Architect's Art
Sir:
We applaud your magazine for the great tribute you have paid to Minoru Yamasaki [Jan. 18] by adding him to your previous selections of Distinguished Architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Stone and Le Corbusier. And thank you for placing it under Art, where architecture belongs, as it is and always has been a fine art. Mies van der Rohe and Bunshaft come under engineering and IBM machines. And I. M. Pei belongs under water.
HELMUT AJANGO Designer
Ajango & Butts
Fort Atkinson, Wis.
Sir:
I would like to add something that Yama once said about his profession: "An architect, to implement our way of life, must recognize those human characteristics we cherish most: Love, Gentility, Joy, Serenity, Beauty and Hope."
EARL L. PRICE
Managing Editor
Architectural Beacon
New York City
Sir:
It is good to see you give up your long-term "Hate Detroit" binge! We, too, are proud of Yamasaki, of the Wayne State University campus, of the new gas building, and of the booming auto business. Your excellent color shots of Yamasaki's new buildings in Detroit are much appreciated.
JAMES C. TRIMBLE
Boulevard Congregational Church of Detroit
Detroit
The Contributors
Sir:
What scares me about that $53 million ransom for the Bay of Pigs prisoners [Jan. 11] is not that Castro blackmailed the U.S. Government, but that the U.S. Government blackmailed U.S. corporations into "donating" the $53 million.
GILBERT CHAMBERS
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sir:
In your issue of Jan. 4, you state in your lead story on the ransomed Cuban patriots that "they were particularly instructed to stay silent about the last-minute U.S. refusal to provide expected air cover," etc.
Where did that idea and order originate, and why was the dirtiest doublecross in the whole history of civilization so censored? It seems to me that the answer to these questions is an urgently important part of the reporting of the event, otherwise so capably handled.
STERLING BEESON
Toledo
> The order originated with Kennedy Administration staffers managing the ransom operation, and was delivered to the released prisoners, after they had boarded aircraft bound for the U.S., by men who had been freed from Cuban prisons earlier.—ED.
Twisted
Sir:
To your reviewer's "nothing painful, nothing real" about Oliver! [Jan. 11], I would add—thank goodness! When I attend a musical, I want light entertainment, not painful soul searching. After seeing Oliver!, I left the theater pleasantly entertained and in a far better, happier mood than before the performance. Oliver!, in my opinion, was twisted just right.
EDWARD A. ROSENBLUM
Cedarhurst, N.Y.
Tax Talk
Sir: