For Man of the Year Sir: I nominate the Woodstock Nation as your Man of the Year. A city was created overnight, despite inclement weather, lack of food, lack of sanitation, disorganization. Yet here was one spot on earth, during these turbulent '60s, where there was PEACE.
STANLEY J. HORZEPA JR. Waterbury, Conn.
Sir: Our astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins, Charles Conrad Jr., Richard Gordon, Alan Bean.
W. C. HAWLEY Cayce, S.C.
Sir: Spiro Agnew. Anyone who can put three television networks on the defensive can't be all bad or entirely wrong.
MAGDA K. JENSEN Oakland, Calif.
Sir: "The Noisy Minority." They (we) hopefully have done more for this country than anyone else.
GUY RANDLETT Squirrel Island, Me.
Sir: Who else? The Silent Majority, who will hopefully no longer be silent.
ANDREW COOPER Syracuse
Sir: George F. Babbitt--the guiding spirit of the Great Silent Majority.
OHN HELLEGERS Tokyo
Sir: Uncle Sam. Amid war, peace, poverty, affluence, radicals, demagogues, criticism, praise, sit-ins, freakouts, insurgence, resurgence, hope and despair, he somehow survived his 193rd year.
BILL MODER Sharon, Pa.
Sir: The one who has put enjoyment, entertainment and laughter into these troubled, complex times--that World War I flying ace, Snoopy.
(MRS.) MARY R. COVAGE Swarthmore, Pa.
Sir: Mrs. Golda Meir, the Premier of a tiny country still bent on peace despite the threats of destruction all round.
RAYMOND SHASHOUA Haifa, Israel
Sir: Billy Graham.
TRUMAN P. LAMBERT Newport News, Va.
Sir: F. Lee Bailey.
H. J. Limprecht Omaha
Sir: Ho Chi Minh.
FREDERICK P. CICHON
RAYMOND SHEEHAN Providence
Sir: The Mets!
BOB BERNOW Marion, Ohio
Sir: The Viet Nam Veteran. Drafted to defend a dubious cause in which he has no interest, into an Army whose officers may cheat him, to fight through a hell of swamps and heat on behalf of a corrupt government whose reluctant troops are incompetent--only to return, quick or dead, to a homeland where the enemy is encouraged by his contemporaries and many of his legislators and his own sacrifices are ridiculed. No Moon Man he.
JOHN R. MORRIS Santa Monica, Calif.
Sir: After reading, in one issue of TIME, about Calley, Medina, Mrs. John Mitchell and this week's TV programs, let me be the first to nominate myself as Man of the Year, for having the wherewithal to put up with it all.
STEVEN SCHER The Bronx, N.Y.
Sir: May I suggest man himself?
E. PANAGOPULOS Manhattan
Evil and My Lai
Sir: Once again, TIME to the rescue. Your Essay [Dec. 5] said exactly what I have been trying verbally to crystallize for months. A little introspection by this country on its gut ills would do much toward world peace. Whoever promulgated the philosophy that any individual who questions the conduct and/or motives of his Government is unAmerican, pinko, etc., is in more trouble than he knows.
As one of the Silent Majority said to me recently: "I am a good American citizen. I stay home and mind my own business." The frightening thing is he believes it. This type of thinking is beyond my comprehension, but sadly it exists.
ROWLAND H. BARKER Sellersville, Pa.
Sir: Sadder than the presence of evil is the fact that we need to be told of its existence.
JAN C. DOETSCH Pittsburgh
Sir: If it weren't for the evil of the Viet Nam War, there wouldn't have been the evil of My Lai. Let's get our evils in the proper order.
Does the American conscience expect to purge its sins by flagellating itself with the horrors of irrational incidents arising from an irrational situation?
RICHARD M. LAHN Greenbelt, Md.
Sir: The alleged massacre at My Lai provides another look at the dark side of an America that batters and maims its children, has perpetrated unspeakable cruelties on generations of black men, vandalizes its universities, burns and loots its ghettos, assaults its fellowmen on the picket lines, and flouts all the traditional moralities.
GEORGE F. PLATTS Ormond Beach, Fla.
Sir: Government troops today invaded a small town just five miles south of headquarters on what could best be called a "search and destroy" operation. Reports indicate that 40 or 50 villagers were killed, all infants. None of the adults in the town were killed, though some were injured in the clash. Troops went systematically from hut to hut seeking out and killing all male children under two years. A lieutenant with the troops was quoted as saying that the orders came from "higher up," and that it was suspected that subversives were hiding in the town.
A distraught father in the village is reported to have said that the supposed subversives had quietly slipped away from the town by night several weeks ago. He identified them as a man named Joseph, a woman named Mary and a baby boy. "This isn't the first time such terrorist tactics have been used," he said, "and it won't be the last."
LESLIE McKown, Evansville, Ind.
Sir: Along with the heartache and nausea that came with learning about the alleged events at My Lai, I was consumed with the most frustrating feeling of impotency. I refuse to believe that it is our policy to destroy helpless children who cannot even comprehend this war. How dare those soldiers represent America and malign the efforts of servicemen who have fought with honor? God help us all when "war is hell" becomes the excuse.
SHARON SWENSON Kohler, Wis.
Sir: I am ashamed to be an American.
ELIZABETH VAN LOAN Birmingham, Mich.
Sir: It seems significant in itself that national publications are beginning to compare the U.S. to Nazi Germany.
SCOTT MATTHEWS Cincinnati
Sir: Every American is shocked and saddened by Song My. But that what happened there was discovered, that we can and do react to it with shock, and sorrow and shame, is perhaps the greatest demonstration of what this war is being fought for--the right to react, to be outraged. An alternative to the hypocritical silence that covers the Communist world after a Hungary, a Prague, or a Hue.
CHARLES J. MYSAK Washington, D.C.
Sir: Is it possible that everyone who has been in Viet Nam, or knows someone who has, knows of atrocities like those of My Lai?
I have heard similar, though smaller reports from returned servicemen--not rabid peaceniks but "average American boys" who defend their sickening conduct. I have done nothing about these accounts, and God knows what my guilt is. Am I the only one?
JANET SCHULTE Portland, Ore.
Sir: You wonder why the people of this country have not become sufficiently outraged at what "supposedly" occurred at My Lai. I think most Americans are upset, but since in this country a person is supposed to be innocent until proved guilty, most of us are willing to await the trial when all the evidence will be presented before we make a determination with regard to Lieut. Galley and the others involved in the case. TIME, and the other news media as well, would do well to remember this when reporting the news.
GEORGE A. GAY Washington, D.C.
Sir: I am somewhat amazed at the naivete of Americans when it comes to fighting, killing, and war. They seem to have this idea that women and children are holy, pure and innocent, and are incapable of killing as men do. Nothing like a bottle of Coke half filled with battery acid sold to you by a mama-san, or how about a sandwich with ground glass in it? And that nice little kid who left his bicycle parked next to the mess hall--five minutes after 12, three guys were dead, others wounded.
I am not excusing the alleged massacre, though in a way I'm not surprised. There is no glory, no honor, no justice in war. There is but one rule and one rule only --stay alive!
RICHARD DEA. CAREY Manhattan
Sir: As a Viet Nam veteran, I think Lieut. Galley should be court-martialed, fined $2, given a carton of cigarettes, promoted to captain and reassigned to the Pentagon. What I gather from reports is that My Lai was a V.C. village, and Charlie Cong is not a conventional soldier, but a toothless old woman, a goateed old man or a mine-setting little boy. Lieut. Galley and his men did no wrong. They just did their job--staying alive in a rich man's war but a poor man's fight.
W. T. BEAVERS SR. Greenville, S.C.
Sir: How is it possible to wage a humane war? Is there a nice way to slaughter people? Can one be disemboweled or blown to bits in a benevolent and kind manner? So long as people allow themselves to be involved in wars, just so long will there be atrocities--what else is war?
VIOLA JOSEPH Weiser, Idaho
Giving the Warbler the Bird
Sir: I believe that the "Warbler of Watergate" [Dec. 5] and the "Household Word" would have made a simply marvelous match.
SUZANNE T. WALTON Greensboro, N.C.
Sir: Having read Martha Mitchell's comments on protest, I just can't seem to escape the feeling that she is still upset over the American Revolution of 1776. After all, if the British government had only handled the situation firmly, instead of "catering to revolution," then that family deed from the King of England would still be valid.
D. J. SIGNOROVITCH Norfolk, Va.
Sir: Surely one of her statements has been omitted: Didn't she say, "Let them eat cake"?
DAVID PIERCE Atlanta
Sir: After reading the remarks of Martha Mitchell I was reminded of an old adage: Tis better to remain silent and be judged stupid rather than speak and remove all doubt.
CLAUDE W. ASH Havertown, Pa.
Sir: The Warbler of Watergate is a loon.
MICHAEL P. ZELL Washington, D.C.
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