No movers and shakers
Sir: Timothy Garton Ash writes (`God- damn Nato and goddamn Tories', 10 Au- gust): of . . that most select elite, the American readers of the Spectator'. I know a dozen Americans who read the Spectator and none of them has an ounce of leverage or an extra sou. One of them is a retired scriptwriter for Radio Free Europe (Czechoslavakian desk); he is pleased by all the attention Ash gives over to Central Europe. Another is a librarian in a seaside town (Bristol) in Rhode Island; on finishing reading his copy of the Spectator he sets it out on the rack so as to allow his clientele to see it. Another, an expatriate teaching in the Orient and speaking Thai and Malay fluently, admires Richard West's columns on Indochina. (West is by far the most popular columnist with this set.) Others work in the civil service (Immigration, USIA) or are retired from it. The point is, all of them come from the settled, conservative (small 'c') middle class; none of them is influential in any special way. I suspect the movers and shakers read the Economist.
Bill Whelan
8 Mullon Avenue, Port Washington, New York 11050
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