NO LAUGHING MATTER

Martin Bernheimer seems to find Leonard Bernstein’s close-to-40-year romance with communism sort of, well . . . cute (“Lenny the Red Menace,” Aug. 21). He writes, of Bernstein: “A possible Commie. Yikes.”

Communism a laugh ? Who knew?

But let’s get serious here. Forget 73 years of murdering, enslaving, ignoring human rights, even threatening to “bury” us, and cut to what Bernheimer believes is the real horror: that under the direction of four decades of attorneys general, the FBI was ordered to keep track of Bernstein’s activities.

For regardless of Bernstein’s genius and personal charm, he was unprepared for the perfidious nature of communism, any more than Bernheimer’s considerable expertise as a critic has given him the wisdom to recognize the cabalistic nature of the beast that is communism.

They used to call these well-meaning people “dupes.” With the fall of communism all over the world nearly a fait accompli, I’d call them and us lucky !

PATRICIA MERRILL

Los Angeles