David Edgar

Michael Byers (LRB, 8 February) quotes George W. Bush’s National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, as saying that ‘we don’t need to have the 82nd Airborne escorting kids to kindergarten.’ This much-cited quotation appears to refer exclusively to the role of the US Forces in places like Kosovo. But in fact the 82nd Airborne was the division sent in by the Federal Government in 1957 to desegregate...

Much of John Willett’s irritation (Letters, 1 April) is based on a misreading of my article on Brecht. I referred twice to his defence of Brecht against John Fuegi’s notorious charges and it is clear that my references to Auden’s attitude to Brecht are taken from Willett’s collection: ‘There are essays on his often turbulent relationship with Auden (who described Brecht as one of the three...