Men of the Year

To the Editors:

For the sake of all of us, I am hoping that next year we will see your Men of the Year [Jan. 2] facing each other and shaking hands.

Siavash Adibzadeh

Alamo, Calif.

Reagan and Andropov would become "Great Men of All Time" if through their leadership they took us to a secure world without war.

Carol Veder

San Jose, Calif.

We can only pray that the two Men of the Year find a way to overcome the obstacles blocking a dialogue. Silence, in a world such as ours, is a terrifying sound.

(Sgt.) James M. White Jr.

U.S.A.

Wahiawa, Hawaii

My New Year's wish is that both Ronald Reagan and Yuri Andropov carefully read your article.

John Wilcox Thill

San Diego

O TIME, what choices you have given us. Reagan and Andropov are two aging men who have little resourcefulness, flexibility or imagination and are letting the world slip into nuclear conflict.

Richard Brewer

Long Branch, N.J.

Reagan and Andropov are like a cranky old couple in a hated marriage. Each dwells upon what he loathes in the other. Each uses any slighting statement as an excuse to stomp into another room. Each refuses to think beyond the domination of the other. The trouble is, the "marriage" involves their shared possession of doomsday power, and the home they will wreck is our world.

James Alexander Thorn

Bloomington, Ind.

Here is one voter who thoroughly supports President Reagan's policies relating to the Soviet Union. If our previous Presidents had understood the Soviet Union as he does and possessed the courage of their convictions, we would not be in the predicament so lamented now by those who want to believe the Soviets are what they are not.

David F. Prosser

Menasha, Wis.

Antagonists, you say? Your Men of the Year look to me more like two peas from the same pod.

Talbot O. Freeman

Rockport, Me.

Reagan and Andropov, back to back, the two colossal failures of 1983.

Margaret D. Cravens

East Meadow, N. Y.

We Europeans find ourselves more and more trapped between two bickering and dangerously armed powers that are constantly flinging threats at each other over our heads.

Martin J. Van Buuren Leidschendam, The Netherlands

You chose the two most dangerous men in the world.

James E. Robinson

Neenah, Wis.

Several moves are possible from a back-to-back position. The parties can step apart to duel, which will bring serious consequences. Or they can turn to face each other, but not shake hands. Or best of all, they can make a quarter turn and then walk together in the same direction.

Kenneth N. Mathes

Schenectady, N. Y.

Justice for Geter

Citizens of the U.S. would like to feel that no prejudice against blacks exists today. What happened to Lenell Geter [Dec. 26] is still occurring in many places outside Texas. Geter had to spend 16 months in prison before an uproar caused the people to back down enough to let him out. There is no way that he can be compensated for such inhuman treatment.

Irene O'Connor

Los Angeles

The press is to be commended for its efforts in pursuing justice for Lenell Geter and gaining his release. This is an instance of journalism at its best.

Wilfred P. Bennett

Belle Mead, N.J.

Identity Crisis

Your article on Syria [Dec. 19] stressed the belief that Lebanon is part of a "Greater Syria." The eastern Mediterranean lands, which the Romans classified under the vague title Syria, were later called Palestine by biblical scholars.

Lebanon has a history of its own, an identity of its own and a destiny of its own. Our national heroes, such as Fakhr-al-Din II and Bashir the Great, ruled Lebanon from the 16th to the 19th century independent of Turkey. They made Lebanon a haven for persecuted minorities and flung open the doors to allow free cultural and economic relations with the West. The failure of the world to grasp this reality has harmed Lebanon.

Mazen Haddad

Kuwait

Taking Blame

President Reagan accepted blame for the deaths of the 241 Marines blasted from their billet in Beirut last October [Jan. 9]. If Reagan is personally responsible, was President Franklin Roosevelt liable for the thousands of naval personnel lost in the sinking of the fleet at Pearl Harbor? He definitely did not think so, even though he stationed them in Hawaii. F.D.R. summarily relieved the local commanders. Without question, they were guilty of not adhering to the standing operation procedure prescribed in military doctrine. This Beirut fiasco was a "failure of command" beginning at company or higher unit level.

William F. Gaffney

Panama City, Fla.

It was noble of President Reagan to take responsibility for the killing of the servicemen in Beirut, but for what specific misdeeds is he accepting the blame? If the President is guilty of some ineptitude, perhaps he should step down.

Greg Steinmetz

Cleveland

Politicians make inept generals.

Ann Boutwell

Port Orchard, Wash.

China Dogs

I snorted when I read the two letters you published protesting Peking's program to rid the city of dogs [Jan. 2]. Obviously your correspondents are unknowledgeable about Chinese dogs. Those I remember were ugly, snarling, malnourished, unlovely beasts that would threaten you but then turn tail and run if you stooped as though to pick up a stone.

The Chinese were invariably nonplused by Americans' pampering of man's best friend. Someone I knew used to say, "If I have to be born again, I would like to be born an American dog."

Emily Exner Chi

Chapel Hill, N.C.