To the Editor:
Re “Ex-Special Counsel Clashes With G.O.P. Senators at Hearing” (news article, Sept. 30):
I watched as Senator Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, staged his pathetic attempt to smear Jack Smith by accusing him of perjury and saying that history would remember Mr. Smith, the special counsel who investigated President Trump, as a “dirtbag.” I found his line of questioning to be both reprehensible and dishonest.
I am old enough to remember Watergate, so I have a clear memory of how honorable the Republican senators were then in how they dealt with President Richard Nixon’s attempt to circumvent the Constitution. Watching Senator Schmitt, a former prosecutor, try to discredit and defame Mr. Smith for investigating, among other things, President Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, was, for me, beyond the pale, beyond outrage, beyond decency.
When the Trump era finally passes — and its end cannot come fast enough for me — it will be clear how history will remember Mr. Trump’s time on the political stage. It won’t be pretty, but it will be the truth.
Len DiSesa Dresher, Pa.
To the Editor:
As I watched the moving exchange between Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and the former special prosecutor Jack Smith, I was filled with pride. Their courage was an inspiration in these dark times.
Senator Booker presented the facts about President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Republican Party’s perpetuation of the lie that the election was stolen from him coherently and forcefully. Mr. Smith responded about what his investigation uncovered about Mr. Trump’s role in the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a calm, controlled demeanor.
The critical importance of standing up to this mendacious, self-serving and corrupt administration cannot be overestimated. My sincere gratitude to these brave men. Hopefully, speaking the truth and demonstrating integrity will inspire others.
One can only hope!
Joanne E. Reed Rye, N.Y.
Tales of Two Reporters: Harrison Salisbury and Walter Cronkite
To the Editor:
Re “The Moscow Bureau Chief and His Soviet Censor: A Love Story, of Sorts,” by M. Gessen (column, Sept. 27):
Mx. Gessen’s column about their grandmother’s censorship of The Times’s correspondent Harrison Salisbury included a recollection from their grandmother that Walter Cronkite, my grandfather, “never filed anything but a regurgitation of Soviet press items” when he served as United Press bureau chief in Moscow in the late 1940s.
It should be noted that none of my grandfather’s contemporaries who worked alongside him in Moscow or edited his reports back in the United States shared Mx. Gessen’s grandmother’s criticism.
Harrison Salisbury was my grandfather’s boss and mentor during World War II when Mr. Salisbury served as the United Press London bureau chief and my grandfather was an up-and-coming reporter. Mr. Salisbury himself wrote that my grandfather was “the best operating hard news man in London” and praised his “professionalism and courage.”
Walter Cronkite IV Alexandria, Va.
To the Editor:
M. Gessen pointed out that public criticism of Harrison Salisbury’s reporting from Russia for The Times stemmed from the absence of a “slug” — that is, his editor’s refusal to acknowledge the Soviet censorship that removed information and often wrecked the substance and style of Mr. Salisbury’s reporting.
Mx. Gessen should have added that Mr. Salisbury received the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his series “Russia Re-Viewed,” which made him famous and corrected mistaken public opinion. Today he is considered one of the last century’s best journalists.
Donald E. Davis Eugene P. Trani The writers are the authors of “The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: Harrison Salisbury and The New York Times.”
My Favorite Planet
To the Editor:
Re “The Most Promising Planets Beyond Our Solar System,” by Natalie Wolchover (Other Worlds column, Science Times, Sept. 22):
One of the great tragedies of becoming an adult is that unless you’re an astrophysicist or a paleontologist, people stop asking you what your favorite planet or dinosaur is. That’s a shame, because it may provide more insight into a person’s curiosity, values and imagination than most of the questions you’re likely to hear in a job interview or a political debate.
My own choices: Pluto and Triceratops. Why Pluto in particular? It was discovered by an American, was named by an 11-year-old girl, has an eccentric orbit and a giant heart and is resilient and undeterred that it was unjustly kicked out of the club.
Stephen A. Silver San Francisco
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