearinger, Judge Superior Court Los Angeles

Though the term rugged individual may have been coined by Herbert Hoover for political purposes, the philosophy of individualism was enunciated most clearly by the transcendentalist philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. The individualism espoused by the transcendentalists was a spiritual philosophy that perceived within each of us the sovereign soul, the "god within." This is the self that is the source of all strength, wealth, genius and creativity. This belief in the latent greatness of each person is the ideal that Americans respond to. It is also what makes the U.S. not only great but unique among nations.

Joseph Polansky New York City

There may be places that enjoy a "tame, cooperative" society, but not in the areas I have traveled. People brag about cheating the IRS. Streets are littered. Road signs are shot full of holes. Parks are overrun with beer cans and loud radios. The barbarians who do these things may not constitute the majority, but their effects are pervasive. There may be a place for rugged individualism in our country, but too often these days it surfaces as a selfish disregard for the common good.

Robert C. Berlo Livermore, Calif.

The greatness of America is in the freedom available to each of us, rugged or not. The fact that there are many who choose to join forces for their mutual benefit does not diminish the fact that they are separate entities. Rugged individualism and altruistic values are not mutually exclusive. An individual can care deeply about the welfare of his family, friends and country.

Linda Ann Miller West Chester, Pa.

Life After 80

I live in the kind of senior-citizen community described in your story "In Pennsylvania: The View from 80" [AMERICAN SCENE, Oct. 8]. The decision to live here after my retirement was the right one. My only advice: make the view before 80.

Kathryn N. Conklin Heath Village Retirement Community Hackettstown, N.J.

Coloring Casablanca

As an ardent movie fan, I am amazed that computer technology can now add color to old black-and-white films [COMPUTERS, Oct. 8]. This is another case of contemporary society's bowing to a culture that wants everything modernized. America should be careful not to destroy its artistic history.

Irene Vergopoulou Athens

"Colorizing" great movies such as Casablanca, Suspicion and An Affair to Remember is like spray-painting the Venus de Milo. Adding color to films does not make them better.

Tamara J. Hamilton Ann Arbor, Mich.

State of Mind

The National Institute of Mental Health survey [BEHAVIOR, Oct. 15] provides important data on the prevalence of mental-health problems. However, various physical disorders can cause symptoms of anxiety, depression and even schizophrenia, and should be ruled out before a psychiatric diagnosis is made. Since the NIMH survey was based on interviews, without thorough physical examinations, the study's conclusion that one in five has a diagnosable mental disorder may be an overestimate. It is doubtful whether all those "troubled minds" identified by the NIMH study need professional help from mental-health specialists.

Seymour Fisher, Ph.D. The University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas