Letters: Jan. 20, 1967

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Sir: How can TIME fall prey, as it seems to do, to the Administration doctrine that if we act no more ruthlessly than the enemy we are justified in acting ruthlessly? Surely the love of God and our Western values compel us to choose a better standard of personal and national conduct.

ROBERT A. FISH Washington, D.C.

Sir: First it was Herb Matthews, then that other Times reporter in South Viet Nam at the time of the assassination of Diem, followed by Tom Wicker and now Harrison Salisbury. How much more slanted reporting do we need before the New York Times begins to lose its reputation as a great newspaper? Why, it's not a newspaper at all, but an artfully contrived propaganda device.

WILLIAM MITCHELL Denville, N.J.

Sir: We in Asia owe a great debt of gratitude to the American nation and a greater debt to the gallant young men who are dying every day in South Viet Nam. No other nation in the history of the world has made such supreme sacrifices for a principle. The Viet Nam war is a war against China and her designs, not an attempt to force a system of government on South Viet Nam. We in this part of the world thank the U.S. Government and the young men who are risking their lives to make life safe for us.

M. C. NAIR Selangor, Malaysia

Rights & Responsibilities

Sir: The view that the attack on Congressman Adam Clayton Powell [Jan. 13] is an attack on Negro political power is patently absurd. There are several Negroes exercising greater power than Powell (if only because they are not absent from their posts so much). In spite of their greater power, they are not under attack, because they are exercising their power as effective and responsible spokesmen both of their race and of their constituents.

The color of a man's skin should not deprive him of his rights as a citizen, nor should it deprive him of his responsibility as a citizen to uphold our country's laws.

CHARLES EDGAR TOMPKINS III Oklahoma City

Sir: I admire Adam Powell's deliberate ignoring of the investigations of his affairs. What Representative Wayne Hays is trying to say but doesn't have the guts to say is, "Adam, don't do as we white Congressmen do, do as we say."

A. C. BAILEY Pittsburgh

Sir: The fundamental tragedy in Negro leaders' supporting Powell is that they are displaying an appalling sense of the importance of race rather than a concern for the rule of law. Let us hope that Negro leaders will demonstrate the readiness of the Negro to stand beside the white man by their stand for the defense of law and equity, and for the defeat and destruction of misuse of authority and power by persons of whatever color.

(THE REV.) JOHN B. NICELEY Holly Springs Baptist Church Holly Springs, N.C.

Blue Chip Investment

Sir: Writing about James G. Johnston and his $1,500,000 gift to the University of Redlands [Jan. 13], you are correct in saying that "he had never so much as seen Redlands," but he thought carefully about it before giving. I know because I made the proposal to Mr. Johnston and played catalyst between him and Redlands. He acted on the basis of much reading and of several discussions with me and with his lawyers over a period of eight months.

DWAYNE ORTON