Smut Ban

Regarding your “Smut-Busters” editorial (May 6) against the proposal to ban the sale of pornographic materials on bases of the armed forces: It misses the point. It seems to me that the military has a different function from the civilian population.

The armed forces are concerned with fighting strength. If the leadership of the military makes a judgment that pornography is bad by encouraging sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies, and if they make a command decision that eliminating the commercial promotion of such on the bases will improve fighting morale, then it is naive of The Times to claim that soldiers and civilians should be treated the same.

The issue is not 1st Amendment rights. The issue is national defense.

T. WILLARD HUNTER

Claremont