On the Scaffold

Sir: An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but what brings him to you when he is needed? Your cover story about the condition of U.S. medicine [Feb. 21] is an answer to the tired taxpayers', angered insurance policyholders' and bedraggled yet interested citizens' prayer! Up to this point, religion, politics, sex, and especially education have been placed on the American scaffold. What makes medicine sacrosanct? Bravo for the expose of both the overworked, underpaid members of the medical profession and the utter lack of recourse of nearly all U.S. citizens in approaching the business of medicine on a knowledgeable level.

If your article awakens action in this area, it will leave as the only undeveloped areas of social justice the automobile-repair industry and the single girl.

YVONNE BOURGET Boston

Sir: As an American physician I object strongly to the one-sided vision you and most Americans have of American medicine. I object to the implication that the A.M.A. consists mainly of money-hungry gnomes growing fat on the infirmity of others. I object to the implication that most American hospitals are shabbily administered barns where mature, gentle, understanding, heroic people are pricked, poked, herded and harassed practically against their will with almost no regard for their psychological and emotional needs. It just isn't so. But why this overreaction?

Heretofore Americans insisted (undoubtedly with help from their doctors) on attributing a Big Daddy, pseudo-God image to any doctor. But just as adolescents learn that their parents lack perfection in all things, so also must increasingly educated Americans realize that their apotheosis of the doctor and his institutions was not only premature but also uncalled for. The consequence of the agitation your article typifies is unknown, but I hope it will lead to a rapid understanding by doctors and other paramedical personnel that everyone deserves adequate humanized care, and a realization by Americans that doctors and hospital personnel are highly trained technicians with an abundant interest in human beings.

KENNETH WOLSKI, M.D. Chicago

Sir: In the midst of a great social awakening in this country, organized medicine stands as one of the last bastions of reaction. Although our technical advances exceed those of other nations, our relative distribution of those advances to the people is declining. Until socially oriented medical progress can be initiated from the top ranks of the profession instead of always from the bottom (students), and until doctors can be trusted to police themselves, the richest nation on earth will continue to be the recipient of some of the poorest care. As a future member of the medical profession, I cannot and will not tolerate such an inhumane disparity.

DAVID J. MORRIS, '69 School of Public Health University of California Los Angeles

Whose Axiom Now?

Sir: From your article about Henry Kissinger [Feb. 14], I quote: "What remains constant is his concern with the fundamental uses of strength. The U.S. has not quite grasped an axiom that European statesmen had long ago mastered: peace is not a universal realization of one nation's desires, but a general acceptance of a concept of an 'international order.' "

The examples given by Kissinger of Metternich, Castlereagh and Bismarck do not prove the excellence of their mastery of an imaginary "axiom." Nor does the mention of the Congress of Vienna, in which England did not really participate directly and which was mostly a declaration of Christian faith and defense of the monarchies and their protection. It was imposed by Emperor Alexander of Russia. As for Bismarck, he structured and strengthened his country and by imperialistic military victories imposed his will over Europe.

Our American statesmen since 1776 have built a great nation, have preserved it, have decided two immense victories in wars caused by European statesmen's errors or appalling deficiencies. The U.S. conceived the League of Nations and the U.N., and preserved the very existence of the most important European nations, both in World Wars I and II and after.

Let's cut the mental subservience to imaginary European geniuses.

MARIO CAMARGO Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Sir: Henry Kissinger's influence on U.S. foreign policy began years ago shortly after the publication of his first book, Nuclear Arms and Foreign Policy.

In 1956-57, the U.S. Army reorganized itself along lines conforming to units equipped with tactical nuclear weapons. Kissinger was the guiding force, and his influence emanated from his theory that wars could be limited by a tacit understanding with an enemy that we would not escalate into strategic nuclear attack if they would not. The only problem was to establish that tacit knowledge firmly in the enemy's mind. Those of us involved in the service at that time felt that public discussions of this limited policy by the armed forces would tend to establish the knowledge. It seems to have worked.

The media, in this instance, were undoubtedly the message.

DOUGLAS L. BENDELL Wichita, Kans.

Man and His Pets

Sir: Your review of Kathleen Szasy's book pertaining to spoiled pets [Feb. 14] shows only a one-sided, abnormal view.

As volunteer workers for animals, we certainly see the true situation. With 40 million surplus, unplaceable cats and dogs that pet owners permit to be born each year, the suffering we see would fill several books.

The fortunate homeless animals are put to sleep. Millions are abandoned in town dumps and on lonely roads by people who actually believe that a domesticated animal can fend for itself. They freeze or slowly starve; many are hit by cars and left to die. There are no expensive tombstones for these animals.

Author Szasy should come with us and see how a great number of animals actually live. Puppies and kittens are given as toys to young children, with no teaching of basic handling of small animals, let alone kindness. When the novelty of playing with the animal has worn off, and severe injury to the animal has resulted, it's usually time to get rid of it.

Mrs. Szasy's statement, "Man should love his fellow men first, then animals," is one reason our country is where it is today, warring. It is this self-centered attitude that has brought us there.

St. Francis of Assisi said: "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man."

(MRS.) JACQUELINE BAUMLIN YONE U.STAFFORD Friends of Animals Inc. and Animals' Crusaders West Chatham, Mass.

A Real Sleeper

Sir: About getting up in the morning: every sleep psychologist's theory [Feb. 14] seems to fit me, contradictory though they are. If I am out of the house by 7 a.m., I am astonished by the number of people similarly off schedule. When the alarm goes off, I am awake, hot or cold. I usually hear the click. If the alarm should not go off, I can rely on my internal alarm. I am introverted but don't really function until afternoon. I once slept for 27 hours because I wanted to and went without sleep for 64 hours for the same reason. I wake up happily enough, though my sleeping habits are outrageous. Now if I could just quickly get to sleep in the first place! Alas, the cars go by, the refrige sighs, and the carpets seem to bang their threads together. Do I get any points for lying perfectly still?

DON E. MANNING Chicago

Sir: O.K. But why do the "some 20% of Americans who enjoy accurate internal alarm clocks that wake them automatically" all have to be under seven years of age?

(MRS.) SHIRLEY K. Cox Richmond, Calif.

Earlier Sfage

Sir: In your illuminating review of Harrison Salisbury's The 900 Days [Feb. 14], you describe the long, terrible siege of Leningrad, mentioning the famine and even cases of cannibalism. Many of your readers may not be aware that, for the people of Leningrad, this mass starvation was a repeat performance.

Exactly 20 years earlier, Leningrad (then Petrograd) was, like much of the U.S.S.R., stricken with famine. Perhaps even worse, epidemics of typhoid, smallpox and other diseases were sweeping the country. But in August, 1921, Herbert Hoover's A.R.A. (American Relief Administration) arrived in the Soviet Union and for 23 months carried on a mission of mercy to Leningrad and other Russian cities.

When our mission was completed, the entire A.R.A. staff was given a banquet in the Kremlin at which we were told that we had saved 20 million lives. Is it unreasonable to believe that many of those who defended Leningrad in 1941 were able to do so because, in 1921-23, they were saved from famine and pestilence by the Americans?

HENRY C. WOLFE Manhattan

Down, Boy

Sir: Hugh Hefner remarked: "Whatever I am is unique" [Feb. 14]. Mr. Hefner may very well be unique, but so are certain rare diseases. He then stated that he was sure he "will be remembered as one significant part of our time." Whether or not he will be, I cannot predict. I can see no reason why he should be. People were enjoying sex and seeking pleasure long before Hefner made his appearance. Hedonism is one of the oldest and most common of all philosophies. In every age it has appealed primarily to men of the lowest character and intellect, and one of its most celebrated practitioners was a man named Nero.

As for the revolution in our attitude toward sex, Mr. Hefner had, alas, very little to do with it. It was inspired chiefly by Freud, D. H. Lawrence and Havelock Ellis. They made sex respectable, and Hefner made it profitable. If a man deserves to be remembered by posterity for that, then there is something fundamentally wrong somewhere.

CHARLES B. EDELMAN Los Angeles

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