All the smears and lies and misrepresentations emanating from the Republicans cannot erase the simple fact that George W. Bush risks and ruins the lives of men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan but would not risk his own in Vietnam.

He used his family's power and privilege to gain entry into the Air National Guard, evade combat and go absent from duty while other people died in a war that he and his family promoted.

Clearly, we have not escaped the hallucinatory legacy of the 1960s, the enduring rage over the defeat in Vietnam that distorts memory and history.

A swaggering and irresponsible coward (what else is Bush but that?) insinuates (through his underlings) that his opponent, whose war record is beyond reproach, was not as brave or patriotic as he claims to be. And the press lends credibility to these right-wing, whacko smears? This is the sort of world that George Orwell feared and that Joseph Goebbels tried to create.

For shame. No American who believes in democracy or decency should tolerate that.

ANDREW FEFFER

Albany

The writer is with the American Studies Department of Union College, Schenectady.