Letter: Dead presidents

Saturday 21 August 1999 23:02 BST

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ACCORDING TO Joan Smith, Americans are not persuaded to give up their "romance with the gun" even though "two of their presidents have been murdered in office" ("Americans are violent. Surprised?", 15 August). Assuming that she has not forgotten Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy, I would be turning in my grave if I was William McKinley, assassinated while in office in 1901. Given Smith's argument that "even foreign adventures like the Gulf War" can be blamed for America's violent uprisings, I think she would find the presidency of McKinley very interesting. Being the first modern American chief executive, his foreign policy is seen as a turning point towards those "foreign adventures" talked about.

ADAM J GROSSMAN

Cockfosters, Hertfordshire

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Letter: Dead presidents

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