The Widening Watergate
Sir / Congratulations to your correspondents for their determination in bringing more of the facts of the Watergate "caper" into the open.
The First Amendment is alive and well in this nation, in spite of Justice Department and Administration harassment, because so many correspondents had the courage and integrity to seek out the truth.
KENNETH FOX
Sebastopol, Calif.
Sir / The American people should now realize to whom they owe a debt of gratitude for whatever morality is left in official life. If the press ever allows itself to be stifled by a cunning President or his overzealous staff, we, the people, will be the only ones to suffer.
BERNICE SIROTA
Miami Beach
Sir / "Amnesty" would be something like being able to forgive and forget Watergate.
L. LAMONT WILTSEE JR.
Long Beach, Calif.
Sir / The President should resign. That is the only honorable course open to him. In no self-respecting European democracy, and perhaps only in that of our allies in South Viet Nam, could a regime conceivably ride out a scandal of the magnitude of Watergate. Mr. Nixon, who has delighted in setting precedents, should set one more and thereby help patch a yawning loophole in the Constitution.
JOSEPH E. HAWKINS JR.
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sir / Hugh Sidey's "Sadness of America" [April 30] sums it up pretty well, but what has infuriated me is the President's and his unassailably righteous untouchables' evident belief in the unfathomable stupidity of the average American.
TOM SISTO
Laguna Beach, Calif.
Sir / Happiness is a McGovern Democrat reading TIME'S Watergate cover story!
KATHARINE K. MOORE
Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Sir / Little men who rise to positions of greatness have to choose between enlarging their own characters to suit the office or diminishing the office to suit themselves. The Nixon men, through the Watergate debacle, made their choice clear.
CATHY SOETE St. Louis Sir / I feel sure that spying has been going on just as long as we have had two or more political parties. The only difference this time is that the men were caught. I have lost no faith in President Nixon.
CONNIE R. CHAPIS
Denton, Md.
Sir / I am dying to know all about Watergate and the Pentagon papers, but then I was dying to know all about Chappaquiddick too.
CAROL W. PETTY
Newport Beach, Calif.
The Energy Crisis Sir / I commend TIME for its excellent treatment of our world's worsening energy situation [May 7]. A significant and commendable step to promote consumer awareness and understanding was your recent Nassau conference, which brought together political, business and environmental leaders. Perhaps the most difficult task ahead is to undertake informed and intelligent discussion to arrive at solutions to our energy and environmental problems.
JENNINGS RANDOLPH
U.S. Senator, West Virginia
Washington, D.C.
Controversial Encounters
Sir / You presented an adversary's point of view on the controversial subject of "hazardous" encounters [April 30].