I personally found Backus to be way more of a dick in these letters, though I did gloss over some parts. It's strange how different people can get very different things from these letters. Maybe they just didn't have personalities that meshed well. I don't think it's cultural: I'm American and I find Dijkstra's demeanor to be perfectly acceptable, if a little a colorful. Although, in the same vein, people often don't like Linus Torvalds for many of the same reasons.
I found Dijkstra's letters appalling. Writing - utterly without shame - that his negative response to Backus' paper was disingenuous and served a "political" purpose is utterly despicable to me.
