The Diplomat
Sir: As a student of international relations, I was greatly impressed with your article on French diplomacy [Feb. 7]. There is no doubt in my mind that the brilliance of French diplomats has enabled that country to climb not only to a position of effective opposition to Communists, foreign and domestic, but also to increased independence from American power.
In your "roll call of great French diplomats," two more personalities should be mentioned: Schuman and Pleven, who planned two brilliant strokes of French diplomacy on the question of postwar German rearmament.
MANUEL P. DOVOLIS San Francisco State College San Francisco, Calif.
Sir: Congratulations to Boris Chaliapin for a thoroughly delightful cover picture of Foreign Minister Couve de Murville. It was gratifying to note that the Virginia Museum's Le Lorgneur by Jean-Antoine Watteau (see cut) was the basis for his background cartoon.
Your readers may be interested to learn that the original model for the General de Gaulle figure was the 17th century actor, and friend of the artist, Philippe Poisson. Also, there was a fourth figure in the original, seated at lower left, but X rays show that Watteau apparently changed his mind and painted it out.
LESLIE CHEEK JR. Director
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond
Sir: You mistakenly said that last year at the U.N. Peking got 57 votes, 17 short of the necessary two-thirds of the General Assembly.
The fact is that the vote in the General Assembly, taken on October 21, 1963, on an Albanian proposal to seat the Peking regime, received only 41 votes. Fifty-seven nations rejected it, while twelve abstained.
I-CHENG LOH
Director
Chinese News Service New York City
Sir: Thank you for putting Couve de Murville's picture on the cover of last week's TIME Magazine. This will enable thousands of people like me to tear it up, burn it, or even step on it. How dare France call Taipei the government of
Formosa and recognize Mao's Peking as the government of China?
It is true that my country is small and may seem unworthy to President de Gaulle, but it is still a country, a democratic country that is fighting for freedom for every Chinese and being in this world. PETER HYUI JR. Cambridge, Mass.
Bouquets to Rowan
Sir: When Carl T. Rowan enrolled at Tennessee State University in Nashville, he was taught Negro history by my father, Merl R. Eppse, who encouraged Mr. Rowan to join the Navy's recruiting program for capable Negro men [Jan. 31]. The true conviction and deep understanding of this fellow Tennessean are firmly expressed in his book, Go South to Sorrow. I am proud of Mr. Rowan as an outstanding Southern American who has simultaneously become an outstanding Southern Negro.
HENRIETTA EPPSE BAYLYFF Los Angeles
Good, But Baffled Neighbors
Sir: As a Brazilian studying Latin American economics, I congratulate you on your fine cover story on Mr. Mann [Jan. 31]. Finally the U.S. State Department has an effectual person who realizes the necessity for a diversified policy for Latin America. To quote the Chilean poetess Gabriela Mistral, "The only thing that keeps Latin America united is its unified fear of the U.S."