My response to Nick Klein ("Democrats Have a Trail of Poor Military Calls," Feb. 4) is that he is in need of a good history lesson.

For starters, he says that the Iran hostage crisis was not resolved until the Ronald Reagan presidency.

This is only partially true; The hostages were released while Reagan was taking the oath of office.

Their release was negotiated by the Jimmy Carter administration. He proceeded to criticize John Kennedy for removing nukes from Turkey, but neglected to mention a critical fact.

The missile removal was part of a compromise with the Soviet Union to end the Cuban Missile Crisis, and thus circumvent nuclear war. President Truman practiced a similar doctrine in Korea some years earlier.

He dismissed Gen. Douglas MacArthur not because he wanted a stalemate on the Korean peninsula, but rather because MacArthur wanted to deploy nuclear weapons against major Chinese cities like Beijing, without regard for civilian casualties.

Not only is Mr. Klein wrong in his history, but he has also managed to ignore some of the most important wars in recent history. Even the military that we have fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now is the product of investment and organization of the Clinton administration, and they are performing with distinction.

Democrats have a trail of poor military calls? Pray tell, Mr. Klein, since when?