VOICES FROM THE HOME FRONT

Votes are in for Bush; Rebecca Sieff urged to get out more; Sotheby’s, house of sadomasochists; while the C.I.A. slept; an Afghan-American meets Massoud; Tom Cruise’s double message; tuning out Geraldo, Wolf, Chris, et al.

Excellent article this month on President Bush [“War and Destiny: The White House in Wartime,” by Christopher Buckley, February]. As a conservative, I feel that my party and the president are often treated unfairly by popular magazines. However, Vanity Fair was sophisticated enough to look past ideology and to focus on a man who was thrust into one of the least enviable positions of any American president in history. Whether you love him or hate him, there’s no denying that he has risen to the occasion.

MATT NORMAN Annandale, Virginia

HOW DOES IT FEEL to be part of the crowd fawning over the mediocre underachiever who has done little in his life for the benefit of those outside his elite circle of family and friends?

War and destiny? Please, I have never seen so much self-indulgent melodrama. Is our society so desperate for stimulation and drama that we can no longer see reality? This is not a war, and G.W.B. sure as hell isn’t Winston Churchill or F.D.R.

LACIE SOOTER Dallas, Texas

VANITY FAIR IS ONE of the few magazines that preserve what I consider some kind of intellectual integrity, and the one place where I can usually find refuge from the hysteria and war propaganda of most of the mainstream media. We already have the New York Post, Reader’s Digest, and Ladies’ Home Journal to glorify and mythologize the Bush administration. What a disappointment to see V.F. join the herd.

DAVID COGSWELL Hoboken, New Jersey

WHAT A RIVETING PHOTOGRAPH on the cover of your February edition. Each time I looked at it, I felt the impact of the enormous responsibility placed upon the shoulders of these great leaders.

SANDRA MILLER Memphis, Tennessee

I AM A DEMOCRAT, and for me the jury is still out on George W. Bush. However, I was deeply impressed that he posed for the cover of Vanity Fair. It is encouraging to know that he is beginning to understand the importance of image.

CINDY O’DONNELL Havertown, Pennsylvania

THE MARK TWAIN QUOTE in tiny print on your February cover gave me pause [“It is a worthy thing to fight for one’s freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man’s”]. The implication that we are fighting for “another man’s” freedom is wrong. If that were so, then we should have gone into Afghanistan ages ago when some of us were petitioning our congresspeople about the repressive regime of the Taliban. Nobody in a position of power wanted to get involved, especially since we had helped create the regime. And very few in power wish to start a fight for freedom anywhere else in the world unless United States interests are at stake. Let’s not kid ourselves.

MARJORIE LEWIS Canaan, New York

I FAIL TO UNDERSTAND the amazement that Bush could pull together a coalition. Under the circumstances, no one could fail to gather world support. It’s as though he were being applauded for breathing.

RUTHALICE ANDERSON Portland, Oregon

I WAS READING “War and Destiny” with ease and satisfaction until one sentence sent chills up my spine. In reference to Mr. Bush, Christopher Buckley stated, “His predecessor was a brighter intellect, perhaps one of the brightest ever to inhabit the White House.” Please, sir, don’t insult the great presidents who preceded Clinton. It is highly doubtful that Clinton or Gore would have had the strength or the knowledge to handle a crisis like this.

ANGELA A. D’ALESSANDRO North Haledon, New Jersey

PHOTOGRAPHS ARE so revealing. After seeing the cover of your February issue, everyone in America will become aware that the guy at the center of the circle, Dick Cheney, is president. If you’re standing behind his chair and have to flash your presidential belt buckle for identification, you ain’t the Man. The Man always sits; everyone else stands.

TED PERCH Willimantic, Connecticut

AS A COLLEGE STUDENT and former boarding-school brat, I’m well schooled in the art of wallpapering a room with images of pop-star princesses and automotive necessities. By the time I reached Annie Leibovitz’s image of dear, sweet Condi, I knew what I had to do. Another trip to the newsstand and I had enough pictures to create a touchingly tacky shrine to my favorite folks in D.C. I’m no stalker, mind you, but having spent too much of my life seeing the White House occupied by a total sleazeball, it’s refreshing to see people who know to leave the trailer-park antics in the trailer park.

BILLY FISHER IV Hampden Sydney, Virginia

HISTORIANS WILL NOT NOTE that Condoleezza Rice was the “presidential sounding board.” They will note that she was the proponent of ridiculously archaic unilateralism at a time when Americans would need allies more than ever.

NANCY ERIKA SMITH Montclair, New Jersey

THANKS TO ANNIE LEIBOVITZ for exposing the smoke-and-mirrors act of the West Wing, by her subtle portrayal of Governor Ridge, surrounded by all the props of a stage well set. Bet he and his boss were surprised by that one.

TRISH RILEY Sunrise, Florida

COULD ANNIE LEIBOVITZ have taken a more unflattering photograph of President Bush—with a poorly shaven face, hair coming out of his ears, and no touch-ups? I can’t imagine her portraying her beloved Clinton as she did President Bush.

LINDA COATES Hicson, Arizona

MY TWO-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, Beth, was impressing family members this evening when she pointed out, “That is George on the front of your magazine.” My sister couldn’t believe that a two-year-old Canadian would recognize the president of the United States. When my sister got up a moment later and flipped the magazine closed she realized that, while still an exceptional child, Beth was recognizing “Curious George” on the back cover of the magazine in an Altoids advertisement.

M. McKAY Toronto, Ontario

AFTER COMPARING THIS COVER to the recent ones of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, I have one question: How did you manage to talk the president into keeping his shirt on?

GARY JONES North Vancouver, British Columbia

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HER OWN PRIVATE BRIDESHEAD

V.F. HAS PROFILED some shallow, spoiled, rich brats in its time, but Rebecca Sieff is among the worst [“The Woman Who Set Out to Marry a House,” by Plum Sykes, February]. Not only has she wasted more money than most people will make in a lifetime, but she doesn’t appear to make any meaningful contribution to the world. She really expects us to believe she had any reservation about getting involved with Simon Howard? I’m sure this empty-headed, broke gold digger wouldn’t let a little thing like a wife stand in the way of reaching her goals.

MARY MAERCKLEIN

Escanaba, Michigan

WHAT A COMFORT. Plum Sykes’s article has proved that not everything was changed forever by the tragic events of September 11. There are still people on this planet who have such shallow, vapid lives that their day can be ruined when they realize that their head gardener failed to heed their instructions on the “municipal” orange roses. It is indeed charming that on some days the lass will help her housekeeper clean. But since she seems to have an abundance of staff to do the dirty work, perhaps she could better use her time devoting herself to charitable causes.

JOHN CAMINITI Brooklyn, New York

“THE WOMAN WHO Set Out to Marry a House” is a wonderful romp through the world of the rich and devious. Pamela Hanson’s photography was breathtaking, and Plum Sykes certainly knows how to spin a fairy tale. It’s an international dream, isn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t want to be the lord of the manor and rule over a village full of envious detractors? I’m sure someone had to find a silver spoon to keep Nan Darien from swallowing her tongue after reading this article.

DAVID W. BEDDINGFIELD Decatur, Alabama

I ASSUME THAT whatever health challenges the Howard twins will have as a result of their mother’s smoking while they were in utero are going to be the nanny’s problem to deal with.

KATE VALLADARES El Sobrante, California

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

IN DOMINICK DUNNE’S beautifully written article “Everything to Lose” [February], one thing became evident: rich people enjoy being swindled by other rich people.

Mr. Dunne reports that, after the trial was over and Mr. Taubman was found guilty, A1 and Judy Taubman re-entered New ^fork’s social scene “beaming.” It appears that Taubman simply sees his price-fixing crime at Sotheby’s as a caper—a small, capricious escapade.

CAROLE WADE Los Angeles, California

WHILE DEDE BROOKS is ranked low on my list of where to park sympathy these days, I’m still intrigued by the question “Why?” I’ve thought of the hubristic answer—we did the deed because we are Alfred Taubman and Dede Brooks and we could—but perhaps there is another, more basic one.

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When given a directive to set up an illegal deal, it does no good to raise measly qualms, high moral objections, and the like. You are now a threat simply because you know about the deal, and so, should you refuse, the powers that be will, figuratively speaking, simply have to kill you.

With more corporate trials, such as those resulting from the collapse of Enron, sure to be looming ahead, I suggest that human-resources departments hand out framed, handstitched samplers to all executives on their very first day of work. The motto? DON’T DO THE CRIME IF YOU CAN’T DO THE TIME.

BARBARA RUBENSTEIN New York, New York

I AM COMPLETELY HOOKED on the Safra case and hope Dominick Dunne will continue to get to the bottom of this tragic and bizarre conspiracy. Mr. Dunne keeps our appetites whetted. I cannot wait for the next issue.

RUHEEN JAISWAL New Delhi, India

THE BEST AND THE BLINDEST

I CANNOT THANK YOU enough for your reportage on the various aspects of our current political involvement in Afghanistan. I was particularly impressed by the honesty and succinctness of Sam Tanenhaus’s piece on the C.I.A. [“The C.I.A.’s Blind Ambition,” January]. I lived and worked in Iran from 1967 to 1977 and was stunned that our government appeared totally oblivious to the revolution, which was already under way when I left in mid1977. At the end of that year, the Carters visited, and the president pronounced Iran “an outpost of stability” and the Shah “a model of enlightenment”—or words close to those. Before I left, however, there had been sporadic guerrilla fighting in the northern suburbs of Teheran, and the odd American “military adviser” was being picked off as he drove to work.

When I returned to the U.S., feeling really presumptuous I contacted the State Department and the White House: here I was, a lowly English teacher trying to tell the government that they were being utterly misinformed. For my efforts I got a formulaic thank-you from Hodding Carter and an invitation to join “The President’s Club,” a fund-raising organization to re-elect Carter.

I then contacted Professor James Bill at the University of Texas, who had helped conduct part of our orientation training before I went to Iran, initially as a Peace Corps member. He wrote back, “Look, they’re paying me $250 a day to come to Washington and lecture them at the State Department and they’re ignoring everything I say, so don’t feel bad!”

DARRYL A. SPENCER Johnson & Wales University Charleston, South Carolina

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MASSOUD'S UNQUIET GRAVE

SEPTEMBER 11 HAD devastating effects on us Afghan-Americans. As we mourned the lives lost in New York, Washington, and Afghanistan, we quietly became “closet Afghans.” These days on airplanes, for example, I will no longer strike up a casual conversation with the passenger seated next to me, for fear I will be asked, “You have an interesting accent. Where are you from?” Instead, I cleverly buy a copy of Vanity Fair to hide behind.

This was difficult with the February issue. I am afraid that with tears running down my face I wasn’t doing a good job of staying below the radar. It took me three tries to finish reading Sebastian Junger’s article, “Massoud’s Last Conquest.” I was disappointed in myself for not having known or appreciated Ahmed Shah Massoud while he was alive. Mr. Junger’s decision to put himself in danger in order to introduce us to the heroes of our homeland is an act of heroism in itself. His affection for Afghanistan makes me a proud Afghan-American.

SINA AFREDI Alpharetta, Georgia

TOM CRUISE'S PRIVACY ACT

FOR SOMEONE WHOSE own publicity machine has for years continuously exploited his “personal” life to sell his image and his movies, Tom Cruise’s statement that “people should mind their own business ... my personal life isn’t here to sell papers” takes the cake [“Being Tom Cruise,” by Evgenia Peretz, January]. I, for one, would be happy to oblige his request for privacy—if only he would get his armpit out of my face.

V. ADAMITIS Denver, Colorado

HOT AIR TIME

IF OUR MISSILES were as accurate as James Wolcott’s piece on the babble from the television talking heads, the War on Terror would have been over overnight [“Terror on the Dotted Line,” January]. He is dead on target! I, for one, have tuned them out and have reverted to news that has been filtered through a real brain before being committed to print. Geraldo Rivera, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, Greta Van Susteren, and the like should be required to watch continuous reruns of each of their broadcasts until they get it.

EVAN WOOD Rolling Hills Estates, California

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