Tower Appointed to Defense Post

The appointment of Tower as secretary of defense has brought to my mind an interesting situation. Tower was appointed by President Reagan to investigate his and Vice President Bush’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. Tower exonerated both of them, saying that while Reagan may have been asleep at the wheel he was not guilty of knowing of, or being involved in, the trade of arms for hostages and the subsequent use of money from the sales of the arms to fund the Contras in their battle with the Sandinistas.

Tower also concluded that Bush was not involved in either the swap part of the deal, or the transfer of funds part. How strange it is that this man, the investigator, should then be given such a powerful and influential position in the new government of the man he recently investigated, and cleared. And even stranger is the silence about this transaction in the news media.

But most of all I find it hard to understand the silence of the leaders of the Democratic Party. When one has a government which feels itself above the law we must have an opposition party to watch over the administration of justice, and to protect the interests of the people. We have, for too long, left this function to the press. Today, however, the news media function more as an advertising medium.

STANLEY R. BERMANN

Venice