Jason Lewis is right to call attention to the moderate strain in foreign policy that was once present among both Democrats and Republicans ("Rand Paul is the real Republican," June 4). The warmongering that characterizes both parties has done the nation little good and is leading us away from democracy and toward fiscal ruin. Where Lewis went wrong was to put President Dwight Eisenhower in a positive light in terms of Vietnam. Though Eisenhower avoided putting troops on the ground, he set the stage for the debacle that dragged Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon into war. Instead of accepting the French defeat in Indochina, Eisenhower put American credibility on the line in defending the creation of South Vietnam. From 1954 until the withdrawal in 1973, the U.S. goal was a South Vietnam that could survive without U.S. troops. It was an impossible task and one that Eisenhower deserves credit for creating. Eisenhower's missteps also included pivotal roles in taking down democratic regimes in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) that led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and to genocide in Guatemala. So while Eisenhower avoided the big war, his appetite for interventionism was great and the consequences of his actions tragic.

Jeffrey Kolnick, St. Paul

• • •

Lewis' pathetic attempt to paint Republicans as traditional peace-lovers misses the fact that every American president since Teddy Roosevelt has seen fit to exercise our massive military power abroad. He hilariously lumps Ronald Reagan, aka "The Hero of Grenada," into the peacenik camp, reminding us that Reagan brought the Marines home from Lebanon without bothering to mention that one day in October 1983, 241 of them came home in body bags. Among his several illustrative quotes, Lewis should have included Marine Gen. Smedley Butler, a Medal of Honor winner who nailed it way back in 1935: "War is a racket. … It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. … I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

William Beyer, St. Louis Park
SCULPTURE GARDEN

Removal of trees is necessary, but affection for them is understood

The removal of trees at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden is unfortunate, but necessary. The June 4 commentary requesting that trees be worked around or transplanted ("Trees ­— living sculptures — have earned their place") reflects how much Minneapolis residents and visitors value trees. We appreciate that. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board spends $10 million annually on our forestry efforts. Our commitment to the urban canopy is locally and nationally recognized. Our dedicated arborists plant and care for approximately 200,000 trees that line city streets and countless others in our 251 park properties. Each and every tree in the Sculpture Garden has been inventoried and studied as part of the Sculpture Garden reconstruction process. However, this reconstruction is not simply a surface renovation. It is a complete rebuild addressing existing below-grade drainage and infrastructure issues.

The need to remove 25 year-old trees to effectively address needed infrastructure was discussed during the extensive public engagement process. The reconstruction of the Sculpture Garden — both at and below the surface — will ensure that the new 360 trees to be planted will be there longer than 25 years.

Jayne Miller, superintendent; Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
'CULTURAL GENOCIDE'

It's happening in our own country, in our own time

The June 3 New York Times article "Treatment of Canadian children was 'cultural genocide' " reports on the Canadian Commission's six years of intensive research covering more than a century. I suggest that readers also seek out the May 29 Times article "Selling Off Apache Holy Land" (http://tinyurl.com/pry6kql). "By doing this," the article states, "Congress has handed over a sacred Native American site to a foreign-owned mining company for what may be the first time in our nation's history." This article reports news that: 1) is happening in present time, not history, 2) is a form of "cultural genocide" of our own countries' indigenous children that is happening right under our noses, and 3) may even precipitate action to prevent our future generations from years of intensive research to document this form of genocide (if the action is not repealed).

Dee Oliveira, Minneapolis
HOLOCAUST REPERCUSSIONS

United States seems intent on earning after-the-fact complicity

During my teaching career, I taught a Holocaust unit to high school students, and several survivors of the horrors of World War II and Nazi death camps visited my classroom to share their experiences. With increasing dismay, lately I have been reading too many reports on our government's financial arrangements with Nazis who were allowed to come and live in the United States after the war ("Nazis were paid $20.2M in Social Security benefits," June 2). I cannot help wondering how these Holocaust survivors feel about their treatment in the death camps as compared with that of those Nazis who for years remained in our country with the knowledge of our government and who subsequently profited financially through Social Security benefits?

Kate Mura, St. Paul
LOITERING LAWS

It's not right to suggest that they're enforced gratuitously

Before blindly accepting the narrative of bias, some clarification of Minneapolis lurking and loitering laws is in order. Those laws are typically employed in regard to drug dealing and prostitution. A person with no area ties spends long periods of time loitering in an area behaving like someone selling drugs or offering prostitution services. They have established track records of prior convictions for those crimes. When stopped by police, they can offer no reasonable explanation for their presence in the area for any other purpose. The legal system certainly offers other examples allowing people to be arrested for "anticipatory" crimes such as conspiracy or attempt, and these laws provide police with a useful tool to interrupt crime at an early stage. The notion that enforcing a law is biased because it disproportionately impacts a particular group is ridiculous on its face. Laws against embezzlement are disproportionately enforced against Caucasians. May we expect that the ACLU will soon be calling for their removal from the books? Don't hold your breath.

Thomas Rice, Ham Lake