Man of the Year

Sir:

Last January I got pretty mad when TIME picked Harlow Curtice as Man of the Year. This year I would like to beat you to the punch. I predict your boy will be: Janos Kadar.

JOHN C. MOYNIHAN

Andover, Mass.

Sir:

Share the honor between Dag Hammarskjold and Nasser. For the Tyrants of the Year, how about Eden and Mollet for a start?

S. M. WILSON

Potter's Bar, England

Sir:

The man who hit Goliath hard and good: David Ben-Gurion.

J. GLASBERG

Kfar Barukh, Israel

Sir:

The Freedom Fighter of Hungary.

STEPHEN F. LOO

Penang, Malaya

Sir:

May I nominate Cardinal Mindszenty?

CONRAD ROGER

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

Dwight D. Eisenhower.

M. SCUDDER GRIPPING

Shelter Island Heights, N.Y.

Sir:

Next to Ike, pick Dick!

RICHARD E. MASTRANGELO

Watertown, Mass.

Sir:

How about the Honorable Lester Bowles ("Mike") Pearson?

GEORGE T. FULFORD Brockville, Ont.

Sir:

The credit should go to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy. He is indeed the Mr. Dulles of Asia and the Middle East.

JAMEEL RAFF'AT

Kuwait, Arabia

Sir:

Khrushchev? Who else makes us spend almost half our national budget for defense? Who else makes every civilized person wonder when the H-bombs will drop? Who might turn the world into an armed camp and return everyone to the Army? In 1956, he eclipses all others.

WARREN SNYDER

Evanston, Ill.

Present Arms

Sir:

I bet Boris Chaliapin 100 to 1 that he cannot put up three rifles the way he did on TIME'S Nov. 26 cover.

JAN P. M. VAN HEESWIJK

Curasao, Netherlands Antilles

P: Artist Chaliapin, who handled rifles long before he painted them, says there's nothing to it; the trick is to get the stacking swivels properly linked. For Chaliapin's painted version (left) and a genuine Marine Corps stack, see cuts.--ED.

Poles Apart

Sir:

An orchid for TIME'S Dec. 10 coverage of Poland's Wladyslaw Gomulka. What other single individual has shown that Communism is not so invulnerable after all and can be forced to grant concessions (with a minimum of bloodshed)?

STANLEY F. HUZAREWICZ

Utica, N.Y.

Sir:

When is a Communist not a Communist? Are there Communists in various degrees like good, better, best? Or bad, worse, worst? Or from mild to fanatic? I wonder if Gomulka is less a Communist for having divorced the parent country, or has he perhaps discovered a secret Utopia that compels him to remain essentially a Communist? It is very strange.

N. T. RUSSELL

Fern Park, Fla.

Fiendish Brutality

Sir:

I was not shocked by the Russian Communists' fiendish brutality in Hungary. I was a Soviet slave in 1944, during which period I was almost tortured to death by Mongol "nerve-breakers" and Amur Chinese torturers. After two "brainwashings" I was reduced to the state of a dumb beast. Now, a man who counts minutes between pain and agony, I feel that it is high time some distinguished American should cast the first stone against U.N. In my mind's eye, I see a rope over its majestic portals. The blood of the Hungarian martyrs should not reach the international drain. It should have a voice of its own, crying "Judas!"

VICTOR K. KALEDIN

(Colonel, D.S.O.)

Former Special Prisoner No. 4789 of the Selenga Prison Camp, U.S.S.R.

Lillestrom, Norway

Sir:

I am getting sick and tired of reading items about how we are offering Hungarian refugees their first taste of freedom. Freedom indeed! The freedom we took away from them at Yalta and Potsdam! It would be well for us to try repairing some of the damage we have caused by helping the heroic Hungarian nation to regain its independence. Stop that "damn East River Debating Society" (as one of your readers so aptly put it) from wasting time and even more precious lives while haggling over details. Have it send a planeload of U.N. observers directly into Budapest, whether the Communist gangsters approve of it or not. The risk involved would be minimal.

CHARLOTTE VON WYMETAL

New London, Conn.

Sir:

There's so much concern for those who've left, or had to leave; what of those who've stayed to fight? When will we stop just providing new countries for those who want their own?

NANCY R. HOFFMANN

U.S. Army Hospital c/o Postmaster

New York City

Sir:

Who is going to feed, clothe and employ all of these people? Don't we have enough employment problems now?

(MRS.) SANDRA J. BLOOMSTADT

Torrance, Calif.

Volunteers

Sir:

You printed a letter from Esther Rawden [Dec. 10] asking for "a man who is willing to lead volunteers into the satellites." I am not qualified to do this, but if someone who is qualified comes forward, please give him this name for one of his volunteers:

ROGER LAMSON

Oneonta, N.Y.

Sir:

Doesn't the situation cry out for Joan of Arc? A promising nominee: Esther Rawden.

ROBERT W. IVENS

Ventnor, N.J.

Sir:

My husband, an Army Reserve officer, would gladly lead or follow a volunteer army into Hungary ... If we had the money, the arms, and the administrative setup, I feel certain many Americans would fight for Hungary and for freedom.

MARY JOHNSON KNERLY

Lakewood, Ohio

Eden & Suez (Contd.)

Sir:

Without going into the merits or otherwise of the respective American and Western European policies in the Middle East, I am really amazed to notice that nobody seems to see the striking similarity between 1938 and 1956. I admit that Messrs. Hammarskjold and Dulles show less enthusiasm and more objectiveness than Lord Runciman and Mr. Chamberlain, but the plot is the same, and, I am afraid, the result will be the same too. The real trouble is that the Western world has not one statesman.

F. BAUMWALD

Sydney, Australia

Sir:

I do not criticize TIME [Dec. 3] for publishing the London Daily Mail's cartoon "Fawn Club," but words cannot express my feelings of shock at comparing our beloved President Eisenhower to an immoral harem woman. Where is British dignity and decency?

RALPH F. BALOG

Wheaton, Ill.

Sir:

I have as yet heard nothing but recriminations thrown at a great power that pulled out its army at the request of a greater power. I would venture to say that we peace-loving Christians are secretly pleased that Sir Anthony helped to muzzle the mealy-mouthed Muslim.

KAY LAWTON

New Castle, Pa.

Sir:

The weeping and wailing pouring from Britain would indicate that a wet nurse is wanted more than an ally.

G. H. O'DELL

Indianapolis

Sir:

As an Englishman, I am appalled at the vicious campaign of abuse and vilification now being worked up by British Tories in & out of Parliament and in the greater part of the British press against the U.S. and President Eisenhower himself. I do not believe that Sir Anthony Eden and his supporters or the Tory press lords speak for all the British people. They dishonor Britain and do infinite harm to the British people as well as to the peoples of the world.

ARTHUR LAWSON

Dalkey, Ireland

Briefing for All

Sir:

Re your statement [Dec. 10] that Mr. Selwyn Lloyd held confidential briefings for selected British and European diplomatic correspondents to which The Economist and The Observer correspondents were not invited: As it happens our diplomatic correspondent, Alastair Buchan, was in New York during the period of Mr. Lloyd's visit, and attended all the confidential briefings for British correspondents which he gave.

DAVID ASTOR

Editor

The Observer

London

The Swelled Hat

Sir:

Re your Dec. 3 TV & Radio article on Walter Winchell: best picture I've ever seen of W.W. But where did anybody ever find a hat too big to fit his head?

WAYNE P. HOCHMUTH

Evanston, Ill.

An Uncertain Smile

Sir:

About Playwright Kerr's spoof of Franc,oise Sagan's A Certain Smile [Dec. 10]: rather cattish and unfair of Mrs. Kerr, to say the least. Miss Sagan's plots are dull, and I do not think anyone cares for them. But her books should be read in French. What Mrs. Kerr's dull English prose fails to render is Sagan's extremely smooth-flowing French prose, which still makes delightful reading whether one likes or dislikes the plot.

JACQUES CLAVEAU

Ankara, Turkey

Sir:

Hurrah for Kerr! We've never been so bored.

THERESE COLFORD DOROTHY KENNEDY

Pittsburgh

Bean Ball

Sir:

In spite of TIME'S Dec. 3 hero worship of Parry O'Brien, I must say phooey. All this and heaven too for a guy who just tosses a 16-lb. ball? It should land on your head.

PAUL B. NOEL

San Francisco

Sir:

The fact that Parry O'Brien has "consecrated his life to the task of tossing a 16-lb. ball of steel farther than anyone," that he warms up for a contest by "firing himself with hatred" (has he read 1984?), that he fortifies his soul in various mystical ways as if shotputting contained "the secret of the universe," is a source of inspiration for all nonathletes.

J. RECKNAGEL

Berkeley, Calif.

Tender Story

Sir:

This is a tribute to the reviewer of Marcelino [Nov. 26]. The piece is refreshingly reverent in this irreverent age and beautifully written. Since some of the best contemporary writing in the U.S. is done for TIME, why not publish an anthology of selections for college and university use?

WM. DOMINIC RYAN, SJ.

Associate Dean

St. Stanislaus Seminary

Florissant, Mo.

The Shorter Story Set

Sir:

I fully enjoyed your Nov. 26 review of Write Me a Poem, Baby. After taking her class to the Museum of Natural History, a schoolteacher friend of mine asked each child to write a little composition. The following was one of the results:

"Today we went to a museum. I saw a dinosaur. The dinosaur is a animal what aint got no meat on its bones."

TOBY LENNARD

New York City

Sir:

I think your article was extremely effective and amusing. It interested me because I am a co-editor of a grammar school literary magazine, and I am continuously having to face such literature.

LISA FITZGERALD

(age 12)

Troy, N.Y.

Sir:

The review reminded me of the following story written by an eight-year-old girl, Nirmala:

"Once upon a time their lived a capten who loved food. His name was Bill. He married a woman called Ann. Who could cook very nicely, but he didn't love her. He only married her because she could cook. One day she died, but Bill dident mind until lunch-time."

URMILLA SEN

Bombay, India

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