Vietnam Deserter

Re “Marine Charged With Reduced Form of Desertion in 1968 Case,� Sept. 23: What kind of a message do our men in uniform get when [Randy Caudill] a deserter (not a draft dodger) gets a less than honorable discharge but service personnel get court-martialed for adultery, etc.? Something is terribly wrong with the system.

MERLE S. GLICK

Los Angeles

* Re “It’s Time to End the Vietnam War,� by Clancy Sigal, Commentary, Sept. 24: Sigal’s statement, “I hardly ever met a serving enlisted man or woman who bore a grudge against the deserters,� brings to mind a statement made 25 years ago by a member of the New York literary set who stated that she couldn’t understand how Nixon won the election--none of the people she knew voted for him.

I suspect that as a Los Angeles screenwriter Sigal travels in the same rarefied circles as his compatriot in the East. Unfortunately, he appears to be just as hopelessly self-absorbed and culturally myopic.

For Sigal’s information there are hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans with elephant-like memories, who have small tolerance for deserters, and even less for those who truck with them. Our president, a shrewd and completely cynical politician, is surely aware of these facts and is not about to risk his current 69% approval rating in the polls by opening up this best forgotten can of worms. If Sigal wants dispensation, I suggest he go to the pope.

MARK NEDELMAN

Irvine

* Not to worry so much about how John Wayne would have regarded draft resisters and deserters. As a man who showed considerable talent in avoiding service during WWII, I am sure that Wayne would have had nothing but approbation for other practitioners of the fine art of getting others to handle your distasteful jobs.

Why was I not too surprised to find that one of President Clinton’s best friends was a draft resister?

ORVIS ADAMS

Los Alamitos