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Show Henry Commager diagnoses too powerful U. S. executive (i : ' --J I , v- ' j jf If ' ? ' , : ! J: i ir ..".' i . it. - . . " ' J" . ....., " " - :. : ,'C Apparently the attorney general isn't aware of our 180-year history of no prior censorhsip of the press and I'm not at all sure he's aware of the Bill of Rights, Dr. Henry Steele Commager, historian said at Contemporary Issues Thursday night Dr. Commager cited this reaction to the Pentagon Papers as an indication of the deterioration of separation of powers in the United States in what he termed "potential constitutional revolution." Although the former Amherst College professor cited such examples of usurpation as the injunction injunc-tion request to suppress the Pentagon Papers and the secrecy shrouding CIA and Pentagon activities, most of Thursday's speech was a reiteration of an article published in The New Republic on April 17, '71 entitled "The Misuse of Power." Dr. Commager criticized the executive branch of government and particularly Presidents Johnson and Nixon for circumventing Congress and disregarding disre-garding processes enumerated in the Constitution. He also cited Congress for acquiescing to the flagrant disregard of its authority in such matters as war, defense and foreign affairs. The Congress, he believes, has been "diddling around" and has refused to exercize the power of appropriation to stop executive encroachment. Dr. Commager used numerous examples such as President McKinley's intervention in China during the 1905 Boxer Rebellion and President Johnson's invasion of Santo Domingo to support the premise that the U.S. has a duality in foreign policy-treating policy-treating small countries with disregard while giving deference to powerful ones. He then submitted that "If China landed 23,000 men in Texas as the United States landed men in Santo Domingo, we might consider it an act of war." He then returned to his "Dying Freedoms" theme citing examples of ". . .almost deliberate connivance. conni-vance. . ." to shroud government workings in secrecy. Along with references to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the U-2 flights which were kept under wraps, Dr. Commager blasted the Pentagon for its deliberate concealment of other activities from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He read a submission from the Joint Chiefs of Staff on "getting around" Congress when it needed $52 million to finance the Cambodian army. On Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers injunction, Dr. Commager sardonically commented com-mented that this was "...the first time in 180 years that the U.S. has tried censorship. . ." |