Letters: Jan. 17, 2005

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Improvising in the military life, like using scrap material to add protection to vehicles, has always been necessary during battle. Toward the end of October 2003, soldiers had already addressed the issue of needing armor for their vehicles, especially humvees. While waiting for official testing and deployment of armor approved by the Department of Defense, we immediately took measures to protect our soldiers. As contingency contracting officers, we procured from a couple of Iraqi vendors 1/4-in.-thick steel armor that stopped ballistics, including AK-47 rounds and shrapnel. Many officers and soldiers have said the local Iraqi armor saved their lives.

SCOTT A. MEEHAN MAJOR, U.S. ARMY Orlando, Fla.

An honest answer from Rumsfeld would have gone like this: "You lack armor because we are incompetent. We expected smiles and flowers, not improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers, hatred and looting. We ignored the generals who said we would need 200,000 troops. Now you must pay for our miscalculations with your lives and limbs. Sorry."

RICHARD PHELAN McGregor, Texas

Revising the Record

As much as I am happy that Bertelsmann's CEO Gunter Thielen was included in TIME'S list of the 25 most influential people in business today [Dec. 20], I am sorry to see that certain facts in the accompanying article were incorrect. TIME implied that I left Thielen with debts of $3.5 billion. At the end of my tenure as Bertelsmann's CEO, its debt was E334 million, the lowest of all big media corporations that I know of. Companies like Time Warner, Disney and Vivendi Universal are paying this as annual interest. TIME implied that I left "a slew of dubious new assets." The truth is that all the acquisitions under my leadership delivered the originally budgeted returns and Bertelsmann faced no write-off. You also wrote that Bertelsmann owner Reinhard Mohn "was so upset by Middelhoff's tenure." Our disagreement was primarily over my desire to make Bertelsmann a publicly held company, not about Bertelsmann's financial performance. Under my leadership, the company's revenue nearly doubled, the operating profit (EBITDA) more than tripled, and the equity quintupled. Today the companies acquired during my tenure deliver more than 60% of Bertelsmann's free cash flow.

THOMAS MIDDELHOFF CEO, BERTELSMANN, 1998-2002 London

The Declining Dollar

You reported that the falling value of the U.S. dollar hurts European manufacturers [Dec. 20]. It affects other Europeans as well--those, like me, who worked in the U.S. and receive a pension in dollars. My benefits shrink a bit more each month. The loss now is more than 30%. I wonder how many thousands of people find themselves in the same very troubling predicament.

MARCELLE VIALE Nice, France

Not So Pretty Pictures

Please extend my sympathy to the editors who selected "The Best Pictures of the Year" [Dec. 20]. They're working too hard and must be burned out. The images were overwhelmingly reflective of war, terrorism, and the dead and dying. If these are "snapshots of our collective soul in 2004," as you described them, we're a lot worse off than I thought.

ALEXANDER ROSS Chocowinity, N.C.