Debater Bundy

Sir: Your cover picture of McGeorge Bundy in front of the Great Seal of the U.S. [June 25] is, as is your custom, pregnant with significance. Mr. Bundy seems to be trying to bend his head so that it covers up the warlike spears in the eagle's left claw and only allows the olive branch of peace to show. But his deception is not successful; the arrowheads show through. Perhaps we would be better off if Mr. Bundy either let us see the entire situation or got out of the picture altogether.

JERRY L. AVORN

Belle Harbor, N.Y.

Sir: Now that Bundy and the rest of the Administration intellectuals have come out to discuss the war more openly, the public has a chance to evaluate the soundness of the escalation policy and the men who champion it. We are pleased to have played a small part in smoking them out.

ROBERT BUCKHOUT

Secretary

Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Policy

Washington University

St. Louis

Sir: When mentioning McGeorge Bundy's summa cum laude from Yale, you might have added that he was one of the greatest college debaters of all time. I speak knowingly about this--and without pleasure--for I was coach of debating at Harvard when Bundy was on the Yale team!

ALBERT NORRIS

Milton Academy

Milton, Mass.

Sir: I'm sorry to hear that it's considered a handicap to be born in Grand Rapids, Mich.--the "All-America City." I like to think of it as being an honor.

GERALD R. HARDEBECK

Grand Rapids

> It is, except when being scrutinized by overly proper Bostonians.

Mazel Tov

Sir: In your Essay [June 25] you have written the story of my life--and the lives of several million Jews! It is truly amazing how an article so simple and relatively brief could capture the full mood and essence of this segment of American society. You have rendered an invaluable service to Jew and Gentile alike!

ELLIOTT KROUSE

New York City

Sir: By including "nationhood" as an "inextricable" component of "Jewishness," TIME gave wider circulation to the erroneous claims that Jews automatically--by virtue of their religion--possess a second nationality.

LEONARD R. SUSSMAN

Executive Director

The American Council for Judaism

New York City

Sir: As a teacher of Jewish confirmation students (15-year-olds) who are grappling with these very questions of identity and faith, I am grateful for your lucid presentation. Your essay was immediately ticketed for inclusion in next year's curriculum as required reading. I wish I could prescribe it as well for the parents!

DANIEL D. LOURIE

Houston

Sir: Your truly perceptive Essay "The New American Jew" omits one important aspect, namely that the American Jew is much more at home in the American than in the Jewish culture. Inadequate Jewish education that rarely reaches the high school level and the impact of Hollywood and other mass media are denuding the American Jew of his Jewish qualities.

ABRAHAM G. DUKER, PH.D.

Director of Libraries,

Professor of History and

Social Institutions

Yeshiva University

New York City

Sir: The schlemiel who wrote that article on "The New American Jew" had some chutzpah!

MRS. MARSTON SCHWARTZ

Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Phyllisophy

Sir: Hip, hip, and several hoorays for Phyllis McGinley [June 18] and her philosophy! May she continue to write her charming poetry, housekeep, and defend all other keepers of the home for many more years to come.

(MRS.) SHIRLEY SHOYER

Havertown, Pa.

Sir: "I rise to defend the quite possible She"--and glory in the rays of her talent. As a former student of Phyllis McGinley's at a Westchester County high school, I want to thank you for an inspiring article. For years I have read her poems for children to my daughter and followed through to Times Three and Sixpence in Her Shoe, marveling at her insight, wit and sensitiveness. May good fortune follow her always. That issue of TIME will remain in my files ad infinitum.

JOAN LE FEVRE CZERWINSKI

Lexington, Ky.

Sir: Who is Matriarch McGinley trying to fool? She's more Friedan than Friedan.

BARBARA WILKINS

Los Angeles

Sir: Find me a Phyllis McGinley, and I shall cease to be a bachelor.

ED LE ZOTTE

New York City

Sir: I too would be delighted to devote my life to the pursuit of dirt if I thought I might be interrupted for tea at the White House, letters from The New Yorker or chats with Jean Kerr. Phyllis McGinley, typical housewife indeed!

(MRS.) AILEEN ROGERS

Moorestown, N.J.

Sir: TIME may call Bill Hayden "domestically inclined"--I call it love.

MRS. W. R. HORNER

Arlington, Va.

Sir: Thank you for opening for me the door that I had foolishly slammed on all modern female poets. I was delighted to find that Phyllis McGinley courageously and articulately expressed views that I have long harbored but hesitated to state in this age of "enlightened, emancipated, educated, Betty Friedanized" womanhood.

ARLENE GORDON BALABAN

Chillum, Md.

The Real War

Sir: Those who wrote that your picture of the dead soldier was tasteless [June 18] should realize that war and the battlefield have no regard for fine manners and decorum. "Good taste" is only for those who are safe and snug before their fires, trying desperately to shut out the world.

MRS. V. J. PASSARO

Clifton, N.J.

Sir: My heartiest congratulations for printing the grotesque photograph of the beheaded chap. It was worth more "than a thousand words in explaining to the pacifistic American citizenry the acts against humanity committed by the Viet Cong.

DAVID A. RIPPEL

Canton, Ohio

Sir: The picture of the beheaded man was very gruesome and sickening--however, I cannot understand why people object to these factual photographs. Such pictures should be plastered across the front pages of every newspaper across the United States in order to impress upon citizens the brutality and futility of wars.

(MRS.) RUTH GOTTSCHALK

York Harbor, Me.

Sir: The picture was simply too much. Your taste is abominable. We can't really understand what you thought you would accomplish by printing such a picture. We don't care to have TIME in our home ahy longer.

MR. AND MRS. JOHN W. TUTTLE

W. Acton, Mass.

Viet Nam's Finest

Sir: Your article on the armed forces of Viet Nam [June 18] was the best I have read. Your fine choice of the few who represent the many should give 'those who care to learn an accurate picture of the Vietnamese fighting man. You have captured the true spirit of the war by focusing on those warriors who best exemplify the thousands who daily risk their lives for their homeland. Thank you.

LEROY P. COLLINS JR.

Colonel, U.S.A. Highwood, 111.

See Here, Private Hargrove

Sir: I'd hate for any of your readers to go away from TIME [June 25] believing that I am a gung-ho soldier or that I approve of the way the Army does many things. The Army in peacetime is still an unfortunate hybrid of feudalism and socialism, neither of which particularly appeals to me. I might add that I got into military broadcasting mostly by chance, and if I had known the odds against me last summer, I would never have volunteered for the draft.

(PFC) CHRISTOPHER P. HARGROVE

Information Section

Fort Benning, Ga.

Starrs Over Youngstown

Sir: Re your tale of Washington's plethora of cold-shoulder dresses [June 18]: it breaks my heart to think of all the $160 Malcolm Starr gowns that will no longer be worn this side of Kuala Lumpur. I look heavenly in green and would be happy to wear one in Minneapolis.

R. PATRICIA BROWN

Minneapolis

Sir: I'll be glad to risk wearing one here.

SALLY STEMPINSKI

Youngstown, Ohio

Anti-Letter

Sir: Not only do we put freeze in our anti-cars [June 25], but we put knock in our anti-gas so we can drive to Och in anti-Turkey and Etam in anti-Maryland.

JOHN A. ROLLWAGEN

Bridgeton, Mo.

Most Beautiful Sentence

Sir: Wilfred J. Funk's listing of the ten most beautiful words in the English language [June 11] was a challenge to use them all in one short sentence. "The luminous mist rose from the murmuring brook at the hush of dawn with a melody like a tranquil lullaby of golden chimes."

(LIEUT.) DUDLEY W. NELSON

Portland Police Department

Portland, Ore.

Personality Probe

Sir: In February, the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory [June 18] was part of a battery of tests administered to those of us who were applying for positions with the National Security Agency. I was infuriated and disgusted that such personal questions were supposed to judge our suitability for the job, not to mention the fact that unqualified yes or no answers were quite often impossible. I only regret that I did not have enough conviction at the time to walk out.

JANICE CAREY

South Hadley Falls, Mass.

Sir: TIME'S "sample" of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory does an injustice to psychological testing. The MMPI is not intended for ordinary employment-office use. It is sold only to organizations with qualified professionals on their staffs; they combine its scores with other data on job applicants, derived from work records, references and personal interviews. Use of the MMPI makes it possible to identify in advance persons who will react unfavorably to stress. Answers to individual questions are not scrutinized; the inventory is scored, usually by machine, for a group of scales, each of which includes many answers. A constellation of certain answers has psychological meaning.

The MMPI attempts to inventory mental health in the same objective way that a physical examination undertakes to discover indications of glaucoma or venereal disease. It involves no greater invasion of privacy. The questions the MMPI asks (about religion, sex, mental and physical health, and many other matters) are not designed for, and do not constitute, a religious, medical or psychological test for office or other employment.

The MMPI was developed by testing patients hospitalized for emotional or mental disorders. The test was copyrighted by the University of Minnesota in 1943, and is published exclusively by the Psychological Corporation.

GEORGE K. BENNETT

President

The Psychological Corporation New York City

Fraternity's Rights

Sir: As an alumnus and faculty adviser of Delta Upsilon, I would rather have a black or yellow gentleman for a fraternity brother than a white jerk; and I do have brothers from all three races. But when any outsider tries to force my own or any other fraternity [June 25] to change its constitution or take in anyone whom it does not want, then he has me to fight.

LAURENCE LEE HOWE

Professor of History

University of Louisville

Happening

Sir: In reference to Roger Barr's judgment [June 18] of the festival of "happenings" that we presented at the American Artists Center in Paris, we would like to state how much we, in turn, disagree with his obsolete thinking. The art of revolt and hallucinations, the awareness and new meaning of freedom, which are coming out of the happenings produced in Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Stockholm or Tokyo--all that is too much for Professor Barr. But for us, it's only a beginning.

JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL

PETER PASSUNTINO

FREDERIQUE PARDO

GERARD RUTTEN

LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI

DANIEL POMMEREULLE

Paris

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