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Yeas and Nays for Albright Readers responded to our Oct. 16 cover story on Yugoslavia with strong opinions and emotions about the politics of the region. "Thanks for the most exciting cover of the year--finally freedom for the long-suffering Yugoslavian people!" exulted one. Others had deep reservations about the U.S. role in the Balkans, contending, for example, that "the fall of Milosevic is not something that happened thanks to Madeleine Albright's efforts." Some criticism was even harsher: "Albright and her counterparts failed completely to anticipate how vigorously the Serbs on the ground would punish the population of Kosovo."

Hope and Caution in the Balkans Along with Madeleine Albright, I rejoice in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic ("Sweet Victory for Albright," INTERNATIONAL, Oct. 16). But I'm not about to light a bonfire and dance around it. Almost eight decades of observation have taught me a bit about the ups and downs in the Balkan region. Even in my cradle in the old country (Austria), I heard my parents talk about the "Balkan troubles." Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, which led to World War I and untold suffering for millions of families. An uncle of mine carried a bullet in his body for 28 years, until he died. Until a solution is found that will truly unite the diverse peoples of the Balkan region, the situation bears keeping a close watch for the next crisis to come along.
Frances Nunnally
Richmond, Va.

No sooner than the day of Milosevic's ouster and Vojislav Kostunica's victory did President Clinton, Madeleine Albright and other Western leaders attempt to take credit for what the Serbian people themselves accomplished. In fact, an ill-conceived U.S.-led foreign policy in the Balkans prolonged Milosevic's reign. Economic sanctions left people no choice but to turn to the black market controlled by Milosevic and his cronies, which gave them greater control. NATO's bombing only increased anti-Western sentiment, making the lives of pro-democracy opposition leaders more difficult. Albright shouldn't be so quick to pat herself on the back--she didn't help.
Milo Stevanovich
Chicago, Ill.

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The world salutes the heroes of Serbia. But Serbians should know that rebuilding is a slow process, and they should make sure that democracy is well guarded. The corrupt allies of Slobo will try to make a comeback, and I believe that Milosevic himself will try to regain power. The celebrations are now in high gear, but wait another decade and we'll see what may happen.
R. M. Salvio
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Quest for Middle East Peace Your article on the Middle East "No Peace in the Streets" (INTERNATIONAL, Oct. 30) says that "French President [Jacques] Chirac, according to U.S. sources, encouraged [Yasir] Arafat to hold out for a better deal after he had already agreed to one." I cannot let such an assertion go unanswered, because it is simply not true. At the meetings in Paris on the Middle East, President Chirac and the French authorities did their very best, alongside Madeleine Albright, to encourage Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat to reach an agreement. That was actually the whole purpose of the meeting, and it has always been the goal of France's strong commitment to peace in the Middle East. Those who allege that President Chirac encouraged Arafat to back away from an agreement he'd accepted are either ignoring the reality or trying to twist it for reasons of their own. The situation in the Middle East is far too serious to tolerate disinformation. France, the United States and their partners will never give up their common effort to break the cycle of violence and put the peace process back on track.
Catherine Colonna
Press Secretary for President Jacques Chirac
Paris, France The Truth About Gore After detailing the lies told so far by both presidential candidates ("Al Gore and the Fib Factor," BETWEEN THE LINES, Oct. 16), Jonathan Alter seems to excuse them by saying that "none of this is the slightest bit unusual in politics." But it should be. Alter could have gone on to condemn lying in politics and, perhaps, started a revolution by announcing that it is not acceptable behavior.
E. Steve Clever
Carlisle, Pa.

The so-called fibs attributed to Gore are often nothing more than the press's requoting inaccurate news accounts by others. Or a reporter's reiteration of the Bush campaign's attempt to "negatively spin" the Gore record--for example, claiming that Gore said, "I invented the Internet." The Internet claim is particularly unfortunate, because it ridicules Gore for something that was actually a positive achievement. I personally remember his touting the Information Superhighway as vice president at a time when I still thought of it as just a trendy fad for people hopelessly obsessed with their computers. But even Newt Gingrich has publicly given Gore credit for encouraging the development of the Internet. And no less an authority than Phillip Hallam-Baker, the man who helped create the World Wide Web, has called the smearing of Gore's reputation "a calculated piece of political propaganda to deny Gore credit for what is probably his biggest achievement."
Beth Shir
Thousand Oaks, Calif.

If I claimed to have written most of Bob Dylan's song lyrics, or you claimed to have helped Jonas Salk develop the vaccine for polio, no one would care; people would simply think we were foolish. But Al Gore is applying for the most important job on the planet, and therefore his judgment must be called into question. Why would he take such huge risks to his credibility for such inconsequential potential gains?
Nicholas Cook
Bernville, Pa.

Jonathan Alter refers to Gore's problems with the media cliches about "Love Story," Love Canal and inventing the Internet. Supposedly, everybody knows how Gore has lied to us about these topics. The trouble is, "everybody" is misinformed. In point of verifiable fact, (a) Gore never claimed to have "invented" the Internet, (b) he never claimed to have discovered the Love Canal problem and (c) he was, in fact, a model for Oliver Barrett in "Love Story," as the best-selling novel's author, Erich Segal, confirms. The repeated smearing, widely reported by the media and eagerly adopt-ed by the GOP spinners, has defamed and ridiculed a decent, honorable and highly capable public servant and, much worse, may well deprive the public of his leadership.
Ernest Partridge
Cedarpines Park, Calif.

Jonathan Alter lists among political "fibs" of the past that Jimmy Carter falsely claimed to be a "nuclear engineer." Not so. Carter was, in fact, a nuclear engineer. What he falsely claimed to be was a nuclear physicist--a different profession altogether, although obviously related.
Eric B. Lipps
Staten Island, N.Y.

So Gore is a liar and Bush is dim. I think quite a lot of people believe that and are heartily sick of this whole business. Just think, we could have a bloodless revolution just as dramatic as the recent events in Yugoslavia; we could have a breath of fresh air in the White House. Where is it written that our president must be a politician? If every person who is sick and tired of the Bush-Gore vaudeville act would walk into the voting booth next month and put his or her faith in Ralph Nader, we could send away the clowns and see how it works with a president who is beholden to no one but each individual person in this country. How lovely the change! How about it, people? Let's see if it might be possible to have an administration without corruption and scandal.
Robin L. Berenbaum
St. Johnsbury, Vt.

Dishing Day Care Day care is a must for people who are, economically, between a rock and a hard place ("Back to Day Care," SOCIETY, Oct. 16). Many parents, however, are signing their kids up and dropping them off because they are in pursuit of things that are much more important to them: the newest SUV, designer clothes, a bigger house and personal gratification. Some parents say new research shows that children develop more quickly than their peers if they are placed in day care, but I think they are trying to remove the guilt and anguish most parents feel over leaving their children with a "stranger" for 20-plus hours a week. Give me a break! It is a shame that a child under the age of 3 cannot adequately express, when Mommy and Daddy drop him off, that he doesn't care about how fast he will develop. I'll bet you any amount of money that such children would rather be home with Mommy or Daddy, who loves them like no other person can in this big world. You get only one chance at childhood, and I'm convinced that it shouldn't be wasted in a day-care center, no matter what the research shows.
Kathy Gonzalez
Ft. Recovery, Ohio

It's great that the benefits of quality child-care programs are being recognized. But what about the millions of families most in need of such child care who are denied access? Adequate care for two children in a center easily costs more than $12,000 a year, about $2,000 more than a minimum-wage worker earns. Head Start, the principal federal child-development program for children in poverty, is so underfunded that it can serve only half the eligible children. The Child Care and Development Block Grant, designed to help low-income parents pay for child care, serves only one in 10 eligible children. That puts every American at risk. Recently, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime organization made up of more than 1,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence, published a report showing that quality child care significantly cuts juvenile and adult crime and violence. That is why nearly every major national law-enforcement organization has called on federal and state governments to expand investment in educational child care and make it available to all families.
R. Gil Kerlikowske
Chief of Police, Seattle Police Department
Seattle, Wash.

"Back to Day Care" does a disservice to those of us who have decided to devote our time and talents to raising our children--at home. While we should all be concerned about the quality of care children receive, only a small percentage of day-care centers are high quality. So let's not leave "parent" off the list of available caregivers. At-home parenting may not be a trend worthy of profiling in NEWSWEEK, but it is a career path millions of mothers (and a growing number of fathers) have consciously chosen.
Susan De Ritis
Mothers at Home
Fairfax, Va.

Get Little, Be Cozy Thank you, Sarah Susanka. for years I wondered why a family of four needs an energy-guzzling house with two-story windows, cavernous rooms and multiple bathrooms ("Home Is Where the Heart Is," ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, Oct. 16). Does each family member need to have his or her own "space"? Shouldn't the goal be to be together in a "home," or is that status symbol, the "house," now more important?
Helene R. Lee
Lockport, N.Y.

Sarah Susanka touches on so many profound issues in America today: materialism, consumerism, spirituality, psychology and the environment. While reading the article I could feel the warmth and coziness of the houses that Susanka designs, contrasted with the hollowness of sprawling homes built to be filled with unnecessary material possessions. Susanka couldn't be more on target when she says people are usually not relaxed in enormous rooms, and that "we tend to gravitate toward the corners of spaces to feel protected." Check out the Web site notsobighouse.com to learn more about the theoretical perspectives that support downsizing our homes.
Lisa Dambach
Ferndale, Mich.

A Triathlon Takes Time Thank you for reporting on the sport of triathlon and the timing chips now in use at most of our races ("Microchips for Mega-Athletes," CYBERSCOPE, Oct. 16). The debut of triathlon as an Olympic event this year in Sydney has focused increasing attention on this growing sport for competitors of all ages. Finishing times for triathlons of various distances range from less than an hour for sprint distances, to about two hours for the Olympic distance, to about four hours for a half-Ironman. However, having finished two full Ironman distance races myself, I can tell you that the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run cannot be covered in "under five hours," as you reported. This year's top male and female professionals in Hawaii crossed the finish line in eight hours and 21 minutes and nine hours and 26 minutes, respectively.
John Kelso
San Diego, Calif.

Not Every Vote Counts George Will needs to brush up a bit on either his American history or his arithmetic. He says that from 1876 to 1892, five consecutive presidents (Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison and Cleveland again) were elected by pluralities. Two of those presidents, however, did not get even a plurality of the votes. In 1876 and 1888, Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison were elected despite coming in behind their opponents (Samuel J. Tilden and Grover Cleveland, respectively) in the popular vote.
Tim Durkin
East Lansing, Mich.

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