The President's Press Conference
Sir / After having witnessed the President's performance at the Aug. 22 press conference [Sept. 3], I am more assured than ever of his innocence. Such courage could not have been born out of guilt.
GARY A. RITCHIE
Buffalo
Sir / It is not a question of the people not trusting Nixon, as he seems to think. It is Nixon not trusting the people to know the truth and judge him compassionately.
I watched our shaky, frightened President at his Aug. 22 press interview. This man is destroying himself trying to defend an untenable position. Lincoln would have known it was not necessary. The truth shall make them free.
MRS. ROBERT A. DOYLE
Lombard, Ill.
Sir / After the interminable drone of the Watergate hearings, the picture that lingers in the mind is of a beleaguered President gathering the dignity of his presidential robes about him and responding with an almost superhuman patience and courtesy to a group of reporters, all with their knives out and all visibly thirsting for his blood. It reminded me of the howling savages dancing around the suffering Uncas tied to the stake in The Last of the Mohicans.
ANNE HUGHES
New York City
Sir / Anyone finding surcease of sorrow within the context of Mr. Nixon's news conference is one who, in my opinion, desires only to feel better and be calmed, preferring to ignore Nixon's clever political sem-anticisms by which he avoids any clear answers to questions addressed to him.
DOUGLAS KLEINER
Tacoma, Wash.
Sir / If Nixon were seen walking on water, hand in hand with Jesus Christ, the press of this country (TIME included) would say that he was trying to drown the Lord.
JOHN C. ROWDEN
Fresno, Calif.
Sir / What makes Richard Nixon such a fascinating figure is his beelike ability to avoid the swatter and still deliver the sting. Virtually against the full weight of public opinion, he has often outmaneuvered his opponents and preserved the appearance of bona fide leadership. But he is a flawed and faulted figure today because he does not understand the American society of the '70s. He has failed to perceive that the turbulence of the preceding decade ushered in a new era of public accountability in which previous standards of political conduct are no longer acceptable.
No, Richard Nixon of Watergate is not a corrupt man. He is simply obsolete.
F. TODD
New York City
In Defense of Hunt
Sir / What is so farfetched about E. Howard Hunt's explanation [Aug. 27] of the Watergate break-in [that it was made to discover whether Castro funds were going to the Democrats]? It is the first explanation of the mess that has made any sense. It has been perfectly obvious all along that Hunt and the others believed sincerely that something on this order was a threat to the nation. The fact that they may not have found any evidence docs not make the story farfetched. It could have been true. It still could be.
(MRS.) ELIZABETH NALLS
Demorest, Ga.
Sir / Imagine being dedicated to your country and being hired by high officials of that country for a mission involving national security, and as a result ending up in that country's jails for 35 years. It is a true Kafka nightmare, which will give many thinking Americans sleepless nights until E. Howard Hunt and his fellow "conspirators" have their unjust sentences reviewed.
DON WOLFE
Los Angeles
Kennedy Mystique
Sir / Please do not ennoble young Joe Kennedy's delinquent acts by bestowing on them the mystique of "the Kennedy jinx" [Aug. 27]. He seems to be spoiled and undirected, and his exploits have nothing whatsoever to do with the tragic assassinations of his father and uncle.
In fact, Joe Kennedy is the common garden-variety American kid who thoughtlessly breaks his parents' hearts, and he should not be dignified by wrapping him in a mantle of tragedy.
ANSTISS DRAKE
Chicago
More Work, Less Schooling?
Sir / It took me one year of teaching in a public high school to come to the same conclusions as James Coleman and his staff [Aug. 27]. The young need and even want more experience with life through work and apprenticeships.
Our schools would not be plagued with widespread drug abuse and violence if the incompetent and/or unmotivated were learning a skill through a job.
CATHY MCCONN
Houston
Sir / Sociologist James Coleman wants our kids out of school and on the job without apparently realizing that in an increasingly automated society with job openings only for the professionally trained and skilled, there is a predictably small place for those armed with only the winning smiles of youth.
STEPHEN M. BLACIK
Chicago
Sir / Although it is true that today's educational system places too much emphasis on a longer and longer academic career, my experience finds no basis for Dr. Coleman's conclusions that school's focus is "too narrow" and does not provide such adult necessities as the ability to manage one's own affairs or to engage in "intense, concentrated involvement in an activity."
I have found many activities, particularly at the high school level, in which students are actively involved, not only in participation but in the planning of them as well.
The solution is not to "limit schooling," but to expand schooling to provide opportunities to every student.
ROGER PATTERSON
Roseville, Minn.
Goldwater Clarification
Sir / You quote William Sullivan, former No. 3 man at the FBI, as stating that L.B J advised the FBI that Goldwater would find it difficult to deny he knew Jenkins well personally" [Aug. 27].
My point is this: since Mr. Jenkins was in the news by reason of having been arrested on a morals charge, any suggestion in your magazine that I would find it difficult to deny that I knew him well carries the kind of implication that I don't like one little bit. My acquaintance with Jenkins--as any one of your Capitol Hill correspondents could have established--was in connection with his membership in an Air Force Reserve squadron which I headed.
I never knew Jenkins socially and never saw him outside of Reserve meetings, but this is a very, very important fact that could not be ascertained by any reader of your magazine.
BARRY GOLDWATER
U.S. Senator, Ariz. Washington, D.C.
Two Votes for Superstar
Sir / I thought Jesus Christ, Superstar was beautiful. What's all the fuss [Aug. 27]? Jesus looked Irish, Judas looked black, Mary Magdalen could have been Indian, Peter a WASP, and that sterling (Roman) character Herod possibly Jewish. There had to be a few Jewish people in the story. At least the high priests were fine looking lads! As the movie pointed out so clearly, we all had a hand in it, didn't we?
BETTY MENACHER
Green Bay, Wis.
Sir / When it gets to the point that there are only a handful of movies to watch in a certain area and Jesus Christ, Superstar is one of them. I would gladly go see this rather than sit through an unnecessarily dirty skin flick or a sicky-sweet Disney film.
As entertainment, Jesus Christ, Superstar contains enough joyously beautiful rock music to captivate any teenager, let alone any person interested in music: enough religious inspiration to last a lifetime: and enough pure entertainment to keep this film around forever.
Long live Jesus Christ, Superstar! May it go down in film history as the best!
DEBORAH ANN STEINHAUSER
Homer, N.Y.
Tass Was Correct
Sir / On July 26, Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported, in response to a question by me, that the wife of the Soviet writer Andrei Amalrik had been allowed to attend his trial in Siberia. Other sources in Moscow said that she had not been allowed to see her husband there. Since Tass reports on cases of political prisoners in the past have not always been reliable. I preferred the unofficial version and so reported in TIME [Aug. 6].
It now turns out that Tass was correct in this instance and that Mrs. Amalrik was allowed to see her husband before he was sent back to prison camp. This error could have been avoided if Mrs. Amalrik and her lawyer had been permitted to speak to the Western press.
JOHN SHAW
TIME Correspondent
Moscow
The Problem of Women Pros
Sir / Your article entitled "Chris Evert: Miss Cool on the Court" [Aug. 27] leads me to believe there is no hope at all for our up-and-coming women pros, tennis or otherwise. For if Miss Evert is so glibly willing to sacrifice all of her considerable talent and hard work to the care and feeding of a family so that she can "be known for being a girl," then what is the use of her playing at all?
I am very confident that Ms. Billie Jean King, a veteran of pro circuits, would not agree that "too long a tennis career can ruin a girl and harden her."
DENISE C. HEBERT
Bethesda, Md.
The Credible Picket
Sir / Now Dorothy Day, whose very name is symbolic of radical Catholicism, has gone to jail for picketing for the United Farm Workers union [Aug. 20]. Because of these acts, I take the grape and lettuce boycott seriously. She has earned her credibility.
ELAINE K. REEVES
West Springfield, Mass.
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