Letters: Nov. 17, 1967

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Sir: Objective thinking is harder work and a lot less soul-satisfying than passionate indignation. I think President Johnson's public image no more endearing than anybody else does, but I'm increasingly convinced that few men in our history have been more unjustly vilified. Having no idea what I would do in his place, I will continue to squelch whatever whimsical criticisms, unweighted by mental effort, get voiced to me. This is not to say that I think Johnson has usually been right; only that he stands fair to be martyred by a generation of critics who have not tried or troubled to understand his horrible position. JUDITH MOFFETT Fulbright Lektor in American Studies The University at Lund Sweden

Sir: The words of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee remind us that most Americans see Viet Nam from far away [Oct. 27]. We who live in Southeast Asia have a different perspective. I have now lived 18 months in Malaysia. Few people here doubt that Communism is a real threat everywhere in Southeast Asia. I do not view Communism as a bogey. I say that if the Commies want to hold the hot potatoes of the developing countries, let them; if a thankless job has to be done, let your enemy do it. But African and other Asian nations send delegations here to see what makes Malaysia tick. If democracy has a show window in the East, this (with Singapore) is it. Do we want to throw these countries to the wolves? Confronted with a choice of evils, the wise man chooses the lesser; that's what we have to do in Viet Nam. But let's not forget, as we make our choice, that the lives of the most successful democracies in Southeast Asia hang on our decision. PAUL PEACH Professor Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur

On the Nose

Sir: I have read that the right of a man to swing his fist stops just short of the other fellow's nose. I just saw where the nose of the American taxpayer has been violated to the tune of $1,078,500 by the recent Pentagon panty raid [Nov. 3]. In addition, as the war is prolonged by this show of dissent to the policy of checking the spread of Communism, more American boys must lose their lives. Why? Perhaps Dr. Spock can fly to Hanoi and bring peace in our time. DR. N. B. GRANTHAM Smithfield, N.C.

Sir: What banner of rationality and what pretense of right justifies and permits such aimless waste? We must demand distinction between freedoms and their abuse. Clamorous dissenters, along with the silent majority of us, would do well to meditate upon the ominous words of the historian of Rome (Livy): "Then let him observe how when discipline wavered, morality first tottered and then began the headlong plunge, until it has reached the present stale of affairs when we can tolerate neither our vices nor their remedies." CARLOS M. BARANANO Detroit