Editorial Undervalued Havel, Overpraised Annan

To the editors:

Re “Commencing With Lithgow,” editorial, Apr. 13:

Vaclav Havel, a leader of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution of 1989, is one of the great heroes of democracy of the twentieth century. He is also a highly regarded playwright and author. On the other hand, I believe the most famous thing Kofi Annan has ever written is the notorious fax in which he explicitly forbade United Nations troops from interfering in the Rwandan genocide. In addition to looking the other way through an ever-growing series of genocides, Annan is presiding over the oil-for-food scandal, one of the largest humanitarian crimes in history, and accusations of multiplying cases of rape and pedophilia committed by U.N. troops the world over. To dismiss Havel as a no-name lightweight compared to Annan, as you do in your otherwise well-reasoned editorial supporting John Lithgow ’67, is a disgrace not only to liberals and victims of the U.N. in particular but also to all your readers.

ADRIAN N. GATY ’07

April 14, 2005