One Bomb Per Casualty

Sir: In the current impasse in Viet Nam, new approaches should be considered:

Make an announcement to the U.N., the Viet Cong and the world that we hereby call off all hostilities as of a stated date, but that we will keep an exact count of all casualties suffered by us or our allies during every twenty-four-hour period thereafter. Each day at a stated hour the exact number will be announced. It may be verified by neutral observers. It will be distributed in leaflets to the North, and that will be the number of bombs dropped on North Viet Nam the following day. Meanwhile, we revert to undeclared peace and resume our count. General Ho could control the number of bombs to be dropped on his people every day. The people of the North would have the knowledge that their leaders had intentionally invited whatever suffering they received and could halt it any day they wished.

This would make conferences and delays unnecessary, might topple the Ho regime, and would permit the gradual withdrawal of ground forces without our trying to control the government we would leave behind. My own year's living among the Chinese Communists makes me believe that this approach might be worth considering.

ROBERT COULSON

State Senator

Illinois Waukegan

Sir: You describe a "call for a bombing pause and immediate negotiations" by several U.S. Congressmen. You quote: " 'It seems to me,' said Robert Kennedy, 'that we lose nothing if we sit down to negotiate' " [Jan. 12].

Does he not remember, can he not count the estimated costs (not in money) of our last bombing pause? Or is it rather that his "we" is just different from mine. Mine number the 500,000 troops now in Viet Nam. And they do lose when one of their arms is tied behind their backs, while, in return, their enemy loses no advantage; indeed he gains many deadly ones.

Yes, I think our "we's" differ greatly--mine bleed, his vote.

(CPL) G. GARNER GREEN JR.

U.S.M.C.

F.P.O., San Francisco

Members of the Wedding

Sir: There are a few comments I would like to make about the story on the Penn Central merger [Jan. 26].

The story says that I had a "tough time persuading" Alfred E. Perlman, president of the New York Central, that the merger "would be a good deal for both companies." I did not join the Pennsylvania until October 1963, and did not participate in negotiations leading to the merger proposal filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission in March 1962.

The article also states that "Perlman and the Central had said that they would not take the New Haven under any circumstances." So far as I know, neither Mr. Perlman nor his associates at the Central ever took such a position. I regard Mr. Perlman as one of the outstanding railroad executives in the country, and I have the highest admiration for him. He has done a splendid job in revitalizing the New York Central. I am confident that we will work together as a team to make the Penn Central a truly great transportation system.

STUART T. SAUNDERS

Chairman

Pennsylvania Railroad Co.

Philadelphia

Sir: In your account of the Penn Central merger there is an inference that the New York Central management, and Mr. Perlman in particular, were reluctant partners. This is not the fact.

A director of the New York Central since 1959, I was named by my colleagues in November 1961 to serve as chairman of the committee of the board to negotiate the terms of the merger. These negotiations came about as a result of a telephone call in the fall of 1961 from Mr. Perlman to Mr. James M. Symes, then chairman of the board of the Pennsylvania Railroad, suggesting that the then suspended merger study between the two railroads be resumed. To this suggestion Mr. Symes agreed, and board committees were formed to negotiate the terms. The activities of Mr. Perlman throughout the lengthy hearings to which your article refers belie the "reluctance" you attribute to him. At no time, from the time the merger was agreed to, has either party shown any inclination to withdraw. From that day to this, everyone from top to bottom has done his utmost. The job is now done, and it is a tribute to all concerned. We are looking forward to building the Penn Central into the greatest railroad the world has seen.

ISAAC B. GRAINGER

Manhattan

> TIME acknowledges that Mr. Perlman labored long and effectively to bring the Central back to its present good health, and that from time to time he did work toward the Pennsy merger. Yet on the basis of intensive research, we remain convinced that he did at various other times evidence reluctance about the get-together with the Pennsy and that he did oppose the inclusion of the New Haven.

The Flip Side

Sir: Thanks for the great cover story on our young maestro, Zubin Mehta [Jan. 19]. His musical leadership has brought a new breath of life into the culture of our community. May "Zubi Baby" stay among us a long, long time. We need him.

AVIK GILBOA

President

The Gustav Mahler Society of California

Los Angeles

Sir: Standing on his accomplishments, Zubin Mehta may truly be regarded as one of this country's leading conductors. However, his "unabashed immodesty" and his exceedingly high opinion of himself may eventually reveal this bright young star from the East to be the mere twinkle in the eye of a pompous ass.

P. A. KOSINSKI

Dallas

Sir: Shame on TIME for not including Jorge Mester in its top "cadre of gifted conductors." He is 32 and conductor of the Louisville Symphony.

RICHARD A. FISKE

Conductor

Virginia State College Strings

Petersburg

Sir: Although I admit that your accent was on youthful conductors, I wish that you could have awarded more laurels to Mehli Mehta. His work with the American Youth Symphony, largely unheralded and unsung, is truly awesome. Any man who can take a hundred California teenagers and inspire them to attempt the finest music in the symphonic repertoire and cover themselves with glory in brilliant performance deserves his share of limelight and applause. That a tremendous capacity for good lies latent in our oft-maligned American youth has again been demonstrated for us by this man from Bombay.

WILLIAM J. WEEKES

Los Angeles

Sir: I'm sure that most teen-agers such as myself will agree that even though we flip for the rock of today, we can still appreciate the tempo that is set by Mr. Zubin Mehta in the concert hall.

ONOFRE DI STEFANO

Los Angeles

Tearing Up the Tickets

Sir: You correctly identify me as a conservative and one of the original backers of Barry Goldwater's 1964 Republican nomination for President [Jan. 19]. But you mistakenly give the impression that I might be in some degree receptive to Governor Rockefeller's current calculated drive to gain the 1968 G.O.P. nomination. While I recognize that his presidential machine is rolling again, I do not favor Governor Rockefeller as our nominee, nor do a majority of the Republicans.

If, by some extraordinary perverse twist of fate, he were to be nominated by the convention in Miami Beach, I would have to consider at that time whether I could even support him for election. I do not expect to ever have to make that decision, but I can assure you that my loyalty to my party would mean more to me than his did when he not only deserted the ticket in 1964, but was the chief architect of the lie and smear campaign waged against my friend, Barry Goldwater.

JOHN M. ASHBROOK

Congressman

17th District, Ohio

Washington, D.C.

Sir: The "death wish" of the Republican Party is best exemplified by the nomination of Candidate Goldwater in 1964 and probable nomination of Nixon in 1968. Why not nominate the man who has the best chance to win: Rockefeller? Isn't the real function of a political party to put its man into office?

J. LAWRENCE SCHNADIG

Chicago

Sir: Even lifelong Republicans like myself will vote for Mr. Johnson because he has been tortured, maligned by cowards masquerading as doves. Even worse, he has to face the sickening fact that only 1.7% of those deferred for college have enough love of country to volunteer. Every President who fought our wars has been swept into office. Start with Andrew Jackson, then Lincoln, then peace-at-any-price Wilson, who changed his mind and fought, and F.D.R. and the classic example of Harry Truman.

S. OSBORN BALL

Provincetown, Mass.

General Practitioner

Sir: I was quite pleased to see that formal charges have finally been brought against the crusading Dr. Spock [Jan. 19]. However, I yas slightly confused as to the charge itself--conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act. Would it not seem more appropriate to indict him for enacting a huge fraud on the American public? After all, pretending to be an expert on baby care, when all the time his real prowess lay in deciding U.S. military policy, in evaluating the Selective Service System, and in setting foreign policy in general.

ED TESSARO

Dayton, Ohio

Sir: In discussing the Spock-Coffin indictment in your article about conspiracy you quoted me as saying that the Government "would like to paint the picture of a widespread agreement, and that may be a realistic portrayal of the situation." You omitted the word "not," thereby altering significantly the thrust of my statement. What I said was ". . . and that may not be a realistic portrayal of the situation."

ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ

Professor of Law Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

Laws of Give & Take

Sir: After reading your article "Seeing De Gaulle Plain" [Jan. 12], and in the face of De Gaulle's public statements against U.S. foreign policy all over the world, Europeans start wondering why the U.S. does not reciprocate in kind. Why do self-respecting U.S. women buy French clothes and cosmetics for millions of dollars, and why do U.S. tourists go in masses to France leaving millions in U.S. currency so that it can be used to emasculate the U.S. economy? Only "paper tigers" or masochists offer the other cheek after one has already been bitten several times. Sometimes even ingrate, arrogant old men suffering from a superiority complex can be taught a lesson in the elementary and basic laws of give and take.

CHARLES M. WIESNER

Milan, Italy

Sir: Let us rely on our traditional horse sense rather than on witless emotions. High politics are high politics. Whether or not any of us accepts or is angered by General de Gaulle's course is completely divorced from our area as U.S. visitors. France will always be France. Its citizenry, in massive majority, will always extend an openhearted welcome to us. Its treasure of cultural and hedonistic glories will always be matchless.

NANCY AND TEMPLE FIELDING

Puerto de Pollensa, Spain

Between the Camps

Sir: In adducing the comparatively small number of non-Orthodox synagogues as evidence for the ascendancy of Orthodox Judaism in Israel [Jan. 19], you failed to mention the all-important consideration that these facilities were financed entirely by private contributions, whereas Orthodox synagogues, schools and even office buildings are funded by the state. The Orthodox establishment guards jealously against any attempts to separate church and state and to broaden the religious base in Israel.

It is this type of parochial attitude on the part of Israel's religious authorities, fortified by the reluctance of Reform and Conservative officials to assert their rights, that is largely responsible for the poor showing of Progressive Judaism in Israel and the consequent polarization of the Jewish population between the Orthodox and secular camps.

DR. ALEX HERSHAFT

Executive Director

American Friends of Religious Freedom in Israel

Stoneham, Mass.

Missing Link

Sir: Edwin A. Link--not Edward Link --designed the Ocean Systems, Inc., submersible Deep Diver shown in TIME'S picture story on oceanography [Jan. 19].

JERRY HANNIFIN

Washington, D.C.

Wry & Dry

Sir: For most modern sculptures, dry ice is the ideal material [Jan. 12]. It's lucky Rodin didn't have it.

DR. GUeNTER ERBER

Graz, Austria

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.