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...up his ambiguity When he said that our security depends on 'accepting the responsibilities of moral and political leadership " he certainly was not advocating the militaristic policies that have resulted in slaughter and economic hardship in the victimized countries Nor has our military approach been compatible with Kennan's following statement 'To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove use!t worthy ot preservation as a great nation " The Marshall Plan was in line with the pohcy advocated in the Mr Xarticle Unlortunately, thesame cannot be said for the Bay of Pigs, our actions in Vietnam, the numerous Central Intelligence Agency interventions in Chile, etc Washington, N J JOHN BURTON Kapp on Bellow While discussing The Dean's December ("Bellow's New Reading," NL, February 8), Isa Kapp savs she finds it "astonishing to realize that until now, apan from an occasional short story and Bernard Malamud's compelling recreation of pre-Revolutionary Russia in The Fiver none of our prominent novelists has written about East Europe ' Though I don't want to belittle the rest of Kapp's remarks, I must point out that this glib generalization simply doesn't hold ^ater What about Anthony Burgess Honey for the Bears...

...Dear Editor Full Employment Although I hesitate to be fussy about Gus Tyler's knowledgeable and provocative series on "Charting America's Future," I feel that a technical error in his third installment ("Undoing the New Deal," NL, January 25) has some significance Tyler refers to the "Full Employment Act of 1946 and accurately points out that it was "diluted to suit the pallid taste of conservatives " This should have been expected, however, because the very title of the act was diluted in the transition—the word "Full" was omitted, since there was no intention ot meeting President Harry S Truman's goal of Jull employment The Act merely set up a Council of Economic Advisers, whose major function has been to issue economic reports Strangely, Tyler is far from being the only scholar to perpetuate the error I have noted Among others, the Dictionary of American History alternates between "Employment Act" and "Full Employment Act," but mostly employs the latter New York City CHARLES COGEN Past President American Federation of Teachers Containment In "The Two Faces of American Diplomacy" (NL, January II), Barry Gewen refers to George F Ken-nan's famous Mr X article in the Spring 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs as popularizing "the doctrine of containment" that became the foundation for Washington's subsequent policies toward the USSR But it should be noted that a careful reading ot the article makes it clear Kennan was advocating hemming in the Soviet Union by strictly political, and not military, means True, the article recommends "firm containment designed to confront Russia with unalterable coun-ierforce," and at this point in Kennan's analysis he could be assumed to have in mind either an economic or military counterforce It is also true that the hardliners in Truman's and subsequent Administrations used the article as a support for their ensuing policy of military containment Kennan's concluding paragraphs, however, clear THE NEW LEADER welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...

...Or if Burgess is too British and too hghi how about the Russian segments of Thomas Pynchon's Gravitys Rainbow...

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...Not to mention the early novels of Vladimir Nabokov and practically the entire output of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem' The list could go on and on New York City JACK FELDMAN Your reviewer's praise notwithstanding, I found Bellow's latest disappointing Apart from its dismal atmosphere, it was even carelesslv written—I slopped counting the number of times ihe narrator's Rumanian wife is described as ' sternK absentminded lor example The Dean's December alas bear's out the superstition about the effect of the Nobel Prize on enters powers Boston M MACDARMID Everybody deserves a chance to make it on their own...