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North Muskegon, Mich.
The Sweet Time
Merely reading your account of I Wanna Hold Your Hand [May 8] brings tears to my eyes and memories of the excitement in the air when the Beatles first came here. Oh, to go back to that sweet, sweet time ...
Marilynn Andrews
Philadelphia
The Plane Package
You describe Saudi Arabia as "needing" 60 F-15s, the most advanced planes, for defense [May 8]. Come on! F-5Es (the ones Carter proposes to sell to Egypt) would be adequate for defense against Iraq and South Yemen; even 160 F-15s would not be enough to protect Saudi Arabia from a highly improbable attack by Iran. Saudi F-15s would be of no use except in an Arab war against Israel.
David L. Weiss
Nutley, N.J.
I cannot help finding it inconsistent, if not hypocritical, for the government of Israel to lobby so aggressively against the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia, while Israel has exported arms to a Marxist regime supported by the Russians and Cubans in Ethiopia.
If Israel can ship arms to our adversaries which are directly across the Red Sea from a nation that provides 10% of America's oil supply, why should there be any question about our selling F-15s, an essentially defensive weapon, to a more reliable ally, which is surrounded by radical leftist regimes in South Yemen, Ethiopia and Iraq?
Guy P. Beach
Wallingford, Conn.
Jimmy Carter has got to deal realistically when it comes to pleasing two selfishly motivated countries. He knows he cannot please one without hurting the other. The simple solution is to stop selling planes and weapons to either side and play the part of a neutral mediator if he really wants peace.
Robert L. Clinkscales Jr.
Racine, Wis.
Not So Small
Your article "Adieu Montreal" [May 8] concludes that the future state of Quebec, with its 6 million citizens, will be only a "small nation," and therefore some business managers will prefer to follow the departing Sun Life Assurance Co. to Toronto, the center of anglophone Canada. Once internationally recognized as a full-fledged nation, we will still be as large as Austria or Switzerland, and twice the size of Israel. Like those countries, all we ask for is your respect and noninterference.
Heinz D. Chiba
Montreal
Nixon Memoirs
What a pity Richard Nixon [May 8] wasn't given the opportunity to write his story in prison, as Lenin and Gandhi did.
Harry H. Hoffenberg
Baltimore
Monet Gardens
I would like to congratulate Robert Hughes for his article on the Monet exhibition [May 1]. My husband, Gerald Van der Kemp, has been working on the task of restoration of the Monet Gardens, a project made possible through a starting grant by Mrs. DeWitt Wallace.
We have been distressed that no mention has been made that the Monet Gardens, if they are to be open to the public, will need at least $100,000 a year for three years before they will become selfsupporting. Donations to the Versailles Foundation will serve this purpose.
Florence Van der Kemp, President The Versailles Foundation, Inc.
Versailles, France
Proxmire Prizes