Monday, Jul. 02, 1979

Germany's Doer

To the Editors:

West Germany's Chancellor Schmidt [June 6], "the Doer," is one person we could use. His moral views, political experience and common sense about people and power are impressive. U.S. Government officials could benefit from a strong dose of such leadership.

Thomas J. Fullmer Eugene, Ore.

The Germans have done an outstanding job all around. One can see that Deutschland ueber Alles has a new and more up-to-date meaning.

Daniel K. Ward North Lauderdale, Fla.

Your exclusive interview with Chancellor Schmidt was so impressive that I have confidence for our Western world because he is part of it. He may be the statesman of the era.

(Mrs.) Geraldine O. Powell Walnut Creek, Calif.

Schmidt's frosty comments about "Carter's 'preachy fanaticism on human rights" raises the specter of German human rights as exemplified by Auschwitz. Schmidt should recognize that he owes his very existence to human rights as practiced by the U.S.

R.L. Carlstein Largo, Fla.

Schmidt was a member of the Hitler Youth, but never joined the Nazi Party as an adult.

Your story is the first positive thing I have read on West Germany since I came to the U.S. as an exchange student. I usually read about how many people have visited the concentration camps during the past year, how many German war criminals have not yet been sent to prison, and so forth. To be sure, I don't want to gloss over all the things that happened in Germany during the years under the Nazis. I have to face my country's history.

But I'm very proud to live in a nation that for 30 years has been as democratic as yours.

Stefan Mielck Windom, Minn.

The caption with your picture of "the thriving, reconstructed Essen of today," belching smoke and blanketed by ugly smog should have said: "The Ruhr city of Essen in ruins, 1979."

Zuleyma Tang Halpin St. Louis

Are There Limits to War?

I was stunned by your straight-faced report on the military's efforts to create some travesty they call a "limited" nuclear war [June 11]. There is no such thing as acceptable or limited nuclear war.

Cindy Leichter Seattle

How can limited nuclear war be a possibility? War is war. It is not a game of your turn, my turn. Can you really mean that if the Soviets kill a million of our people, we won't try to blow them off the face of the earth?

Jacqueline Koenig lone, Calif.

It is bad enough that this country wastes over $120 billion on defense. Now we see the Office of Technology Assessment squandering our hard-earned dollars to determine how much damage would be done. I protest!

John Thompsen San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Massive attack, limited attack--both attack the notion of sanity.

Dean C. Jacobson Vero Beach, Fla.

Television vs. the Printed Page

I cannot agree with Essayist Lance Morrow's thesis that TV will never replace the printed word as an instrument of thought [June 11]. TV has brought a vast number of nonreaders, the lazy and the functional illiterates, into the political and social process. Because they have little other information available to them, they are at the mercy of TV policymakers.

Frank Powell Florence, Ala.

Your Essay ignored the real reason for American television's existence: to keep the consumption of worthless products up by indulging a researched public with insipid entertainment.

Joseph Simon Milwaukee

Television doesn't create social values, it mirrors them. In fact, it is an event for TV to promote any idea that hasn't already gained wide acceptance. It's time to stop portraying the average American as an automaton glued for six hours each day to his TV set, and cease blaming the tube for society's problems.

If a child prefers television to his parents, the fault lies within that family, not with television. If we expect perfection from the medium, we'll never appreciate its accomplishments.

David J. Stagnitto Johnson City, N. Y.

Hostility and Sex

I am not surprised that Psychoanalyst Robert Stoller [June 4] found evidence to support the theory that sexual excitement is based on hostility. It is clear that sexual response can arise from either love or hate, depending on how people are taught to view themselves and their sexuality.

J.S. Oppenheim Austin

Teetering on the brink of a cliff before falling into a chasm can also be termed excitement. Most of us are willing to do without it.

Ann Ganeles New Rochelle, N. Y.

In order to buy Robert Stoller's sexual hostility theme, one has to subscribe to the idea that all women secretly want to be raped. Sure. What other stale fish are being peddled this week?

Paul Baron Argyle, Texas

A New Melody by Baez

Lawyer William Kunstler's and Jane Fonda's refusal to sign Joan Baez's protest against Viet Nam's torture of innocent Vietnamese citizens [June 11] suggests a very selective--indeed, hypocritical--sense of morality. The inference seems to be that it is not torture itself that is evil, but rather torture perpetrated by particular political systems.

John Lahcar Oxford, N.C.

Bravo Joan Baez! To be against war does not mean to become a partisan of the "other side." To be against Israel's bombing of refugee camps does not mean one should become a partisan of P.L.O. terrorists. To fight against white supremacy in Africa should not make one tolerant of black tyrants. It is to be a partisan of peace, liberty, human rights and social progress.

Alfred Davidsohn Locarno, Switzerland

Change of Heart on Viet Nam

How dare Jimmy Carter say that "the nation is ready to change its heart, its mind and its attitude about the men who had fought in the Viet Nam War" [June 11]. Our people feel shame and guilt not because our soldiers fought in Viet Nam, but because we elected leaders who sent them there and then abandoned them.

Josephine Hubert Northport, N. Y.

Sweetening the Sugar Pot

Your criticism of subsidies to sugar growers [June 4] is one-sided and shortsighted. If American sugar farmers cannot meet production costs, they will be forced to quit growing sugar. The American consumer will then be entirely dependent on foreign sources, as is becoming the case with oil.

Burchell E. Hopkin Powell, Wyo.