Kantor From Opposite Corners

James Gerstenzang’s fine article on Mickey Kantor (“Soldier of Global Fortunes,” Aug. 20), brought back many fond memories of Kantor, the charming Dee Dee Myers and the delightful John Emerson. As Kantor’s personal secretary, I worked with all of them in the early 1980s.

I was not at all surprised that Jack Valenti stated that he was moving from room to room “without notes.” He didn’t need notes; he is very brilliant man with a razor-sharp mind that would grasp the essence of complicated matters in an instant.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip down Memory Lane.

Mary Carter

Los Angeles

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James Gerstenzang struggled to mythologize Kantor as a legendary-style leader, physically and mentally superior to the rest of us. To the contrary, there is nothing exceptional about Kantor. Every attribute he is claimed to possess is bested daily by people who do jobs that pay fractions of what Kantor gets and receive none of the fanfare he enjoys.

Kantor is a great leader only in the sense of all the leaders praised in the corporate media nowadays. They share the quality of serving the interests of multinational corporations, usually at the expense of the indigenous populations (including our own), the environment and labor.

That Kantor can use the threat of the U.S. military and economic tariffs or embargoes to advance the interests of big corporations hardly makes him a crack negotiator. In the game with Japan, he is representing U.S. automobile manufacturers. It will be of little value to the American people that he will use the power of our government to force Japan to buy cars that General Motors makes in Mexico.

Wayne L. Wiley

Huntington Beach