I enjoyed Michael Ledeen's excellent and thoughtful piece on Bobby Knight ("The Real Bobby Knight," October/ November). Ledeen's depiction of Knight captures his character and personality far more accurately than do the mainstream media. One point that Ledeen drives home is that Knight's staunchest critics hardly ever apply the same criticisms to any other coach. 

Purdue University coach Gene Keady, for example, is notorious for leaping from his chair, tossing his jacket on the court, and working himself into a state of rage that few coaches ever exhibit. But Knight, unlike most coaches, is politically controversial. That explains why Knight's critics have hounded him relentlessly while remaining silent about his colleagues.

Kevin Lamb
Managing Editor, Human Events

I am appalled by Michael Ledeen's preposterous claim that Bobby Knight was "subjected to a 'Borking' as harsh and unfair as that experienced by any political figure in America," and that his downfall was the result of his unwillingness to kowtow to journalists or "political correctness." Journalists and the politically correct Left commit plenty of sins, but let's save such rhetoric for the real ones. It is true that Bobby Knight's virtues are considerable. But his own flaws brought him down.

Knight compiled a three-decade record of repeated failures to show the maturity and sportsmanship his position demands. For me his worst abuse was when he took his team off the floor during a game against the Russian National Team. He didn't like the officiating, so he preferred to forfeit the game. This gave Indiana University's student body an unforgettable lesson in sportsmanship. 

James W. Fox
Fairfax, Virginia

Scott Gottlieb advocates the right of private individuals to be vaccinated against smallpox (SCAN, "Smallpox, Big Risk," September). The government currently prohibits this. He is wrong and the government right.

The problem with live virus vaccines --the only kind we have for smallpox right now--is that recipients not only accept a risk to themselves, but impose the risk on others. Some of them will get sick and could spread the infection. True, the rate of contagion from smallpox vaccine is low: Of every million people who get the vaccine, only about 30 would become contagious. Nevertheless, given the potentially serious consequences, the government is correct in prohibiting individuals from receiving the vaccine.

Peter Borregard
Berkeley, California

In the October/November OPINION PULSE Karlyn Bowman writes that "Divided control of government in Washington has been the rule for most of the past 50 years." This is misleading. The reality is, divided control has benefited one side disproportionately. 

To begin with, the proper watershed is not the 50 years since Eisenhower, but the 70 years since Franklin Roosevelt established the modern Democratic Party. Since then, Democrats have had undivided control of the government for 32 years, while Republicans have had such control for only three. 

The rest of the time, we have generally had Democratic control of the legislature under Republican Presidents. There have not been four consecutive years with a Republican President, House, and Senate since 1930.

Two cheers for four years of completely Republican government before another 72 years go by.

Norman Henry
Colchester, Vermont

Blake Hurst's "Calamity in Klamath" (October/November) is an excellent account of the plight of the westerners who settled on what was once government land. (In that part of the country, what wasn't?) The West's environmental problems stem from radical environmentalists and the bureaucrats at the Fish and Wildlife Service. 

These groups simply want to return all the land to the government. People like the farmers in Klamath are getting better organized to fight, but thanks to various radical groups they are still getting picked off one at a time throughout the West.

Toby Elster
Wichita, Kansas

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