ENIGMATIC

Like Dennis Christopher, I too am a 40-year-old actor who fled his home at age 17 (“Call Him the ‘Code’ Breaker,” by Janice Arkatov, May 26). However, instead of going immediately to college and joining the antiwar movement, I joined the Marine Corps to see the world and become a man. Upon my discharge two years later, I had only seen Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and San Juan, P.R., and the jury was still out on my manliness.

I’m stretching the truth by saying I’m a 40-year-old, as I won’t be until August. But isn’t using the term “antiwar movement” inaccurate also? My recollection is that there was no major activity, other than troop withdrawal, in Vietnam at that time. If there were, I would have chosen another means to see the world.

WALTER DuRANT

Trabuco Canyon

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The article on the play “Breaking the Code” perpetuates the British myth of their breaking the German cipher. It was actually a Polish intelligence undertaking passed on to the British and French and then shared with the Americans.

David Kahn’s book “Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939-1943” offers the most concise description of these events.

Whoever added a tire to a wheel improved it, but did not invent the wheel.

GEORGE T. WILK

Manhattan Beach