Many in Poll Doubt Inquiry Will Add Important Facts

Nearly half the Americans surveyed in a new Gallup Poll released over the weekend believe that upcoming congressional hearings on the Iran- contra scandal will “simply prolong this affair.”

The House and Senate committees probing the Iran-contra affair are scheduled to begin three months of televised hearings Tuesday.

Forty-one percent of the respondents to the poll conducted for Newsweek, which was detailed in a copyrighted story, believe the hearings will be useful and may help avoid future incidents similar to the scandal, the magazine reported in its May 11 issue.

But 49% of those polled think the hearings will “simply prolong this affair without adding important new information,” the report said.

The poll also showed that an increasing number of Americans--62%--believe that once all the evidence is presented, President Reagan will prove to be more deeply involved in the affair than he has ackowledged, Newsweek said.

By comparison, 59% of the respondents to an earlier Newsweek poll conducted shortly after the release of the Tower Commission report voiced a similar opinion, the magazine reported.

The survey also showed that 52% of those polled think it is more important that independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh be given enough time to build strong cases against those likely to be prosecuted than to have the congressional panels quickly release information to the public, the report said.