Quotes of the Day
Your story about Tom Hanks brought back many memories [March 15]. An especially personal one was the sniper ambush of the 3rd Marine Division on Guam. A Veterans Affairs grave marker for one of those 3rd Division Marines rests in my husband's hometown cemetery. His brother was a victim of those snipers. I look forward to seeing The Pacific. Thank you, Tom Hanks, for sharing the emotional experiences of my generation with today's generation.
LaVerne Wolf, LISLE, ILL., U.S.
I've been reading World War II history for more than 50 years, and when I read that Tom Hanks thinks the writing of academic historians is "often too dull to grab regular people by the lapel," I flashed on the works of Rick Atkinson, Richard Bessel, Martin Gilbert, Richard Overy and a hundred other academic historians who have made the war real, capturing both its grand scale and its smallest details.
David Jacobs, LOS ANGELES
The premise of Hanks as history maker seemed reasonable until I flipped the page and found a two-page ad for The Pacific, the miniseries from Time Warner's HBO. TIME's objective news judgment has been seriously compromised by an act of such corporate self-promotion.
Ira Pilchen, Chicago
To say Hanks is teaching people about history is akin to saying creationism is science. There is a huge difference between a good movie filled with American propaganda that presents a skewed version of events, and a proper historical study of the subject. I totally accept that these films are fantasies and good stories to provide a couple of hours of escapism. However, if I want to learn history I go and read a history book. In fact, I read several books. In short, if Hanks wants to make movies about different periods of the past, great. They are good fun to watch. But to call them history lessons is, frankly, too much.
Chris Wilkins, ZUG, SWITZERLAND
Hanks does us all a service by helping to rekindle America's dying interest in history. With professional journalism dwindling, there is a real need for us to make sure that we understand events for ourselves. But if we deliberately look away from controversial events, we can never hope to utilize history as the learning tool that it is.
Henry A. Jensen, HEIMSHEIM, GERMANY
Until Hanks turns his attention to the rest of history — say, Jane Addams and the settlement-house movement, the railroad expansion across the continental U.S., the women's-rights movements — it's the same old wars and battles, planned and fought by men, that bored me in school.
Karen McFarland, DEXTER, MICH., U.S.
Pot, Say Hello to Kettle
The patronizing comment in "Iraq's Messy Democracy" that Iraqi leaders have "not yet learned to compromise" is unworthy of TIME [March 15]. Against which standard have you measured Iraq's leaders? Obviously not that of current U.S. leaders, who have had centuries to teach them how to compromise but who still can't get it right.
Merv Montacute, FALL CITY, WASH., U.S.
An otherwise excellent article was marred by the phrase "since the U.S. brought democracy to Iraq." While there is no doubt that the U.S. led in terms of both political will and resources, the unfortunate wording does not do credit to those who served from other countries, not least the 170 plus soldiers from the U.K. who died.
Martyn Buckley, SELKIRK, SCOTLAND
Wrongly Labeled
I was surprised to read in "The World" that TIME described the terrorist organization ETA as a "separatist group" [March 15]. So far, ETA has killed more than 800 people in Spain; how many more must it kill to earn the name terrorist? By the way, ETA is classified as a foreign terrorist group by the U.S.
José Luis García Herrero, MADRID
- Pot, Say Hello to Kettle; Wrongly Labeled