Peace on a Slender Thread

Sir / Henry Kissinger is indeed today's indispensable man [April 1]. Personally, I think that is bad.

World peace hangs on a slender thread when it depends on the brilliance and gifts of one man who is here today and gone tomorrow.

VAL F. MARCHILDON

Mountain Iron, Minn.

Sir / It is refreshing to find a politician and/or statesman who displays a realistic approach to complex and sometimes potentially explosive situations rather than Utopian rhetoric, while managing a sense of humor and a humanistic quality.

Kissinger is truly an American superstar in a time when we sorely need one.

MARY MILLER

Vincentown, N.J.

Sir / It is hard to believe that a man who had to flee Germany as a boy because he was a Jew now thinks that Soviet Jews who wish to flee their country are no concern of ours and should not influence our Government's position as to whether we give the Soviet Union most-favored-nation status. There is little question that Kissinger is a brilliant statesman, but on this particular point he thinks like a bagel.

FREDERICK D. ZIGLER

Cincinnati

Sir / A man who does not make value judgments could be dangerous. A man who does not ask who is right may operate with a blank and pitiless conscience.

If the same man happens to be amassing ever greater power and popularity, watch out, world! A brilliant mind, a passionate ego and an imagination unfettered by any moral absolutes concoct the ultimate delusion: Your savior has come--fall down and worship him.

GARY HARDAWAY

La Paz, Bolivia

Sir / Question in 2074: Who was Richard Nixon? Answer: Some politician during the Kissinger era.

LISA KOSCHKA

Phoenix, Ariz.

Formula for Confidence?

Sir / A vote of thanks to Senator James Buckley for so eloquently voicing yet another call for what will best restore popular confidence in Government--the voluntary resignation of the President [April 1].

DANIEL GEHRS

Goleta, Calif.

Sir / While I sympathize with Senator Buckley's dread of a sordid, painful impeachment hearing, I see the President's resignation as an unconstructive way out of our predicament.

No one believes that the President is a sparkling example of purity and perfection, and his pretense of infallibility has proved not only obnoxious but disastrous for our nation. Even if it means that we have to have an impeachment trial, let's clean out all the skeletons, misconceptions and lies, and start again.

SUSAN B. WILBURN

New Wilmington, Pa.

Sir / There are such things in the world, Senator Buckley, as loyalty and gratitude. In the light of your feelings toward

President Nixon, it is the wrong man, in my opinion, who is being considered for impeachment.

A.E. ALEXANDER

New York City

Sir / In the ideal solution to Watergate, Congress would impeach President Nixon and thereby destroy his remaining power. Then it would reverse the impeachment because of prejudicial antics by the press and thereby confiscate the judicial robes of TIME magazine and others. Thus both an irresponsible President and an irresponsible press would get exactly what they deserve.

FREDERICK N. HEGGE

Augsburg, West Germany

Class Tensions

Sir / After reading your short article about the Health, Education and Welfare questionnaire on "Class Tensions" [April 1], I was at first shocked and then angered by the outcry of parents and teachers in New York. Granted, the questions were "sensitive," but then so is the whole issue of prejudice and discrimination in our school systems. My only question after reading the article: Is the survey an insensitive prying into private lives, or does it hit the parents and teachers too close to where much of the blame for prejudice in schools exists?

LES MORGAN

Rockford, 111.

The Worldly Clergy

Sir / Gerald McFaul, Cleveland city council leader, reacting to the choice of clergymen to investigate crime in the police department [April 1], is quoted as saying: "What the hell do they know about crime? These are men who have led sheltered lives. To them everyone is a good guy because that's what the Lord says."

I am a Methodist minister. I have dealt with addicts, prostitutes, homosexuals, alcoholics, rapists and their victims. I have been shot at, attacked with a knife, visited jails, worked with felons, petty thieves and corrupt officials and businessmen.

Because my Catholic and Protestant brothers join me in the joy of Easter, do not assume that we are unaware of the darkness of Good Friday. By the way, the Bible teaches that we are sinners, not good guys.

(THE REV.) WARREN BLAKEMAN

Sulphur, La.

Disconnection?

Sir / Stefan Kanfer's attempt to use angling in general as a neat intellectual vehicle for his "Hope: in 1974 ..." sermon [April 1] left me rather unhooked and shaking my head. The international absurdities of 1974 have no answer in Kanfer's absurd angling-hope hookup.

JOHN T. FOGARTY

Milwaukee

Sir / I have always envied those who could sit for hours not really caring if they got a nibble all day. And I have envied the excitement, too, of the sporting fisherman with his trout, or marlin or sailfish.

Particularly interesting and thought-provoking were Kanfer's implications: that fishing may help a man to accept with better grace the relatively insignificant position he occupies in this universe. More important, I think, is the suggestion that it is not the inevitability of failure, but rather the constant hope of success that keeps the fisherman at it. That hope we must never lose, whether our fishing is done in fact or in fancy, for real fish or for souls.

(THE REV.) JOSEPH G. SEXTON

Harrison, N.Y.

Sir / Someone once asked President Herbert Hoover why he fished. He said that no one, including reporters, would disturb a man while he fished. They might ask questions while he played golf, tennis or baseball --but not while he fished.

W.E. SNYDER

Somerville, N.J.

Lords and Serfs

Sir / May lightning strike the "lifers" who make life miserable for Lieut. Follett and Private First Class Johnson [April 1]! Unfortunately, our anti-aristocratic founding fathers did not include an article in the Constitution preventing the maintenance of a lord-serf system in our armed forces.

ROBERT R. ROBBINS

Champaign, 111.

Black-Hole Scenario

Sir / What a fascinating story! Imagine catching a virus-sized black hole [April 1], placing it in orbit over the earth, and then drawing from it the energy to serve all of mankind's needs for the foreseeable future. Great, but it won't work. After it is in place and operating, here is what will happen:

Giant corporations in the U.S. will jostle one another for control of it. The Russians are bound to use the power but never pay for it. After all, they will claim, "we invented the black hole." In England, the coal miners will strike. The French won't participate, preferring instead to have their own black hole. The Germans will set up an efficient power company, claim they are not getting their share and march into Poland.

The Arabs will protest by dumping oil and U.S. dollars into the world's oceans. In Italy, the government will fall (always a safe prediction). In South America, everyone connected with the project will be kidnaped.

Science may be ready for such a project. Mankind, alas, is not.

RICHARD ROTBERG

Skokie, 111.

Shocking Case

Sir / Your article about Eddie Egan [April 1] was appreciated, but I would like to clarify the situation. You said, "After being bounced by the New York City police department in 1971, some say for his informal working habits..."

Egan, in fact, was reinstated. He retired as a first-grade detective with all privileges and pension rights in March 1972. A quote from the decision of the judge was to the effect that the handling of the case by the police department had been shocking. When the whole truth was brought out in the courtroom, the attorneys for the City of New York recommended that this decision should stand without challenge.

LAWRENCE APPELBAUM

President Lajon Films New York City

Applause for Siovik

Sir / Richard Schickel and I agree that the made-for-TV movies are perhaps the change of pace that TV needs [April 1]. However, I must disagree with his assessment of The Execution of Private Siovik. I believe that what Schickel calls "the mightiest flop of the year" was one of the most moving TV stories of the year. That "pathetically masochistic G.I." didn't want to kill or be killed. That's crazy?

(MRS.) SUSAN A. DOHERTY

Medford. Mass.

Gay Diagnosis

Sir / It is encouraging that the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association have decided that homosexuality is not a "mental disorder" [April 1]. Actually, it doesn't matter what the A.P.A. thinks. Gay people are a significant and legitimate part of the population, and we are here to stay.

JAMES W. VETTER

New York City

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.