‘History of World War II’

Gerald Russello concludes his sloppy review of “My Dear Mr. Stalin,” the wartime correspondence between FDR and Joseph Stalin, with the following grammatically dubious sentence: “It is clear Truman (and Churchill, and others such as George Kennan) was right about the Soviet Union and its duplicity” [“An Epistolary History of World War II,” Arts & Letters, January 3, 2006].

Mr. Russello continues: “FDR, by contrast, was carried away by his belief that he could persuade the Soviets.”

Perhaps, in reading my foreward, Mr. Russello skipped Leon Henderson’s memo of a meeting with FDR on March 13, 1945.

FDR told Henderson, “The British, French and ourselves would abide by agreement but the Russians would do to suit themselves! I asked if they were not meticulous on things they agreed to. I remembered the [lend-lease] protocols. He said ‘yes’ – on protocols, on anything that would show, but anything else, they would go their own way.”

As FDR accurately predicted, the Soviets indeed went their own way.

ARTHUR SCHLESINGER JR.
Manhattan

‘Poland Re-Ups’

A very fine editorial about our steadfast ally, Poland [“Poland Re-Ups,” December 30, 2005].

Regarding the billions we send to anti-Semitic Egypt, it should also be stated that the only likely enemy of any note that Egypt could face would be our ally Israel. That would happen in the not-impossible event that Egypt attacks Israel. Why, therefore, does Egypt get all this unearned cash from us? Not Good!

LAURA GUTMAN, M.D.
Durham, N.C.

‘Shooting Blanks’

The National Rifle Association posted The New York Sun’s online editorial about gun trafficking on its Web site. I live in Sacramento, Calif., but grew up in Nassau County, N.Y. California and New York are both licensing-and-registration states as to handguns – though New York is stricter than California [“Shooting Blanks,” Editorial, January 4, 2005].

In all deference to Larry Keane, of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, I sincerely doubt that most of the handguns that turn up in the hands of illegal possessors were originally acquired by persons who had licenses to possess the same and were the registered owners of the same, given the licensing process straw transactions exist in New York, given the licensing process to acquire and possess a pistol or revolver.

Therefore, this notion that 70% of the guns recovered upstate were from in-state licensed sources is hard to believe. Are there a lot of unlicensed pistols and revolvers New York? Obviously, yes.

How many of those unlicensed guns, particularly upstate, came from in-state licensed sources who acquired the same consensually is probably negligible. In fact, the gun used to shoot and kill Officer Stewart was reported lost/stolen 1999 in Florida. It ended up in New York, but the issue is how it got there.

The problem in New York is that to show that you’re serious statewide, you have to indict the possessor and, once he is indicted, it’s difficult to deal. And, the federal prohibition on gun possession only deals with persons with criminal records or certain juveniles. A person with no federal hook for jurisdiction – aka a person with no “priors” – has no incentive to talk.

IRWIN J. NOWICK
Sacramento, CA

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