America's presence in Vietnam was still popular in February 1966? Maybe in some figurative state of Middle America. Maybe in Walter Cronkite's mind. Like many college students, I signed my first "Get out of Vietnam" petition in 1964 and the groundswell against the war was of persistent concern in the Black community. Since Ali also received guidance from the particularly eloquent and informed Malcolm X, it is hard to believe that he wasn't aware of the issues for and against participating in the war at the time he opted out.

As for Frazier, why is the fact that many members of the Black community held him in contempt attributed to Ali? African-Americans didn't embrace Frazier because, in the middle of the civil rights movement, they didn't like his status quo politics. Just like they didn't appreciate Sammy Davis Jr. when he hugged Richard Nixon. Just like I won't buy a George Foreman grill because of his actions during the 1968 Olympics. One more thing: I still can't find Vietnam on a map.

-- Bonnie Allen

Larry Platt mischaracterizes the Vietnam War as "the sending off of poor black boys to kill and be killed by other dark-skinned boys, all at the behest of a privileged white elite." This will probably cause dismay to the 85 percent of Vietnam veterans who are white; also to the 65 percent of Vietnam veterans who volunteered.

-- Anson Lang

I thought your article would at least mention that Ali used those big powerful fists of his to pummel his wife's face.

For me as a former battered wife, that fact, more than political dissent and ideologies, is the strongest measure of who is, and isn't, to be considered a "hero."

Why are the private atrocities Ali committed on a "mere" woman glossed over in an examination of Ali's character? Why is the real face-breaking pain of one woman less important than the never-happened pain he might have inflicted on the Vietnamese had he gone there?

-- Eve Salisbury

I just want to send out kudos to Larry Platt. In limited space, he presented a very balanced, well-argued piece touching on a number of ideas that could be major essays (or even books) in and of themselves: the political history of black athletes in America; race and the military; and the "new" sports journalism (Gumbel, Costas, etc.). Good read!

-- Brian King

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"