Ann Robson’s column, in the Oct. 12 edition of The Pilot, “One Freedom Endangers Several Others,” hit home with me. The column should be distributed throughout the nation, especially to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all of the big broadcast companies.

Trouble is, no one will listen.

I am a former World War II Naval pilot, before TV. Every letter was censored. As careful as I was not to say anything of comfort to the enemy, words were still blotted out.

But then came Vietnam and TV. By then I was back in civvies, watching TV every night after work. It was awful. President Johnson was a milquetoast in his handling of the war.

Worse still was the peddling by the media of bad news. All the Viet Cong had to do was to listen to the news to learn how many additional troops and materials were sent to Vietnam on any given day, and there was a daily report on how many soldiers lost their lives.

Every mother, including my wife, would voice horror at this information. Crying out that we have no business being over there and that the South Vietnamese government was corrupt in the first place.

I am convinced that the media lost the war for us in Vietnam, and it looks like we may be headed in the same direction with the new war on terrorism.

Charles P. Hibberd

Southern Pines