Dear Editor

...Because its external enemies threatened the individual constituents more than they threatened each other even granting the obvious longstanding hostility between, say, the Ukrainians and Great Russians The centralizing and autocratic tendencies are the most important characteristics of Russian historv, and they are intimately related If China and Eastern Europe threaten the territoual integrity of the Soviet State, it is more than likely that the Communist government will emerge from the struggle victorious—and strengthened, as it emerged stronger from World War II For it will have once again identified its own existence with the existence of a unitary Russian land Those who, like Amalnk, hopefully anticipate Russia s disintegration, willingly or unwillingly play into the hands of the kgb Amalnk may be remarkable, but he is in the long run no more a friend of Soviet liberalization than those overeager resistance organizations which, during the Second World War cooperated with the Germans—though he is of course not so morally culpable as they were /V>u Yen k Cm George Eisenstadt France & the Arabs George Herald rightly suggests ( 'Pompi-dou's Delusions of Power* NL March 16) that the French want to become the chief suppliers of military equipment to the nations bordering the Mediterranean But his subsidiary contention tha this objective is incompatible with the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict does not hold water Herald argues that Fiance's delivery of 108 Mirage airplanes to the Libyans plays into the hands ot Russia by keeping the struggle alive and thereby also keeping alive the Arabs' dependence upon the USSR Perhaps the French wish to sustain the hostilities, because th;y hope to eventually assume the Soviet role in the legion After all if peace came to the Middle East, the Russians might be forced out, but the Libyans would also have no use for the 108 planes What is more the requirements of the whole area for military material would sharply decrease Pompidou may be mistaken to think that the Arabs will accept French ai ms m pieference to those of the Soviet Union, but the article, it should be remembered, is called "Pompidou's Delusions of Power" I am not so sure that the French President's delusions are the same as those envisaged by Herald Chicago, HI ISADOR MOKAR Marianne Moore Norman Wiltsie ("Imaginary Gardens," NL, March 16) objects to the "effort and fuss" of George Nitchie's Marianne Moore An Intiodnciion to the Poetiv Should Nitchie have expended less effort7 To be of any profit to the reader a critical discussion must be detailed and analytical, not a sycophantic homage Scrutiny does not mean vivisection?a good poem not only survives the operation, but its beauty becomes even more brilliant Wiltsie's regard for Miss Moore's poetry is not unlike that of a fundamentalist preacher for his Scripture His love for the verse is excessive to the extent that he can brook no evaluation of it Miss Moore is well prepared to withstand critical onslaughts Boston, Mass Stephen Finney...

...The answer is of course...

...Dear Editor Mellow James Mellow's "Return of Realism" (NL March 16) was good news indeed I can appreciate the theoretical and rhetorical pitfalls of illustration and lllusionism, and I understand the modernist need to assert the non-referential integrity of art But I'm glad to hear that the physical world has not been abandoned for good I don't know if it's art, but I know what I like Minneapolis, Minn Morton Lindse"* Drug Addiction That you should publish a piece such as Gertrude Samuels* "The Addict Criminal or Cripple7" (NL, March 16) is dismaying That you should pat yourself on the back for having done so is astonishing The article exhibits no decent research It is not research to string together a bunch of headlines and random quotations It is not research (nor is it sensible) to cite as the root of the problem that "we are a longer-lived nation today" and then, four paragraphs later, accept without comment the statement that "heroin addiction is an illness mainly ot young people " Congressman Koch's meaningless statistic, that "the Federal government is currently spendmg 1/14,000 of its total budget on narcotics," is quoted to no purpose The question is, of course, how much money can be effectively spent to deal with the problem And why quote a "white-haired psychiatrist" whose fatuity is evident when he says, "Although you would imagine that affluence would automatically bring happiness " In short Miss Samuels' research is so sloppy that it is no wonder her conclusions are dubious The title and theme of her article are also misleading That drug addiction is a medical problem and the addict is sick no one, no one, denies But this does not exclude drug addiction from being a social problem, too, treatable by law enforcement To suggest that the beginning of 'the solution is at hand when the public begins to look on drug addiction as sickness is simply no-t supportable All right, it's a sickness, so what do we do1 Miss Samuels writes, "Reliance on criminal sanctions will not solve the problem A medical problem needs a medical solution" Well, it's not only a medical problem, as she admits earlier in her article And there is no evidence that a vastly expanded enforcement effort would not prove effective in preventing new addiction—or that present sanctions have not contributed to holding down the number of addicts Finally, there are no grounds for analogizing the enforcement of Prohibition to the control of heroin A significant part of the country (a majority, maybe) opposed Prohibition, and it was doomed to fail But today The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words the nation is almost unanimous in its opposition to heroin Regulation is possible and there is absolutely no basis for suggesting that present efforts be abandoned or reduced This country still needs a good nickel cigar, and The New Leader stdl needs a decent attitude towaid narcotics addiction New Yoik Cay David J Mandel I think Gertrude Samuels might have pointed out that those whom the press tieats as having died of heroin overdoses are m fact dying of the laws against heroin An overdose ot any drug can be fatal, this is scarcely a unique property of narcotics The high death rate has two origins First, given the makeshift conditions under which heroin is produced in this country and in Fiance, it is impossible to guarantee either the purity oi the exact content of the dosage sold m the streets Second, during periods of intensified police activity dealers often liquidate their supply by inci easing the amount sold in each individual fix There exists no intrinsic reason at all why more people should die of heroin ods than die of morphine overdoses in hospitals—that is to say, very few Boston, Mass Wilbur Grossman While Gertrude Samuels' description of the legally induced nightmare of the American drug addict avoids the obvious inaccuracies it also avoids questioning the fundamental assumptions which govern our official attitude toward the "drug problem" For what exactly is the problem7 Precisely which drugs are involved7 We tend almost automatically to assume that heroin is the ne plus ultra of the drug phenomenon That belief has no basis in reality Alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates—none of them "Class A" narcotics (illegal under any circumstances)?all have vastly more shattering effects upon the body than opium or its derivatives Why, then, the heroin monomania17 The answer, I am afraid, has a good deal to do with the fundamentally racist nature of our society Narcotics first began to be a problem here duiing the Civil War In the years between 1865 and the early 20th century, when the present restrictions were introduced, about 2 per cent of the population of the United States became addicted, a proportion considerably greater than the present dimensions of the problem Most of these the new leader is | Dear Editor people were simply bored old ladies, who took their junk with the cough syrup The relative shrinking of addiction since heroin and morphine were taken off the open market is often cited as an argument m favor of the post-1907 policy After 1907 a peculiar metamorphosis occurred Morphine and heroin, with their new piestige as illegal drugs became endemic to the criminal underground, and among those for whom respectable society offered neither decent hvmg conditions nor reasonable giounds for hope In short it became a problem of those who could safely be ignored, and whose dirty habits when they came tc the attention of the authorities, could be repressed savagely But what became of the middle-class junkies0 Did illegahzation really help them...

...No, middle-class addiction never disappeared it merely changed form At about the time the opiates were removed from the market, another class of narcotics appeared barbiturates—which are not and have never been, illegal They can be purchased by anyone with a doctor's prescription—in other words by most members of the white middle class And as it happens barbiturates aie even more addictive than heroin Furthermore, it is easier to die of barbiturate poisoning than of heroin poisoning, because the fatal dosage does not automatically rise with the tolerance dosage as with opiates Amphetamines a class of nonnarcotic drugs also sold by prescription though not addictive, have more profoundly deleterious effects than any drug except alcohol That entirely legal drug—let us remember that it is a drug—still claims more lives than all other chemicals put together multiplied by 10 Why don't <the authorities act against these so-called soft drugs7 Because there are, for instance, 25 million barbiturate addicts (as opposed to perhaps half a million hooked on heioin) in the United States You just don't throw 25 million middle-class goofball freaks into jail in this country In short, we do enjoy equal justice under the law, but it is more equal for some than for others Poitland Ore Michael P Davidson Billings The "real world" gets "cunouser and cur-louser " I fear the subject of my open letter to Bayard Rustm (which led off the exchange on "Black Education and White Liberalism," NL December 22, 1969) became the object of bitterness and confusion Certainly, that was not my purpose in writing it, I regret that bitterness seems to be its only yield Perhaps I should have taken my own advice and "remained silent when Bayard Rustm speaks on racial matters " Were I just a little less concerned about racial antagonisms in this country I would be tempted to join Mr Nixon s Silent Majority But Mr Nixon's counselor, Mr Daniel P Moymhan, the third party to the "squalid" exchange, has now suggested that we begin an era of ' benign neglect" that however desperate remain the circumstances in which black citizens must live, further discussion of the problem is m Mr Moynihan's judgment, counterproductive Mr Moynihan's memorandum is not without precedent I'm confident his political equivalent in the Court of Nero prepared a similar policy statement regarding the "heroics, histrionics and mairtyrdoms" of that ragged band of "paranoids and boodlers" in Imperial Roane who called themselves "Christians " And I'm sure that Mr Moynihan's political equivalent m the Court of St James prepared a similar policy statement regarding the "heroics, histrionics, and martyrdoms" of the Irish Republican Brotherhood And I am confident that Mr Moynihan's political and moral equivalent m the Third Reich prepared a similar policy statement regarding the heroics, histrionics, and mairtyrdoms" of the "paranoid >and boodler" Jews in Nazi Germany I can agree with Mr Moymhan about one matter "We are heading for a genuinely serious fire problem in American cities" Indeed' God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time BelUngham, Wash Thomas A Billings Professor of Education Western Washington State College Soviet Liberalization In her otherwise excellent review of Andrei Amalnk's book Will the Soviet Union Suivive Until 1984"> ("Vision of a Soviet Apocalypse" NL March 16), Ludmilla Thome gives somewhat short shrift to the argument that Soviet security forces allowed the publication of this remarkably anti-Soviet work in the hope of identifying the whole resistance movement with its thesis Amalnk believes that pressure from China and from Eastern Europe will disrupt the federation of peoples who now compose the Soviet Union and who before 1917 made up the Russian Empire But it was in fact pressure of this precise sort—in the old days from the Teutonic Knights and the Golden Horde —that brought this unlikely coalition of nations into being in the first place The Russian confederation has survived worse shocks than the one which is envisaged for it by Amalnk—twice within this century, for instance How did it survive...