Letters: Aug. 8, 1969

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The Kennedy Case

Sir: How ironic that Senator Kennedy [Aug. 1], who speaks in favor of equality, should now be a graphic example of the advantages of the inequality in our society. Fortunately for Mr. Kennedy, the international tradition that an abundance of coinage and lineage supersedes justice under the law has not changed in spite of his rhetoric.

MRS. A. J. LOESCHMAN Houston

Sir: With bullets of prejudgment, pretrial, and preconviction over an issue that, although tragic, would have normally rated two paragraphs on page 12, Edward Kennedy, like his brothers, has been assassinated. I for one feel that one of the few hopes of the American political future has been garroted, unfairly, by the iron collar of sensationalism-at-all-costs. K. M. FOSTER San Francisco

Sir: If all the circumstances surrounding the tragic episode involving Senator Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne were honorable, Kennedy—or one of his friends —would have sought help immediately.

RICHARD K. BEEBE Northampton, Mass.

Sir: In Thomas Woodrow Wilson—A Psychological Study, by Sigmund Freud and William Bullitt, it is written: "When a man gives various unconvincing explanations of an act, one must suspect that the real reason for the act lies in the unconscious." Could this not also apply to Senator Kennedy's superego?

R. B. KOGER Joplin, Mo.

Sir: It appears to me that Ted Kennedy has graduated from being the youngest Senator in the nation to the oldest juvenile delinquent in the nation.

AL LOOK Grand Junction, Colo.

Sir: In my judgment, your Kennedy cover story is the best piece of objective reporting ever printed, but one facet was forgotten: Were the non-attending wives polled as to their approval of the secluded cottage and the six young ladies?

ARTHUR F. CAIN Mulberry, Fla.

Sir: Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Kennedy-Kopechne tragedy was the spectacle of some of the nation's in tellectual and political leaders scurrying to Hyannisport to give sympathy and counsel to Ted Kennedy. A young woman's life was carelessly lost, but apparently more important was the struggle to save a rather shaky political future.

(MRS.) REBECCA F. GAFFNEY Richardson, Texas

Sir: Are we about to perpetrate a stunning new kind of killing—that of character assassination? What about those who attempt to postulate what Mr. Kennedy might do as President, with his finger on the nuclear trigger, or faced with other momentous decisions? What rational individual can compare the victim of near-death by drowning and a cerebral concussion to a healthy Chief Executive at his desk? Surely all proponents of logic will balk at the outrage of this fallacious speculating.

(MRS.) MARIE FAJARDO RAGGHIANTI Nashville, Tenn.

Sir: If you were to believe the Boston Globe, an uncritical supporter of the Kennedy family, this girl's tragic death actually adds to Teddy's political esteem in his home state because people are now even more sympathetic toward him.

Out-of-staters must think we are a bunch of dupes to give Kennedy such an overwhelming endorsement.

CARLTON SMITH Harvard, Mass.