POT CALLING THE BUDGET BLACK

I read Kenneth Adelman’s review of “Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget” by Tim Weiner (Oct. 7) and all I can say is you’ve got to be kidding.

Kenneth Adelman to review a book about the Pentagon’s secret spending? Kenneth Adelman, the super-hawk Reagan assistant secretary of Defense who did everything he could to fund the Pentagon’s every wish? No wonder he dismisses the book in the first paragraph as an “excessive attack on the U.S. Security apparatus, especially during the Reagan years.”

What can we expect in The Times Book Review next? A “Defense of Puritan Values” reviewed by Gary Hart? Or perhaps “Consumerism: Are Americans Too Materialistic?” reviewed by Nancy Reagan? How about “Getting Tough on White-Collar Crime” reviewed by Charles Keating?

ANN ALPER

PACIFIC PALISADES