Feuding "Friends"

To the Editors:

It becomes increasingly difficult to praise Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing for his negotiations with the U.S. when Chinese troops plunder Viet Nam [March 5]. Our country does not need another Viet Nam crisis.

Jane Erickson Mt. Prospect, III.

It is so obvious that China, which did not militarily interfere in the U.S.'s Viet Nam War, is now forced for its own safety to continue that war in order to stop Soviet-Vietnamese expansionism in Southeast Asia. The Chinese are indirectly fighting that war for us and the free world. Hans Kukenheim Vancouver, B.C.

Would the Chinese have invaded Viet Nam without the advantage they seem to have gained through normalizing relations with the U.S.? It appears that Teng is playing the U.S. card with skill.

Stephen Donnelly Westfield, Mass.

It seems to me that Viet Nam is a little country's imitation of a superpower.

David Gross berg Houston

Carterstrophic Policies?

Zones of peace, freedom and respect for human rights are quickly shrinking on the world's map [March 5]. One can only say it is "Carterstrophic."

Francis Roucher St. Ismier, France

We need once and for all to get out of the Dulles mentality of the '50s, which sees the world as a giant Monopoly game in which the U.S. and the Russians buy, sell or manipulate nations as though they were pieces of cardboard. Iran was not ours to be "lost," any more than was Chi na or Viet Nam. President Carter is absolutely right when he stresses the limited capacity of the U.S. to control events abroad.

Francis A. Hubbard Cambridge, Mass.

The U.S. needs a President who will do more than turn the other cheek and who is bolder than Carter the Meek.

William L. Hutchinson Dallas

Where little is at stake but pride, it is much more sensible for the richest and most powerful nation in the world to concede a bit to those nations that wish to gain face at our expense, e.g. Mexico.

Edward Schlafly Jr. St. Louis

Unless we do something to stop the loss of the world's respect, we may soon find that we have to prove ourselves again -by World War III.

Charles C. Daugherty Memphis

Children and the Future

Even thinking about the question of whether children are necessary [March 5] angers this ten-year-old. Children are the future. No children -no future.

William M. Sanders Manchester, Md.

The real reason why many people today do not want children is their fear that they would produce children as awful as they are.

Charles L. McGehee Ellensburg, Wash.

If one wants to rape the earth of its natural resources, create mass famine, force illegal migration, then I would suggest that parents have as many children as they want.

Jeffrey Zeizel New York City

Curley, Queues and Other Things

If a statue of James Michael Curley is indeed cast in Boston's memorial mania for its late mayor [March 5], the material should be brass.

John Koster New York City

Curley can best be immortalized by designating the waiting lines for public transportation as "Curley Queues."

John G. Morey Terre Haute, Ind.

You claim that James Michael Curley may have won the mayoral election of 1921 over his fellow Catholic John R. Murphy by accusing Murphy of eating a roast-beef sandwich on a Friday. As Murphy's grandson, I can say that you have much underestimated Curley's genius for political skulduggery.

What did happen in 1921 was that Curley hired a group of clean-cut young men from out of the city to come in two days before the election and go through South and East Boston campaigning and handing out leaflets in the name of "Baptists for John R. Murphy."

Ronan Grady

Colonel U.S.A. (ret.)

Chevy Chase, Md.

With his great political power Curley could easily have been a wealthy man, but he died relatively poor from giving more than he should to those in need. Except for Mayor Daley of Chicago, there has never been anyone like him.

Edward W. Kenney San Francisco

Disastermania

In your article "The Deluge of Disastermania" [March 5] you grouped Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth with Hollywood trash like Earthquake and Blizzard. Lindsey's book is based on Bible prophecy. Armageddon will not be a disaster for those who believe in Jesus Christ. The disaster is your article.

Neil J. Ryan Stillwater, Okla.

Hal Lindsey's shuffling of Scripture is enough to discredit his book. I would rather be caught by the sudden crack of doom than live day to day in frightened contemplation of it.

Fred T. Cubbage Cornville, Ariz.

Brumley's Grave Problem

If the residents of Brumley Gap, Va., are trying to find an Indian grave in order to "fend off inundation" by a dam [Feb. 26], I certainly wish them better luck than the Seneca Indians had when the Government decided to build Kinzua Dam in the Allegheny Mountains on the New York-Pennsylvania border. One of the great leaders of the Iroquois nation was buried there along with many Senecas, and the tribe was told to move them or they would be flooded. No wonder they call Kinzua "Lake Perfidy."

Arleen J. Williams Ridgewood, N. Y.

It is ironic that the principal hope for the continued existence of Brumley Gap and its way of life lies in locating an Indian grave site. Can the remains of a displaced civilization be used to aid another on the verge of its own extinction?

Dennis Bernstein Ann Arbor, Mich.

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