Letters

Readers unfamiliar with the workings of the entertainment industry may not understand why a single writer makes much difference, but breaking real news has never been a trade-paper specialty. Mr. Robb was the exception. Gale Holland’s insightful piece correctly identified his departure as the real tragedy of the recent controversy at the Reporter.

—Stephen Bowie
New York City

DOUBLE TROUBLE

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Kissinger” [WLS, April 27–May 3]. Christopher Hitchens’ latest nonsense about Henry Kissinger weaves fact and fiction, and I am appalled that Greg Goldin so happily accepts his incorrect figures and stats. All of my almanacs — four of them — confirm, for example, that the number of American dead [in the Vietnam War] from 1969 (when President Nixon took office) through 1973 comes to 15,616. Where Hitchens comes up with 32,000, only he knows.

Nixon started withdrawing American troops within his first three months in office, despite Goldin’s reference to Nixon “extending and widening” the war. (Presumably, he is referring to the bombing of Cambodia and Laos, both of which harbored the enemy.) Nixon and Kissinger brought us peace. Better Hitchens, and Goldin, should target those who brought the U.S. in (e.g., John F. Kennedy) than those who got us out of it.

—Rosalyn Moran
Torrance

EDITOR’S NOTE: Hitchens claims that he noted 22,000 dead (for Nixon’s first term and, presumably, for the period of several months between the suspension of the Paris peace talks and the January 1969 inauguration) in his original manuscript, and that the inflation of that figure by 10,000 was a publisher’s typo.

THE SINGER NOT THE SONG

DEAR EDITOR:

Thanks for Doug Harvey’s “Dismembering Harry Smith” [May 4–10]. When I was an animation student in New York City in the late ’70s, naturally we had to put in some time with Smith’s curious work, but there never seemed to be anything in there that I thought I’d need to make it through this world. I feel like I really should give it another try — but something tells me it’ll be a letdown after Harvey’s inspired article.

—Georganne Deen
Los Feliz

DEAD WRONG

In my review of Run-DMC’s Crown Royal [April 13–19], I erroneously confused Fat Joe with his equally overweight but unequally deceased compatriot Big Pun. So, South Bronx fans, rest easy. Fat Joe still lives to breathe . . . and eat.

—Oliver Wang
Oakland