Secord Gets Probation

That my fellow Air Commando Assn. member Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord opted to cop a plea rather than stand and fight as did Lt. Col. Oliver L. North is regrettable (“Secord Gets Probation, Calls Reagan Cowardly,” Part A, Jan. 25). The Iran-Contra affair (“scandal” as The Times persists on calling it), was no more than a witch hunt conducted by congressional Democrats ably abetted by the news media with the intent to smear and, if possible, impeach President Ronald Reagan.

To this extent, the congressional Democrats and the media failed because Reagan never admitted to any knowledge of providing weapons to Iran to achieve the release of our hostages, nor any knowledge of the use of the money gained from the sale of arms to Iran to be passed on to the Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters. Unless former President Reagan’s classified papers and/or tapes are made available to the defense counsels, or if the former President himself is not called to the witness stand to testify under oath, it will never be known just how much Reagan knew and when he knew it and if he did not sanction this operation. That is why I deeply regret that Secord did not stand and fight instead of copping a plea and prostrating himself before the court in contrition. This is not how a man fights injustice.

Men and women who engage in covert operations on behalf of their government, especially when they believe that such operations have been ordered by the commander in chief, are obligated to keep the secrets even if this means lying to persons who do not possess the need to know. This is particularly true when they are hauled before a congressional panel determined to subvert the President’s constitutional prerogative of conducting the foreign policy of the U.S.

With this in mind, Secord should have challenged the allegations made against him just as did North and, I would hope, Admiral John Poindexter.

Because constitutional questions are involved, I believe that it is necessary that the findings of the lower courts be challenged to the Supreme Court and that President Reagan (and his wife) be ordered to testify and to produce any and all documents and tapes that bear upon this case.

EDWIN O. LEARNARD

San Diego