To the Editor:

Forrest McDonald’s condescending notions and prejudices demand refutation [“A Mirror for Presidents,” December 1976]. He may be competent to help his readers “bone up” on the administrations of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I do not question Mr. McDonald’s facts and conclusions about these Presidents, although I find his haughty tone offensive. But I strongly object to his insinuations about Jimmy Carter’s understanding of history.

“As a born-again Baptist,” Mr. McDonald writes, “the Presidentelect may believe that the Bible contains all the history he needs to know, and perhaps he is right.” Incredible ideas! Mr. McDonald presents neither evidence nor proof for such outrageous assumptions. Everyone knows that Carter is a born-again Baptist. But Mr. McDonald must be the only one who believes that Carter confines his knowledge of history to the Bible or who could suggest that in this he might be “right.”

Judith Goldstein
New York City