Leonard Bernstein

In the editorial (July 30) about the FBI keeping a file on Leonard Bernstein, you are many years late, and thousands of people short. As a leading newspaper, you should have led a crusade against the government spying on any people, instead of whimpering about a musician being included among the “communist spies” three decades after his file was begun.

There is nothing slanderous about being a communist. They have always been on the side of worker and peasant. There are no communist spies (there may be spies from other countries, but there are no spies among communists in the U.S. other than those planted by the FBI (CIA, etc.). I suppose the FBI will copy this letter and put it in the 1,300-plus-page file it has on me--a nobody.

THEODORE W. HOOKER

La Puente

I find a certain irony in “ACLU Reveals FBI’s Files on Bernstein” (July 29).

While there is not the slightest accusation that Bernstein was involved in anything but a misguided belief in what has now been manifestly shown to be a failed and discredited form of government, the FBI was and is clearly entitled to keep records on whomever it deems worthy of vigilance. Such records are kept confidential except when such organizations as the ACLU, or The Times, reveal details. Only then are aspersions implicitly cast upon the reputation of public figures.

The success of such surveillance shows up in the sparse number of acts of terrorism that occur in this country compared with other freedom-loving countries. Witness the speed with which arrests were made in the New York Trade Center bombing, and the frustration of the planned bombing at the U.N. building. The FBI clearly has an important role to play and should not be demeaned by such groups as the ACLU.

PAUL S. McCAIG

Dana Point