Letters: Aug. 22, 1969

Hail to the Duke

Sir: "Now listen, and listen tight. . . . " I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to open my mailbox this week and find John Wayne mounted on his faithful steed [Aug. 8] staring at me.

As usual, your reporter did an excellent job. His portrait of one of the last of the rugged individualists was as good as mom's apple pie and as carefully woven as granny's old shawl.

Many, many thanks from one who grew up with Sergeant Striker, Big Jim McLain, John T. Chance, et al.

WILLIAM N. WOODWORTH Ashtabula, Ohio

Sir: If the John Wayne kind of man ever perishes—the kind of hero who sees moral conflict in black and white terms and political conflict in terms of freedom or slavery—then all the evasions, half-truths and compromises of today's collectivist mentalities will not be sufficient to instill in mankind a passion for life. It is only by the grace of heroes that civilization continues.

BRIAN WRIGHT St. Clair Shores, Mich.

Sir: Wayne's politics is irrelevant to us young Americans today. As cowboy, he is the charismatic hero of a generation painfully aware of its placelessness in its own country: typically a stranger, he arrives in town with the unlocalized perspective which we youth have, plus the power—albeit on his hip—which we would have.

The cowboy Wayne would defer self-knowledge for moral achievement and devote his life to justice for the very local folk from whom he is hopelessly estranged. He is one who has managed to translate his alienation into a noble life style. He is our existential hero who dares to burst out of his lifeless anonymity and assert his ideals in that longed-for reality of time and place. The Wayne cowboy is the us who happen.

E. GORDON DALBEY JR. Palo Alto, Calif.

Questions of Standards

Sir: I was astounded at the results of your Harris poll on the Kennedy affair [Aug. 8]. If 68% of the people of this country condone Kennedy's actions in connection with the recent accident, then we are in real trouble—because our moral standards have completely decayed. If this individual was physically capable of walking back to the party, he surely was physically capable of going to the nearest residence to summon professional help. If his story is true, he is unable to think for himself and must be told what to do by his battery of advisers. He still needs a nanny to blow his nose.

R. C. LEE Los Angeles

Sir: One wonders if the other Senator from Massachusetts had been involved in a similar situation, whether these same people would have felt so charitable.

(MRS.) ALICE C. BERGERON York, Me.

Sir: The popular theory, sponsored by Senator Kennedy himself, that he "lost his cool" is not supported by fact. Events on that tragic night show that the Kennedy machine swung coolly and efficiently into action under the Senator's personal direction and in a scant few hours devised a master strategy. We can but marvel at the Senator's determination and the ruthless power of his political apparatus. Or should we be just a bit frightened?

R. M. PITTS Arlington, Va.