Iran-Contra Investigation

Until recently I believed that the joint House-Senate Iran-contra hearings were being held to try to uncover as many facts as possible about the whole situation. It was therefore particularly repulsive and irritating to me to see Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, as well as other Republican senators, use these hearings as a forum to praise the contras and all the conspirators who decided that, come hell or high water, and never mind that Congress had prohibited military aid to the contras, they would deliver arms and money to them.

Does Hatch believe, as President Reagan obviously does, that the Boland Amendment was no more than a petty annoyance invented by the Congress, that should just be stepped on and ignored? What arrogance!

I am convinced that people like Hatch, Richard Secord, Oliver North, John Singlaub and other would-be Rambos do not believe or simply do not care that there are many, many of us Americans who do not want to see the contras invading Nicaragua and shooting their way all over the place, with hundreds of thousands of young Nicaraguans, surely including women and children, dying or being maimed.

Instead of weapons and death, let us send Nicaragua some farm machinery and other implements, to help the Nicaraguans live a little better. If the United States would help them improve their living conditions, you can be sure they would not prefer communism. Come on, let’s stop this incessant bullying of this tiny country and let them get on with their lives.

ANTHONY PATRIZIO

Pasadena