TODAY'S LETTERS: Readers Respond to Column About Iraq and Lady Bird Johnson Photo

By: E&P Staff Even though it's July, readers aren't on vacation from writing in. Today we heard back about Greg Mitchell's column about Iraq and a photo that ran with the obituary about Lady Bird Johnson.


Who Will Be Last Soldier to Die for Iraq Mistake?
Excellent piece on the NYFT's latest war campaign. You'd think Gordon would at least read the NYFT editorial on Sunday, which makes a swipe at how the U.S. can get out of Iraq. That was small consolation, given how much they contributed to the Iraq fiasco in the first place. On my editorial board (which opted to support the invasion, over my loud objections), there's a belief that the Bushies aren't crazy enough to launch military action against Iran. I beg to differ. They are crazy enough to do anything.

Once again, great piece. You are a strong voice for real journalism in this time of propaganda.

Bob Keeler


I appreciate this article but I really have a problem with the word "mistake." It was not a mistake. It was a crime. And, sadly, those GIs dying and fighting there now are participants in a war crime. Let me take you back a bit further than Nam: Nuremburg. My sympathies are with the 650,000 dead Iraqis at this point.

Kona Lowell
Hawaii


Lady Bird Page One Photo Flipped in Two Texas Papers
If Lyndon Johnson still been alive, the two Texas papers that flipped Lady Bird Johnson's photos might well have heard from him.

He had a thing about flipped pix, at least it was his photo in question. Yoki Okamoto, his personal White House photograper, learned that early on in their association. Johnson, who regarded on side of his face as better than the other, scolded Okamoto when the latter reversed one profile shot and it to his boss to prove that one side was as good as another. After first okaying the reversed shot, he snapped at Yoki, "Don't ever do that again!" (I have forgotten which side Johnson favored, but I suspect it was his left, since so many of Yoki's photos show him from that side.)

Johnson really was sensitive about his photos. When I did "Journey to the Pacific" for USIA, about Johnson's first presidential visit to Vietnam, I had to have my final selection flown down to the ranch in Texas for top approval. The approval came back, signed by Bill Moyers: "Delete thephoto of the President dancing with Imedla Marcos." Fernando Marcos, it seems, had been critical of the up-close-and-personal attention
Lyndon was paying to Imelda on the dance floor.

Wes Pedersen
Chevy Chase, MD