Secretary of State Testifies at the Iran-Contra Hearings

Ignored in the hue and cry of the hearings is the question of the basic authority and responsibility of the President as to foreign policy.

Raymond Price’s “End the Goldfish-Bowl Theory of Diplomacy” (Editorial Pages, July 16) states the underlying problem very well when he writes: “In recent years Congress has gone on a binge of institutional meddling. Ignoring constitutional limits, it has voted itself increasing power to hogtie Presidents, to trip them up on the way to summit meetings, to strip away their powers as commander-in-chief and thus vitiate the effectiveness of U.S. force even when it is deployed, to pull the rug out from threatened allies, to oversee even the most sensitive covert activities--all without accepting the last shred of accountability for the outcome.”

Congressional meddling, from the Nelson-Bingham Amendment, the War Powers Act to the ill-considered and patently unconstitutional Boland Amendment, has been responsible for the paralysis and subsequent subversion of American foreign policy. In view of this disastrous record, it is hard to conceive of any reason to further involve congressmen whose primary interest is to appeal to a narrow, parochial constituency thus assuring reelection.

Even as a camel is a horse designed by a committee, foreign policy would take a similar shape if 535 loose-lipped, self-aggrandizing politicians were to be involved in determining covert foreign policy operations.

GEORGE H. McCUTCHEON

Los Angeles