The Middle East
Sir:
If Eden had been allowed to cut Nasser down to size at Suez, our newspapers would still be front-paging Bernard Goldfine instead of Marine landings in Lebanon.
RICHARD G. MALONE
Suffern, N.Y.
Sir:
Some of the nation's top brass have tried to point out that the U.S. Marine Corps has outlived its usefulness. It is doubtful that they would find many Americans now in Lebanon in agreement.
(SGT) BRUCE SHERMAN U.S.M.C Woonsocket, R.I.
Sir:
Arab nationalism and unification are inevitable. Protracted armed intervention by the West will culminate in calamity.
JOSEPH J. BAEHNER Philadelphia
Sir:
I expect Harry and Ike didn't know they had anything in common--up to now.
VIRGINIA SMITH Atwater, Calif.
Sir:
Concerning Iraq: once again, United States intelligence has abysmally failed.
D. DENNIS WHITE Stamford, Conn.
Genial Genetics
Sir:
You did good by genetics [TIME, July 14]! There was too much Beadle, but we were treated very kindly.
GEORGE BEADLE California Institute of Technology Pasadena, Calif.
Sir:
The genes make Willie,
Willy-nilly.
And yet,
The force behind it all
Seems silly,
To go to so much trouble,
Especially
When you consider--
Willie.
FRED D'AMOUR Department of Zoology University of Denver Denver
Sir:
As one who likes to think of himself as a practicing basic biologist, I applaud you.
JOHN E. PETERSON Assistant Professor of Botany University of Missouri Columbia, Mo.
Sir:
The first living things, they say, were probably crude, simple versions of DNA. So why do they expect me to be any different?
A. E. P. LEDNEM Philadelphia
P: Reader Lednem (real name: Lewis F. Williams) prefers that his nom de plume be spelled backwards.--ED.
Sir:
As an R.N. assisting in the delivery room, I am always profoundly impressed at the miracle of life. After reading your article, "The Secret of Life," I am even more profoundly amazed that the geneticists can seriously entertain the theory of chance rendezvous of DNA ultimately producing the complex human being. How much more logical it would be to attribute creation to "the handiwork of God."
MRS. CHARLES HIEMSTRA New Holland, S. Dak.
The Monsters
Sir:
As the Military Government officer in command of Buchenwald Concentration Camp during the final months before it became part of the Russian occupied territory, I was much interested in the trial of SS Guardsman Gerhard Sommer.
I can vouch for the lamp whose shade was of human skin, as it was on my desk, as were several other unmounted pieces. The pieces of skin used for the lamp shades were those bearing large tattoos and were reportedly selected by "Use the Bitch" from the living inmates. The finished product was not unlike a heavy parchment, and all the items were collected by the War Crimes Commission.
JOHN F. PURDUM
Denver
Goldfine's Affairs
Sir:
While thumbing through my copy of Political Zoo (Doubleday, 1952), by Clare Barnes Jr., I ran across the picture of a vicuna. Mr. Barnes surely must have been psychic since he definitely beat the field in foreseeing this Adams-Goldfine symbol--as indicated in the caption.
JAMES R. HENDERSON Charlotte, N.C.
Sir:
Congratulations on your fine, no-quarter revelation of propaganda experts at work in the Goldfine rehearsal and public performance.
BERNARD PINCUS Memphis
Sir:
Sherman Adams is a completely innocent man. Any idiot knows that if he were corrupt he could have made a million dollars.
PETER KELLEMEN Rio de Janeiro
Rebel & Minister
Sir:
I wish to state that Belkacem Krim's story as reported by Stanley Karnow [July 7] is utterly fantastic, and wish to deny any contacts on my part with the F.L.N.
JACQUES SOUSTELLE Ministere de 1'Information Paris
P: Krim, one of the leaders of Algeria's Front de Liberation Nationale, told TIME Correspondent Karnow that Jacques Soustelle (when Governor General of Algeria in 1955) tried to plant in the F.L.N. a French decoy unit to betray the rebels.--ED.
Battling the Baptists
Sir:
Mayor Baldassarro's attempts to prevent the building of a Baptist church in a little Italian town [July 14] is interesting. Come forward, you redblooded, religious-freedom-loving, antitotalitarian American Catholics. What have you to say about this?
LESTER L. KIMBLE Clarksburg, Md.
Sir:
Your anticlerical and "Don Camillish" reports from Italy are becoming more frequent and less amusing.
(THE REV.) ANTHONY G. DE LUCA
Church of the Resurrection Pittsburgh
Sir:
Regarding your ''Baptists of Sant'Angelo": I feel privileged to work in Taiwan, free from the oppression of both Catholicism and Communism.
HARLAN E. SPURGEON
Southern Baptist Missionary Taipei, Taiwan
The President's Marriage
Sir:
President Prado of Peru's annulment is jusl another example of how one can buy his way in or out of the Roman Catholic Church. JEANNE PARIS CHRISLER Sepulveda, Calif.
The 49th State
Sir:
With regard to your July 14 picture captioned "Drinks on the House in Fairbanks": there are many who, during and after the celebrations, went to their churches to offer prayers for guidance, that this land may also become a great state. Martini glasses may ring, but church bells ring louder.
(THE REV.) PHILIP E. JERAULD
Episcopal Church Valdez, Alaska
Sir:
Statehood for Alaska will accomplish the same as it has for the state of Maine and other cold-climate areas: nothing!
JOHN J. KOVALIC Middlctown, Pa.
Sir:
We Texans welcome Alaska to our nation, but we are not so worried about the fact that Texas is no longer to be the biggest state in the union; we will just go on being the best.
H. MARSHALL CLAYBOURN
Starkville, Miss.
Sir:
Let's still have 48 states. Take in Alaska and her fine people and history and give Texas back to Mexico.
S. P. COSGROVE
Kansas City, Mo.
Sir:
Adding Alaska's 586,400 square miles to the old U.S. area of 3,022,387 has moved the U.S. up one step in rank among the largest nations of the earth in area. The top five rank like this:
U.S.S.R 8,600,000
China 3,897,401
Canada 3,845,774
U.S.A 3,608,787
Brazil 3,287,842
LOWELL HARMER Los Angeles
Right Left Hand
Sir:
Re your July 7 Letters column: who is Silas Left Hand Bull? How about a picture?
MARY KUMLI Emporia, Kans.
Sir:
Some people seem to doubt that I exist. I am happy to be employed at the Holy Rosary Mission at Pine Ridge, S. Dak. Thought you could print this picture of me.
SILAS LEFT HAND BULL Pine Ridge, S.Dak.
Translator's Campaign
Sir:
Allow me to express my appreciation of your June 30 review of Segur's Napoleon's Russian Campaign. It was most heartening to me, and repays me for untold hours spent in hunting the proper English words to render an inspired but often thorny French text.
J. DAVID TOWNSEND
Cohasset, Mass.
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