Thanks and Apologies

Sir / The protesters may have made the headlines, but President Nixon made the peace--for which he deserves thanks from all, and apologies from many.

ANN POLE

Chicago

Sir / While Middle America breathes a sigh of relief and looks with a certain satisfaction on Richard Nixon's peace agreement, let's remember who the real heroes of this peace are: the men and women who had the courage to get out in the streets and tell our leaders they were wrong before "peace" was chic and when "love it or leave it" was still strong.

It was real government by the people that got us where we are.

BRUCE MC COMAS

San Antonio

Sir / As an anti-Nixon McGovernite I had doubted seriously that President Nixon would end the war this soon in his second term. Now I gladly accept that "I-told-you-so" attitude of my Nixonite friends and rejoice that the war is over. I must say, however, that it is about time.

(MRS.) SUSAN R. BAYLEN

Decatur, Ga.

Sir / As far as giving any credit to Nixon for a cease-fire in Viet Nam, forget it.

The goddamned war just pooped out.

THEODORE MERRILL

Ewa Beach, Hawaii

Losing in War and Peace

Sir / The talk of rebuilding North Viet Nam [Feb. 5] disgusts me. That country killed 50,000 of our men, wrecked the lives of thousands of others, and terrorized and plundered South Viet Nam for years. Our national debt is skyhigh. A lot of our own people are in need of help. Yet we are already talking about making the Communists more powerful.

We used to win the war and lose the peace. Now we win neither wars nor peace. We just lose men.

MAE VERMEERE

Imperial Beach, Calif.

Sir / May I, as a humble taxpayer, suggest that in light of what we have so far spent over there and the increasing cost of maintaining our Government and its bureaucrats we give Hanoi exactly as much aid as Russia and China will be giving the South Vietnamese to rebuild.

ROBERT D. WILLIS

Ventura, Calif.

Sir / Now that the Viet Nam War has ended, it would be a good idea for the U.S. to launch a new war in Indochina--a war against disease. The U.S. should finance the training of hundreds of Vietnamese doctors, nurses and medical technicians, and should lend both North and South Viet Nam the money to build new hospitals with the latest medical equipment.

HAROLD B. JOFFE

Baltimore

Time-Honored Tradition

Sir / It is difficult to understand President Nixon's stand on amnesty [Feb. 5]. He seems quite willing to forgive our "enemy, North Viet Nam, and possibly provide financial aid. However, he is unable to offer this same compassion to our own sons by following the time-honored tradition of amnesty.

(MRS.) CASSANDRA STURM

Pittsburgh

Sir / Now that our role in the war is over, it is time to reconsider the issue of amnesty. As long as we keep these people from returning home, the war will not be over.

I did not want to fight in Viet Nam. Rather than flee, I joined the National Guard. Though others have paid more dearly than I because of this war, I, too, have paid a price for going along with the System. I hope I speak for the majority when I say that I do not demand that those who fled rather than serve should be exiled forever, merely to vindicate my own course of action. Let them come back. In retrospect, are we certain that they were wrong?

HARVEY PRUSSIN

Cambridge, Mass.

Satan's Trust?

Sir / May God have mercy on America! The Supreme Court abolishes prayer in schools, permits hard-core pornography, protects murderers, rapists, etc., and now sanctions the killing of millions of innocent babies by its ruling on abortion [Feb. 5]. Where will they strike next? Perhaps they will change the wording on our currency to "In Satan We Trust." Wake up, America! Remember the Ten Commandments.

JOAN BARRITT

Joliet. Ill.

Sir / The Supreme Court ruling striking down forced breeding could not come too soon. A woman who is emotionally and physically reduced to a breeding apparatus is not a free person. Isn't it inhuman to subject her to an ordeal if she is emotionally incapable of abiding nature's haphazard course?

The time has long passed since rulers needed youth for cannon fodder. I predict a complete reversal within ten to 20 years, when a couple desiring to have a child will have to ask for a permit from city hall. Bootleg children still would be declared legitimate, but the parents would be penalized.

JOSEPH BAUMGARTEN

London

Sir / Women's Lib has apparently struck another telling blow to American ethics. The driving forces behind pro-abortion people are not the high and mighty goals that they expound. The prime motive is nothing but selfishness.

If the sanctity of life is not among our top priorities, life itself will certainly have little quality.

TOM EBERLE

Spokane, Wash.

Sir / When does human life begin? At conception? At the fetal stage? Or at birth? If there is still doubt, at least give probable human life the benefit of the doubt. I personally cannot play the part of God with human life.

MICHAEL S. JEREB

Phoenix

Sir / My philosophy of life is one that guarantees everyone the chance to do that which he wants and feels is appropriate without harming others in the process.

Abortion is a personal, medical matter, and women have every right to control their own bodies. No person can ever have the right to forcibly impose his moral or religious beliefs on me.

JENNIFER DOUGHERTY

Ventnor, N.J.

Sir / Today's practitioners of abortion are tomorrow's objects of euthanasia.

LESLIE PAQUIN

New Bedford, Mass.

Sir / Abortion is the contemporary continuation of the centuries-old malignant, anti-life process that masquerades as truth, justice, equality and necessity.

Abortion is the scientific Inquisition.

SAMUEL A. NIGRO, M.D.

Cleveland

Words Were Enough

Sir / It was totally unnecessary, as well as repulsive, to print so many pictures from the movie Last Tango [Jan. 22]. Your written description of the movie was more than adequate to inform the public about this film. It is too bad that no one labeled the issue with an X.

LAURA T. BARNDT

Worthington, Ohio

Sir / I was offended and disappointed to receive "pornography in TIME'S clothing." Certainly we are all aware that movies of this type are a part of life; so is manure, but I do not carry that into my living room.

WINIFRED MC CANN

Parma Heights, Ohio

Ritual Blessing

Sir / I am not really surprised by Rabbi Magnin's ungracious and uninformed comment on Rabbi Siegel's appropriate choice of a Jewish statutory bracha (ritual blessing) to conclude his prayer at President Nixon's Inauguration [Jan. 29], but I am dismayed that TIME should have repeated and embellished the report of Rabbi Siegel's "kingly" blessing.

The correct version of the blessing which Rabbi Siegel recited was "Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who shares a portion of His glory with mortal man." This blessing, according to Jewish traditional practice and precedent, may be recited whenever one is in the presence of any person who holds chief executive office in a political sovereignty.

Indeed, throughout Jewish history, rabbis and other learned Jews have recited these blessings when they have called upon or received kings, governors and other high civil authorities.

RABBI WOLFE KELMAN

New York City

Ultimate Insult

Sir / Your article on Frank Sinatra v. Maxine Cheshire [Feb. 5] speaks volumes about Sinatra and something about Cheshire too.

It is difficult to keep one's composure in the face of such a verbal onslaught, but a woman of her background should hear beyond his vulgar words. An incomplete little man, he indicted himself beyond redemption, for what Sinatra says about Cheshire says more about Sinatra than it does about Cheshire.

The ultimate insult, really, is to be ignored. Cheshire should know that.

GLORIA REYSA

Dallas

Sir / Regarding "Frankie and His Friends": if Mrs. Maxine Cheshire really wanted to defend her virtue in her children's eyes, methinks she could do better by exhibiting charity.

Albeit he is a recalcitrant victim in the goldfish-bowl prison in which the world has placed him, compassion toward him, especially in view of his unobtrusive and unending stream of charitable acts, might help alleviate the weight of his ponderous burden.

(MRS.) BARBARA NEU

Los Angeles

Sir / Sinatra has always been a cool cat in my opinion; now this cat has lost his cool forever, to my disillusioned mind.

MRS. H. DEAN GULNAC

Irvine, Calif.

Killing Cuddly Kittens

Sir / Perhaps it is true, as your article "Pet Pollution" said [Jan. 29], that man subconsciously identifies with and relishes the promiscuity of his pets. I myself may have done so. Nevertheless, after having worked a year in an animal shelter putting as many as 50 "adorable" and "cuddly" kittens and puppies to death daily (humane compared with death in streams, roadways or public dumps), I realized the tragedy of such a surplus of life.

All of us must begin to consider the far-reaching consequences of allowing dogs and cats to reproduce indiscriminately.

CHRIS OSEGUEDA

Ocean City, Md.

Who Was the Blonde?

Sir / I would be something of a liar if I claimed that the vision of a 27-year-old blonde who stands 5 ft. 8 in. and measures 38 in. around the bust doesn't pique my interest a bit. But I'll be damned if 1 know how Susan Snyder's measurable characteristics [Feb. 5], coupled with a blurb on her husband's occupation and plans for next year's Christmas cards, answer in any way the question, "Who was the blonde dancing with Richard Nixon?"

STEPHEN PATTERSON

Liverpool, N.Y.

Sir / That the true spirit of Christmas has long since been overcommercialized and lost forever is an established fact, but Mr. Snyder's plan to exploit his wife's 38-in. bosom has to set a new low for the Christmas card of 1973. Personally, I would rather see Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and I'll bet the Snyders' friends would too.

MARY L. DUNN

Christiansted, V.I.

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