Pen Pal from Plains

The writer began with folksy chitchat, assuring his readers that both his mother and brother Billy are doing just fine, thank you. But soon he turned serious—and critical—about the man who took his job away. In a three-page letter sent to former aides and Cabinet members, Jimmy Carter broke his 5%-month silence on his successor, although he never mentioned Ronald Reagan by name. Attacking the Administration's budget cuts as "ill-advised," he warned that "an enormous transfer of Government benefits is now taking place from the very poor to the very rich." Predicted the former President: "Students, farmers, the aged, mentally afflicted...