Word: tactlessness
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Your reviewer of Earl Schenck Miers' and Richard A. Brown's Gettysburg [TIME, May 31] does an injustice to the British observer with the Confederates, Colonel Arthur Fremantle, when applying the word "tactless" to Fremantle's remark to General Longstreet after the failure of Pickett's charge...
Colonel Fremantle's remark, "I wouldn't have missed this for anything," while inappropriate, was not tactless; for the observer was in ignorance of the tactical situation at the time, and erroneously supposed that he had arrived just in time to witness an attack. He was unaware, when he spoke to Longstreet, that he was viewing Pickett's retreat. To quote Fremantle: "When I got close up to General Longstreet, I saw one of his regiments advancing through the woods in good order; so, thinking I was just in time to see the attack, I remarked...
...Hour Has Come . . ." Today Spaak lives simply in a modest bourgeois neighborhood, with his tall, good-looking wife, his son Fernand (who served in the British navy) and his two younger daughters. He used to be an inveterate tennis player, once was tactless enough to beat King Gustaf of Sweden ("Am I a courtier? I am a Socialist!"). Lately Spaak (a 200-pounder) has given up the sport, presumably haunted by the memory of his belt giving way on a Brussels court...
...critics maintain that he belongs to the 19th Century; that he is shortsighted in world affairs; that he is stubborn, cold, impatient of opposition; that he is tactless ("It is dishonest to be tactful," he says); that he lacks the kind of wisdom which comes from human understanding; that basically he distrusts the judgment of the people...
Last week in London, Glubb Pasha was asked how tall he is. He turned to a staff officer for his opinion. "I'm six feet," was the officer's candid, if tactless reply; "and I would judge, sir, that you are about five-foot...