Erik Prince's war on terror; going out with a big bang; noblesse obliged; who’s afraid of Goldman Sachs?; Glee-ful praise; merrily seeking Meryl; Elvis lives; out of the foxhole

Thank you for giving Erik Prince a voice [“Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy,” by Adam Ciralsky, January]. While many Americans and politicians believe that all things are accomplished with a civilized dinner, the sad truth is people like Mr. Prince and others employed as special operators are a necessary evil. Without them, our country is in mortal danger. Whatever anyone says or thinks about Erik Prince or Blackwater, wait and do some research. You don’t know him; you do not know what he has done to keep you, your family, your military, and your country safe. Don’t judge Blackwater or anyone in wartime without first asking yourself, “Would I, could I, do what had to be done to protect others?” Chances are you would not. And judging by the high standards one must meet to become a SEAL, you could not. God bless them, Mr. Prince, and America. Thank you.

MARC LAMBERT

Orange, California

ERIK PRINCE IS A MAN who should get a congressional medal for what he has done for this country! Maybe you should remind your readers of that famous quote popularly attributed to George Orwell: “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” If we had had a man like Erik Prince dispatching a small, well-trained team in Rwanda, we would never have had the genocide that took place there. General Romeo Dallaire, the valiant Canadian who stayed to save as many people as he could, commented, more than once, that it would not have taken a lot of men to stop the mobs, just welltrained ones. Just the kind of men Erik Prince would have put into the field. And for all those who have served, myself included, the next time capitalize the word “Navy.”

JOSEPH P. FERNANDEZ JR.

Capitola, California

YOUR ARTICLE IS THE BEST media reporting I’ve seen on Erik Prince. I’ve known this man for years and consider him to be of such high integrity I would let him babysit my grandchildren. Keep up the good work.

CHARLES SAMFILIPPO

Hudsonville, Michigan

IN ERIK PRINCE, we have another G. Gordon Liddy—a half-mad “patriot” to whom nobody in government has the testicles, or simple good sense, to say “No.”

RON BONN 

San Diego, California

PARTICLE MAGIC

I WAS COMPELLED to praise Kurt Andersen’s superlative writing skill after reading only the first paragraph of his article on the Large Hadron Collider (“The Genesis 2.0 Project,” January). In one pitch-perfect paragraph he eloquently summed up the disparate state of the union regarding modem culture and the scientific communities’ efforts to understand our context inside this natural environment within which we are mysteriously fixed. Bravo, Mr. Andersen! Encore, please.

ROBERT GUTHRIE 

Ormond Beach, Florida

AS A DABBLER IN PHYSICS who is frequently defeated by physicists’ explanations, I was alternately amused, bemused, and thankful that Kurt Andersen wrote with such clarity and ebullience about a machine whose purpose is so grandly arcane. Once in a while, though, his efforts to engage gave me pause. On page 91 he calls the L.H.C., in boastful italics, “the coldest place in the universe.” Perhaps Mr. Andersen reflects the hubris of Homo sapiens in assuming that we, and we alone, could have built such machines.

BARRY JONES 

Toronto, Ontario

IF WE ARE to take global warming seriously, why is so much money being spent on the Large Hadron Collider? It seems that we are interested more in how the world began than in how it might end.

JOHN BRENNAN 

Lincoln, England

KURT ANDERSEN'S ARTICLE Large Hadron Collider was as good a story about particle physics as I have ever read. I am one of the few particle physicists in the world who are not collaborators on one of the magnificent experiments at the L.H.C., and the combination of spectacular photos and excellent storytelling made it a joy to read. Thanks, and please do more science stories in V.F.

MICHAEL SIVERTZ

Center Moriches, New York

BRIDESHEAD SUBDIVIDED

CHARLES SPENCER’S SUPERB ARTICLE, “Enemies of the Estate” (January), held my fascination to the last word. As an American who lived in Britain for many years, I view the great stately homes as true national treasures. I don’t care how it’s done—they must not be allowed to deteriorate or simply fade away.

MANY OF US BRITS escaped the British class system and moved to Canada, Australia, or the U.S., where the color of your blood (blue or otherwise) doesn’t affect your success in life. We have absolutely no sympathy for the British aristocracy’s “travails,” the French word for “work,” a term foreign to most of the “noble” families and their thousands of relatives. These families got their land and even stately homes as gifts from kings and queens, and certainly never earned them, whereas the serfs who worked this land and the household servants who catered to the aristocracy’s every whim had to bow and tug their forelocks or tip their hats when such people passed. In modern America, all this would be considered shocking and shameful. Modern Britain is still very much a class society where the accent you have and the noble family you belong to give you access to jobs and provide

LOUIS C. KLEBER Las Vegas, Nevada an entree into the exclusive circles in which these privileged leeches move. So you will excuse me if I don’t break out the Kleenex if they have to sell their vast properties.

ALAN MEW

Baie-d’Urfé, Quebec

IT IS DIFFICULT to conjure up much sympathy for Spencer’s bewailing of the sticky-fingered stepmothers. The British have been hauling off priceless antiquities from around the globe for centuries without so much as an if-you-please. So to those winners of the sperm-bank lottery holding the winning primogeniture ticket: No whining, please. As an American, I do want to apologize, however, for those lady looters who never did acquire good taste.

JAN DEAN

Honokaa, Hawaii

ALL THAT GUTTERS

THIS ONGOING WORSHIP, fear, and hate of Goldman Sachs amazes me [“The Bank Job,” by Bethany McLean, January]. Every publication today refuses to place this “brain trust” in context. We have just finished a 10-year period when the total public and private debt of this nation skyrocketed, creating a situation analogous to having huge bags of money fall from the sky. Anyone who was involved in money in any capacity had to merely step outside and catch it. Goldman did nothing more nor less. The idea that making billions over the past 10 years required any talent other than “showing up” is all about ego. I’m tired of hearing about “brilliant brokers.” These folks used to be appropriately regarded as low on the food chain—their clients were the smart ones. What happened?

ANDREW GORAYEB 

Sisters, Oregon

THANK YOU for an excellent article on Goldman Sachs. It is widely accepted that it is the best in its industry, which is admirable, and making money with those skills is also fine. No firm hedges its risk better than Goldman. But hedging your risks with A.I.G. as a counterparty, and assuming that the government would have to rescue that company because of the huge systemic risk of having it fail—thus essentially bankrupting the entire financial industry—is something else. Goldman Sachs has taken a bet against its country. And it should either admit that (and probably apologize) or accept that it is immoral. I am afraid the latter is the case.

ROB C. LABADIE

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

MANY THANKS to Graydon Carter [Editor’s Letter, January], who, within a page, deftly outlined the enormity of Wall Street’s crimes. We need not only a progressive party to frame an opposition agenda but also a thoroughgoing reform of campaign finance, severe restrictions on mega-lobbies, and far more arraignments of bankers, investors, collusive legislators, lobbyists, and even a recent president with his cronies. The blatant, cynical actions of Goldman Sachs are a sign of systemic failure. Time to brush up on our Marx.

JERELINK Atlanta, Georgia

SHOUTING OUT WITH GLEE

I APPRECIATED James Wolcott’s story “Of Glee I Sing” (January) and the attention it brought to musical-theater programs in schools. The Fox television show Glee, like High School Musical, has been invaluable not only in making the public aware of the millions of U.S. students who participate in school theater programs but also in telling students that they can be cool and share team experiences without having to kick, throw, or hit a ball. I also respect that Mr. Wolcott included his painful observation that school arts funding is being slashed as part of the old-line mentality that arts are “frilly extras.” However, I can help cheer up Mr. Wolcott by informing him that the arts and musical theater are still doing fine in schools across the United States. In 2009 my company licensed 21,000 productions for middle and high schools and another 7,800 for elementary schools. This makes me feel like singing and dancing, and I wanted Mr. Wolcott to know he can sing along, too.

V.F. CLASSIC

'The decision is clear! It is either die or go to my beloved feathered friends." So concluded Bruno Zehnder in 1997. when the restless 51-year-old photographer resolved to make one last voyage to Antarctica to capture on film the birth of an emperor penguin, his life's work and obsession. As Ned Zeman wrote in his January 2000 story. “Death Among the Emperors,” Zehnder s decision to re-unite with his beloved feathered friends proved fateful. An eccentric adventurer of Swiss-German origins who suffered from acute manic depression and felt an intimate connection with the birds. Zehnder had often pushed his luck, venturing deep into the Antarctic to photograph them in their natural environment. When he rejoined the crealures in July 1997, he found them as majestic and poignant as ever, even as he strayed into it vicious storm and got stranded, freezing to death within hours and breathing new life into the poetic ideal of romantic death.

FREDDIE GERSHON 

Chairman and C.E.O., Music Theatre International New York, New York

RE DISCOVERING MERYL

In 1978, as I watched the television series Holocaust, I noticed a young blonde woman whose acting was absolutely breathtaking, and I thought, This is an actor to watch for in the future. It was Meryl Streep. I feel like I discovered her. Thank you for the article and photos in the January issue [“Something About Meryl,” by Leslie Bennetts]. And I, and millions of others, will watch with excited anticipation for the next role she chooses.

ROSANN ROGERS 

St. Augustine, Florida

THE BOY WHO WOULD BE KING

THE JANUARY ISSUE is no doubt the best I’ve ever read. I usually find at least one article, sometimes more, that doesn’t interest me. In this case all were fascinating. Thanks, too, for publishing the photos of a young Elvis Presley [“The First of Elvis,” by Bob Colacello; photographs by A1 Wertheimer]. I’m so tired of the jumpsuited Elvis and, worse, the bloated jumpsuited Elvis.

FRAN PATTERSON Bloomingdale, Illinois

UNHOLY WARRIOR

IN REGARD TO Christopher Hitchens’s online article “In Defense of Foxhole Atheists” [December], I can attest, as a current activeduty airman, that religion is commandsponsored and punishment-enforced in U.S.A.F. Basic Military Training (B.M.T.) held at Lackland Air Force Base, in Texas. During B.M.T., trainees are very strongly encouraged to attend some form of religious service and post-service study. Though not technically required to attend, those who choose not to attend the services and post-service studies are punished by being assigned to perform manual labor both in and around their dormitories. Those who attend the religious services are not required to do as much labor. Despite being an atheist, I was basically forced to go to Mass, simply because the alternative was manual labor. I have no problem respecting the beliefs of others, but should I have been punished for not believing?

NAME WITHHELD

Bellevue, Nebraska

Letters to the editor should be sent electronically with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number to letters@ vf.com. Letters to the editor will also be accepted via fax at 212-286-4324. All requests for back issues should be sent to subscriptions® vf.com. All other queries should be sent to vfmail@vf.com. The magazine reserves the right to edit submissions, which may be published or otherwise used in any medium. All submissions become the property of Vanity Fair.

MORE FROM THE V.F. MAILBAG

'I swear by Vanity Fair. It is my personal bible. And I think the guys that do the breezy Hot Tracks and Hot Type pages [Lisa Robinson and Elissa Schappell, respectively] have the hardest job in that office, and they carry it so well," writes Chude Jideonwo, from Lagos, Nigeria. “However, please! The next time I sec the quote ‘When you've loved and lost the way Frank has, then you know what life's about’... I will tear my hair out! And it will [like most things Ed.] be Graydon Carter’s fault.”

"Would you mind sending me the rest of the magazine?" asks Lolly Heilman, of Venice Beach, California. “I was reading the article on Elvis Presley [January 2010] and in turning the page ... I found that pages 51 through 62 were missing.” [Pages mysteriously missing? Like we said: see previous note Ed ]

“BRAVO, Vanity Fair, for having the courage to put the face of a beautiful 60-year-old woman on the cover of your magazine,” writes Suzanne Clinton, of Farmington. Michigan. “It was refreshing to read [in “Something About Meryl," by Leslie Bennetts, January] about a truly beautiful, intelligent, well-educated, and very talented person, minus an enormous ego." David Cuthbert, of New Orleans, believes that Mike Nichols is wrong when he says in that piece that Meryl Streep “‘broke the glass ceiling of an older woman being a big star—it has never, never happened before.' What about the Oscar-winning Marie Dressier (Min and Hill, Anna Christie, Dinner at Eight, Tugboat Annie), who became the biggest, most popular star in movies at the age of 62, in 1930, and remained so until her death, in 1934?” True, though a mere glance at a photo of Dressler proves the resemblance ends there.

Theme issue: Carole Del Monte, of the Villages, Florida, asks, “Could you make the print in parts of Funfair larger?" Merrill N. Plughof, “a longtime reader" in Omak, Washington, requests an increase in “the size of print on major articles_I don't mean a whole lot bigger. Just a tad." And an anonymous reader sees her inability to make out the “teeny tiny letters" in “The Coaster Correspondence” as evidence of her “descent into middle age."

“Why is a magazine of Vanity Fairs status publishing such utter, irrelevant, and repetitious drivel as Charles Spencer's “Enemies of the Estate'?" wonders Gabriela Bronicki, of Brookline, Massachusetts. On the other hand: “Charles Spencer’s erudition rather surprised me," confesses Michael Allen, from Dorset, England, “but...I find that he did attend rather a good school and read history at Cambridge, so obviously I had previously relied too much on press reports.” Jacqui Trott-Bally. of Los Angeles. California, calls Spencer's story a “wonderful gossip piece disguised as [a] history lesson. However, I would have enjoyed this more if it wasn't such a veiled attack on his stepmother and ex-wives." For Kate Missett. of Gillette, Wyoming, the problem was bigger than simple attacks. veiled or otherwise: “I have a very difficult time being interested in what the British royalty are doing, have done (except as their history affects the world), or will do_The Brits ought to boot them all."

Finally, from Michael Fenner, in Montreal: "Dear Mr. Carter: My wife and I love your magazine and your convictions on life. Regardless of the fact that you went to Carleton instead of McGill, we still admire you as a great Canadian. Accordingly, we just named our son Graydon Bertam he has big shoes to fill.” [Hear that, Chude Jideonwo?—Ed.]