The Leaf-Chronicle from Clarksville, Tennessee • 13

Sunday, September 14, 197? Clarksvllle Leaf Chronicle-Pagt 3 8 Why Aire -Com hpV Troops In Cinlbaf A riddle wrapped In a mystery inside an enigma. Winston Churchill had the words for Soviet policy back then at the onset of World War II. It has become no less mysterious In the intervening 40 years. Why, for example, those combat troops In Cuba? The 1962 missile crisis immediately comes to mind, but no one sees a replay yet. And that is precisely the point of the question.

Two or three thousand Russians even representing, as the Pentagon says, the equivalent of a brigade with armored, artillery and infantry elements do not pose a direct physical threat to the United States or any, other of Cuba's neighbors with the possible exception of a Undnr nrwlnw "Tinsel' TINSEL. By William Goldman. Delacorte. 342 Pages. $10.95.

"Tinsel" is a failure as a novel, but it's an interesting failure. What William Goldman has done is to write a number of related short stories bound together by a loose plot line in this case the casting for a projected movie. The film, titled "Tinsel," is to be about the decline of a Hollywood sex symbol into despair and death. Obviously a lot of people want the lead role in that film, but only one can have it. Who is it to be? To answer that question, Goldman writes a number of short stories about the various people, who want the role.

The stories stand by themselves as largely interesting character studies, but they also have enough elements in common to fit together into a loosely constructed novel. The most engrossing sketch is that detailing the life and times of Julian Garvey, a man who has been around and in the film business for a long, long time and knows all the angles for survival. Garvey has a son, Noel, who is a 1960s' dropout. Although he's getting close to 30, Noel still lives in the world of his teens. In an effort to shake him loose from the past as well as to pass on the filmmaking skills he has acquired over the years, Garvey talks Noel into getting involved with the production of the film "Tinsel." Noel's a slow and reluctant starter but once he gets moving the results are surprising.

Goldman's weakest story is that of Ginger Abraham, a faded star eager to make a comeback. Unfortunately, Goldman devotes entirely too much space to Ginger's dietary quirks and not enough to what really makes her run. Phil Thomas AP Books Editor jrVV5r i tin thorn I 'Peter's Peopl Officials Hyperventilating Over Troops? Don Graff Dominican Republic already flat-tended by Hurricane David. There is some speculation, of the hopeful variety, that the troops may be nothing more than a Soviet gesture, a quid pro quo for the Cubans who have been Moscow's point men in Africa. But if so, there is considerably less quid than quo involved.

Best estimates put the Cuban expeditionary force at something like 73 Mike Royko America that "we regard this as a very serious matter." President Carter stopped brooding about Teddy Kennedy Long enough to say that he, too, thinks it is a very serious matter. Well," I like to worry about a serious matter as much as the next person, so I wish the senators or Vance or Carter would explain precisely why the 3,000 troops are such a serious threat to a nation of 200 million. They all agree that the 3,000 Russians are not a potential invasion force, which is a great relief. While this country's prestige has sagged, I would hope Russia respects us enough to send more than 3,000 men Russell Baker which to take his August vacation. Mrs.

Constrictor threwian embar-rasing scene in front of 10 glamour stocks and six industrials when told she would have to spend a month at CVI's Crunchy Chitlins Drive-in and Motel chain instead of Switzerland. To calm her the forceful founder km- PETER'S PEOPLE. By Dr. Laurence J. Peter.

Morrow. 223 Pages. $8.95. As a child, says Dr. Laurence J.

Peter, he began collecting quotations. Items such as W.C. Fields', "I am free of all prejudices. I hate everybody equally." As he grew older, Peter, author of such items as "The Peter Principle" and "The Peter Plan," became "increasingly fascinated by wise and witty ideas expressed in a few words of pithy prose." Many of these ideas are included in "Peter's People," a very funny collection that can be thoroughly enjoyed by dipping into it at random or by reading it from beginning to sparkling end. High spots in the laughstudded text are a series of imaginary interviews Peter has with such notables as Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Will Rogers and Adlai Stevenson.

Acting as straight man, Peter feeds questions to these men and the answers they give are taken from their writings or statements they made. The results are witty and wise indeed. Twain opines, for example, that, "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read," while Stevenson observes, "Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them." It's a very funny but also a very thought-provoking book. Phil Thomas AP Books Editor 'Finest Fantasy' THE YEAR'S FINEST FANTASY. Edited by Terry Carr.

Putnam. 277 Pages. $12.50. Fantasy writing is a form that readers either like or dislike. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Unfortunately, those who don't like fantasy are going to find little in this collection of nine tales that will lead them to change their, minds, and those who do like fantasy aren't going to find overly much to bolster their conviction. As in most collections, the stories in this book are uneven in quality. Some are good, some are so-so, and the rest, to put it gently, leave much to be desired. Ray Bradbury has been writing top-quality fantasy for a long time, and he can always be counted on for a well-thought-out, well-written tale. Such a story is "Gotcha! a bittersweet tale of a love that blooms and then curdles and dies when it encounters evil.

Harlem Ellison also has long been writing good things, and he does so again with "The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge." This is a chilling item in which Ellison artfully uses one man to -symbolize evil and then, with the reader barely noticing, expands his theme so that by the end all men symbolize evil. In "The Treasure of Odircx," Charles Sheffield does a nice job of writing a historical fantasy in which man's inclination to destroy that which he does not understand is well illuminated. Stephen King's "The Gunslinger" is competently enough done but suffers from the fact that it more resembles a fragment of a novel than it does a completed story. Phil Thomas AP Books Editor 40,000 men," compared to which the few thousand Russians are a very small gesture Indeed. Furthermore, when the Cubans have some 140,000 men under arms still on their island who needs Russians to buck up the home front? While the military purposes, if any, of the new troops may be a mystery, the political consequences are something else again multiple and all too obvious.

If Moscow had set out to disrupt congressional consideration of SALT II and convert doubters into opponents of the arms-limitation agreement, they could not have devised a better low-risk strategy. The troops are not sufficient to trigger a blockade and an eyeball-to- HI J) mi tor iv, to storm our shores. The bouncers and hookers in Miami Beach's bars could repel a force of that size. Nor are the Russian troops believed to be involved with missiles, as was the, case in 1962, when President Kennedy "I went eyeball to eyebau with Premier Nikita Khrushchev, while tne rest of us blinked a lot. Some Washington experts "the kind who don't Jiave names but are always being quoted in Time and Newsweek) have come up with theories as to the purpose of the 3,000 troops.

Let us chew on these theories: Theory: The troops are there to discourage the U.S. from invading Cuba. The idea is that we wouldn't want to get involved in direct conflict with Russian soldiers because both the U.S. and Russia might then -lose their tempers and blow up the-world. Fine, we can relax.

AH we have to do is not invade Cuba, which seems like a good idea to me. Since they closed down the casinos, who wants to go there anyway? agreed to acquire some place new quickly. In a series of maneuvers that dazzled the money supply, he fired CVI's top management, took a bath in 2 percent debenture bonds and ate a lunch of spinach salad with anchovies and imported mineral water, then fired the chef and shut down the executive dining room. The news sent a tremor through Wall Street. The Dow Jones average gained eight points, car sales rose' and retail profits fell 3 percent on rumors that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had lost the monthly unemployment statistics.

With his DOUBLE-DIGIT INFLATION PUT YOUR FUNDS INTO HOME REPAIRS. PLUMBERS AND ELECTRICIANS NEVER COME, AND YOU'LL SAVE THE MONEY YOU WOULD HAVE SPENT. PUT YOUR MONEY IN NON-TRADITIONAL INVESTMENTS, 1E1N77 pr eyeball confrontation as did the missue crisis. But they are enough to put SALT on the shea as tne Senate Foreign Relations Com mittee turns to the Cuban situation And there's more. Committee chairman Frank Church will be a key in the upcoming ratification floor- debate.

He also happens to be facing a tough reelection campaign back home in Idaho, where soft lines in foreign policy are not popular with the voters. The senator-candidate has let it be known he may be recon sidering his position on the treaty. Then there is the delay in detec ting the Soviet newcomers for all the vast U.S. intelligence apparatus knows, or is letting on, they may have been in Cuba unnoticed for a or more. It is not the sort of demonstration of intelligence ef fectiveness to reassure those doubting U.S.

ability to police the SALT arms restrictions and verify Soviet compliance. But none of this squares with readings up to now of Moscow's interest in securing ratification of the treaty with no or a bare minimum of congressional tinkering. Which brings us back to the mystery. The troops may, of course, be a Soviet way of acting tough at little cost, possibly timed to coincide with the conference of nonaligned nations in Havana where host Fidel Castro has pressed for a pro-Soviet course. But it should be obvious even in: the innermost recesses of the Kremlin that such a show for any reason at such a sensitive point can only compel an American govern ment to act tougher, particularly one in the loosely stuck together condition of the Carter administration- with an election looming.

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance is holding the no-panic line, but even he says that the status quo won't do In other words, the Soviet troops must go. THEORY: They are an elite bodyguard unit for Fidel Castro. If so, I don't blame him, If I found out that the U.S. government had once asked the U.S. crime syndicate to bump me off, I'd want somebody mean standing outside my front door checking out the pizza man.

Theory: The troops 'guard elec tronic equipment that is used to spy on our radio transmissions. Big deal. We spy on them and they spy on us. Everybody is spying on somebody else. Not only do we spy on them, but we spy on ourselves And they spy on themselves, too.

Even our friends spy on us, and we spy on our friends. How else can we be sure we are still friends if we don't spy on each other? IN FACT: it was by spying on Cuba that we found -out-that-the Russian troops were there. So we'd sound a little silly if we said: "While spying on you, we found out you have Russian troops guarding the equipment you use to spy on us. We are shocked." usual brilliant timing, Constrictor opened a line of credit, then closed it 30 minutes later, trapping 23 directors of Intersikonics and High Colonic International. They were left without options.

And what is a business executive without options? He might as well belong to a Labor Union. All were blackballed at the Racquet Club and sent back to the Harvard Business School, where they had to start over at the bottom. At this point, CVI drops out of the picture, except for an interesting footnote involving the sale of Mrs. Constrictor in a deal being investigated by the House Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Arizona real-estate swindles and the vacation-home-and-shuffleboard trust. At Intermac, however, Constrictor's daring maneuvers were interpreted as a scheme to acquire the Amazon jungle under the CVI logo, Intermac's brilliant young president, Ellis Panay, immediately raised the prime rate long enough to give himself time to think.

Next day Intermac's decision to buy futures was front-page news, Panay had obeyed the historic mx-im of American finance: When in doubt, buy futures. Mrs. Panay was not awed by his publicity. In her view, he might be pretty good at buying futures, but he was a dud at buying presents. She did not dare tax him with this flaw, however, for she was a woman with a past.

Thus was Crosscut Saw acquired. Unfortunately, Panay was fired before it could be signed over to his wife. He has been sent back to the Harvard Business Mrs. Panay has started work on her memoirs. I'm not sure how many practicing' or aspiring muggers, dope pushers, 1 ri i ff on4 iinf h.atc 4Viqva qpa sn input.) cuiu vukuuuau uicic axe; vru the streets of, say, Chicago at any given moment.

Five thousand? Or 10,000 or It probably depends on the weather. Whatever their number, the rest of us don't become hysterical. We know they are there and we try our best to avoid them and lead normal lives uhilo hnnino a win will chnnf them, or that they will move to a warmer climate. So I'm having trouble understanding why so many U.S. senators, as well as the President and the secretary of state, began hyperventilating upon the discovery of 3,000 Russian soldiers in Cuba.

Apparently the soldiers have been there for a long time, although nobody is sure what they are doing ry IkS VtJ VVVU Mil Mf Washington. Some senators are saying that the SALT II treaty with Russia won't make it unless the Russian troops go home, Sec. of State Cyrus Vance Peered over his funny glasses to tell hra rmcilAC rrnffntrnn nnmarni Confusion Of Selling Crosscut Saw 'Spring Of Tiger' THE SPRING OF THE TIGER. By Victoria Holt. Doubleday.

356 Pages. $10. The Gothic novel, which blends romance and suspense, is one of the most popular and enduring forms of literary entertainment. With some 17 novels to her credit, Victoria Holt is one of the most successful writers of this genre. Her latest, "The Spring of the Tiger," is another typical Holt product: the writing is not exactly first-class, but the well-calculated plot, full of twists and turns, gives even a seasoned reader the thrill of riding the trickiest roller coaster.

Waka Tsunoda Associated Press Best Sellers INVESTMENT PLANNING NEW YORK-As a devoted student of the business pages, I was amused by the market panic created when Crosscut Saw was absorbed the other day by Intermac, anyone who studies the exhilarating world of business closely, as I do, could have seen that Intermac's cash flow had created a temporary bulge in pork bellies, and that Crosscut Saw was ripe for plucking. Is all this too arcane for the casual investor? Not at all, Crosscut Saw's weak management position had been widely recognized ever since board chairman Rodney Wilberlove sold executive vice president Bud Short for a new sales manager and two over-the-hill stock clerks last June. "Sell Short," Wilberlove had been advised by his wife. Wilberlove would have preferred to sell long, the company treasurer, who was a terrible luncheon bore, but Mrs. Wilberlove told him this would make him look like a ninny in Wall Street.

"Nobody ever sells long," she pointed out. "The only length to sell in the financial world is Short." Short sought a restraining order from the SEC, but got nothing but a consent decree, die to the unsettled price of gold in the London market, or possibly because the SEC was all out of restraining orders. The business pages are confused on this. No matter, by this time, CVI had entered the picture. This voracious international giant had made no acquisitions since digesting the New York Federal Reserve Bank in July.

Its attempts to acquire Switzerland had been blocked by Swiss banking laws. As a result, it appeared that CVI's aging but still tierce lounaer, Bill (Boa) Constrictor, would have no new corporate acquisitions in Compiled by Publishers Weekly: FICTION 1. "Sophie's Choice," William Sfyron 2.. "The Last Enchantment," Mary Stewart 3. "The AAatarese Circle," Robert Ludlum 4.

"The Dead Zone," Stephen King 5. "The Third World War," General Sir John 6. "War and Remembrance," Herman Wouk 7. "Shibuml," Trevanlan t. "Class Reunion," Rona Jaffe "Triple," Ken Follett 10.

"There's No Such Place As Far Away," Richard Bach DON PUT MONEY IN A BANK. PUT IT IN A QUILT. THE HEATING BILLS. YOU SAVE WILL MORE THAN OFFSET THE LOST INTEREST. Food a bad investment, wll just eat it and have to replace it at a mucm higher cost.

NON-FICTION 1. "The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet," Herman Tarnower 2. "Cruel Shoes," Steve Martin 3. "The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise," Nathan Pritikin with Patrick McGrady Jr. 4.

"How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years," Howard J. Ruff 5. "Restoring the American Dream," Robert J. Ringer 6. "Broca's Brain," Carl Sagan 7.

"The Bronx Zoo," Lyle 9. "The Medusa and Snail," Lewis Thomas 10. "Energy Future," Edited by Stobaugh and Yergin The White Album -Didion Honeymoon for Life Woofolk Foxfire 5 Wigginton Blood Will Tell Cartwright FICTION A Feast for Spiders Evans Love in the Clouds Cartland The Debriefing Llttell Tennessee Smith Hitt Jenissaries- Pournelle. Dragonflight McCaffrey Sophie's Choice Styron The Beaufort Sisters Cleary A Dancer in Yellow Ogilvie Class Reunion Jaffe New The following new books have been added to the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library at 329 Main St. NON-FICTION Working Smart LeBoeuf The Medusa and the Snail Thomas The Craft of Smocking Fisher Arthritis Fries To Set the Record Straight Sirica Marilyn Monroe Confidential ckv Mm,.