Mapping Agency

Your May 16 article reporting on flawed maps from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency confirmed my expectation that accurate representations of the location of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade are available but were not consulted. Surely the NATO command understands that there are locations which NATO does not want to attack because the consequences of such an attack would be a significant embarrassment. It follows that the NATO command should have compiled such a list and then taken extraordinary measures to assure that such locations would not be attacked. Beyond using the Belgrade phone book and tourist maps, NATO could have spoken to people from the U.S. Embassy who long since left Belgrade.

The article also suggests that it was unwise for anyone to remain in the Chinese Embassy after the NATO attacks began. It would be interesting to know which nations (the Russian?) elected to maintain staffing in their embassies.

DAVID J. STILLER

Costa Mesa