‘Tear Down the Berlin Wall’
Once again, we witness with the Reagan Administration public relations at its finest. Or more accurately, at its worst. The recent tour to Berlin is another classic example.
President Reagan makes a sweeping and highly dubious request for the Soviets to tear down the wall dividing Berlin. It’s an interesting notion, really, but hardly plausible and simply a terrific publicity ploy. America reduced to a kind of public relations gimmick.
The Iran- contra hearings only verify that. What was supposed to be an examination of possible wrongdoing on the part of the Administration has slid into a high school debate over our policy in Central America. And rather than seeing witnesses sweat before the august congressional committees, we are deluged with a sordid contempt on the part of the witnesses, and “Wheel of Fortune”-type questions on the part of the committee members.
What answers shall emerge from the whole scandal is up to the pundits to speculate, but one can’t help but feel utterly sad and bitter about a nation that placed all its hopes and dreams on a man who has taken those mantles of power only to turn the White House into a branch of Madison Avenue.
It’s governing by commercials; the whole honor of this great country reduced to a series of public service announcements. Tell the Soviets to destroy the Berlin Wall. It’ll play good back home to the folks in Illinois. As for the Soviets, I don’t see them charging for their sledgehammers!
THOMAS LAGOS
Los Angeles
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