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Sir: It is hard to believe that we white folks wouldn't be just as angry if we were condemned to the same kind of hopeless existence to which we condemn our black brothers.
(MRS.) ALBERTA WYLUDA
Brookline, Mass.
Sir: Your article on Malcolm X is a great service to this country. One can hardly be sad that this despicable human being was assassinated. But heaven above, did you have to put in your article that he was from Michigan? We don't want any credit for this "black devil."
(MRS.) LIL BUNDY
Petoskey, Mich.
Fangs & De-Fangers
Sir: Your Red China survey [Feb. 26] was blessedly factual and realistic, but please consider further and more seriously the alternative of bombing China. Is it not less immoral to bomb nuclear war plants and airfields in China than it is to bomb villages and foot soldiers in Viet Nam? To plan a war of attrition against ignorant, misled masses that the militarists push onto the firing line—that is immoral. As we undertake an operation to "defang" China, we could make it clear to the Russians that it is strictly meant to force China into adopting Russia's own policy of "peaceful co-existence." Russia would rant, surely, but it would not start a nuclear war, and would adjust itself to a weaker China most rapidly.
PAUL WHEADON
New York City
Sir: It is ironic to note that while the figure of the fanged tiger appearing on your cover was executed in bronze during the Chou Dynasty in the 10th century B.C., and epitomizes the animal ferocity of a particularly vigorous period of China's Bronze Age culture, the same symbol is equally appropriate in connection with the regime of the current Red masters. An ideal selection by TIME.
ED CURRAN
San Francisco
Sir: If war comes to the Far East in 1965, then the burden of guilt must rest upon the shoulders of a U.S. wallowing in a sea of uncompromising hostility and divorced from all reality and sanity. Prestige will always allow compromises and the acceptance of new formulas. Is the U.S. so worried about prestige that it must rely solely upon arrogance and threats in conducting its foreign policy?
I. M. MCDONALD
New Glasgow, N.S.
Sir: Your cover story is dangerously close to doubletalk. You accuse China of overweening imperial ambitions. But besides some references to impolite speeches out of Peking, you give no specific evidence that China has transgressed. On the contrary, you acknowledge that "Chinese jets have not left their borders, even to make a show of force over North Viet Nam." What must make the article embarrassing to your discerning readers is that you include a map that distinctly makes the U.S. look like a potential aggressor. You do this very effectively by displaying American military might on the outskirts of China in blood-curdling red. You at least pose the possibility that the U.S. might drop unmentionable Things on The Enemy.
Yi-Fu TUAN Albuquerque