Maligning good men.

I enjoy the History perspective articles, and believe they are important as they create more understanding of our great political system. The article about Madison, "Mr. Madison's War" (June 25 issue), is a good example. But why the gratuitous slaps at Presidents Adams and Lincoln? John Adams is credited with laying out our republican form of government, the checks and balances being an example of most importance. It is true that he enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, but that action was taken because of his concern about the French Revolution and those forces attempting to break up our new nation. President Jefferson did allow the acts to expire, but not before he used them against his own critics.

The "sainted" Abraham Lincoln? And this sarcasm is better than when you called him a "dictator" in an earlier issue. Why such a narrow view of him?

DON KENNEDY

Littleton, Colorado

While I agree with Jack Kenny's intent with his War of 1812 article, I disagree with some of his opining on World War II. Kenny disparaged Roosevelt's actions prior to and during WWII, saying, "There was no enemy invasion of the United States proper during World War II." With his reasoning, we should have allowed the Japanese to invade the United States, and then enter the war. It is hard to criticize President Roosevelt for his handling of the war when we have people who would allow actual enemy troops into our land before we decide to fight. I guess Pearl Harbor wasn't so bad after all.

Mr. Kenny, I'll side with President Roosevelt. The Congress declared war on Japan and later Germany: It was legal. What Japan did was not. And if America had not entered the "global slaughterhouse," millions more would have been murdered by the demonic Axis powers. America didn't start the war; the Japanese, Russians, and Germans did.

I also take issue with his criticism of "the sainted Abraham Lincoln." Lincoln didn't start the Civil War. He had to deal with the greatest ordeal ever to come against our nation. He had to do extraordinary things to deal with extraordinary events.

DR. JAMES WARNER

Rockford, Illinois

Jack Kenny's observation that "there was no enemy invasion of the United States proper" was in reference to the possibility of such an invasion prompting "federal and state officials on the West Coast to round up and imprison without charge or trial some 100,000 residents of Japanese descent, many of them American citizens."--Ed.

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