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Sir / "The Strangest Summit" should remind us that adjacent to every summit is an abyss into which we can plunge. There are "agreements" over relative trifles, but no change of positions on matters of life and death (Indochina). Nixon has played Russian roulette from his usual position-of-strength seat.
Is it but a matter of time until the hammer in Nixon's pistol hits the cap of a live cartridge? If so, there will be a meeting in the abyss, not at the summit.
FULTON PACE
Holly Hill, Fla.'
Sir / The Nixon initiative in China and the Soviet Union may solve little in Viet Nam, but it is a significant step in changing the nature of the international system which makes such tragedies necessary. It would be the ultimate irony if the man characterized as a "warmonger" were to become the leader of an era which saw the superpowers interacting to form a more peaceful world community by resolving the ideological rifts that force both of us to manipulate the fates of smaller countries for our respective national securities.
One may perhaps surmise that history may judge Richard Nixon much less severely than do his contemporaries.
JOHN C.JAMES
Lindenwold, N.J.
White Slavery
Sir / It is a shame to think that there are such goings on as white slavery in the U.S. [June 5] and that men support and patronize it as they do. I am a high school junior, and it was a fantastic blow.to. see men (supposedly), in my own generation treat girls with such utter disrespect as you reported.
NICKI MILLER
Erie, Pa.
Sir / It would be fitting for those antiabortionists in New York to adopt some of those poor girls described in your story on white slavery, rather than to insist that more be born to end up the same way.
They seem to think every seed has a God-given right to live but forget all those living a hell on earth.
J.I. NORTHRUP
Lakeland, Fla.
Sir / Your article "White Slavery, 1972" was written in such obscene, filthy terminology that I was ashamed to bring the magazine into our home.
CLARENCE CARLSON
Iron Mountain. Mich.
Caring for the Aged
Sir / Your two stories "Toward a Better Death" and "Aging Disgracefully" [June 5] had a particular poignancy for me, since I lost my mother just four weeks ago. My mother shared our home for 20 years, and there wasn't a moment when she didn't know that she was loved and needed and wanted.
Because this great lady bequeathed her body to the University of Minnesota for medical research, we had indeed discussed death and dying in great detail; thereby, she relieved us of all of the usual trauma surrounding the loss of a dear one
MRS. LAWRENCE P. JOHNSON
Mahtomedi, Minn.
Sir / It would seem hard to believe we can "treat [dying] patients as human beings whose thoughts and preferences matter." Hell, most folks don't even treat healthy people that way.
LOUIS SAINT
Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Sir / The photo of the two elderly people in the garden of a Yokohama nursing home is almost more than one can bear to look at.