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Show The Sail Lake Tribune, Friday, December 27, 1985 A15 Shultz Stand Against Polygraph Was Triumph of Principle New York Times Service Something strange and wonderful happened in Washington last week. In that city of rootless ambition, of Snopeses dealing for place and power, character triumphed. A man stood against the degrading of our political life, and he won. officials of his political novels. Caspar W. Weinberger, the secretary of defense, said taking a polygraph test wouldn't bother me a bit. What would bother him? BOSTON graphs have been known to fail. Larry Wu-TChin, the former CIA employee who has been charged with spying for China for 30 years, passed polygraph tests many times. But the known flaws in the machine have On Nov. 1, President Reagan signed a National Security Decision Directive on countering espionage. It included the use of polygraphs on a wide scale. All federal officials with access to sensitive information, Including Cabinet officers, were made subject to the tests. George Shultz did that when he drew the at having his honor tested on a polylie detector. The mingraph, the ute in this government I am told that Im not trusted is the day that I leave, be told reporters. Those words of principle were enough to force a change in administration line life. As explained by White House spokesmen on Dec. 11, the directive required all new employees in sensitive positions to be given polygraph tests. The tests were also to be administered on a random basis to some 100,000 people already on the job. Polygraphs have been dismissed by scientists for many years as unreliable detectors of untruths. They measure changes in such body functions as respiration. But those changes may reflect personal anxieties apart from lying, and the symptoms may be suppressed by persons who are lying. On the very issue of espionage, poly policy. The very notion that a Cabinet officer should be hooked up to a polygraph shows how far the standards of our political life have fallen. If someone had put that idea to Dwight Eisenhower, he would have been lucky to get out of the room alive. But in Ronald Reagans Washington the degrading idea became policy. And it was accepted without protest by what Trollope called the place men, the ambition-drive- n privacy of employees, humiliate them and discharge them when they are really disliked for other reasons. All those factors figured in Secretary of State Shultzs extraordinary decision to speak out against a presidential order. But the episode was much more than a protest against lie detectors. It was a reaffirmation of the role of personal character in public not stopped its promoters. William J. Casey, the director of central intelligence, is a zealous polygraph advocate. Despite the Chin case, the CIA said last week that polygraphing in the intelligence community has proven to be the best deterrent to the misuse of sensitive information. In addition to its unreliability, the polygraph is subject to abuse by its operators. Employers can and do use it to violate the George Shultz has done it before. When Richard Nixon wanted the tax returns of his "enemies" audited, Shultz, as secretary of the Treasury, said no. For that he earned the Nixonian term heard on the White House tapes: Candy-ass- . Shultz is a conservative of an kind, one who does not think the end justifies the means. In that he is like his old friend and colleague at the University of Chicago, Edward H. Levi, attorney general in the Ford administration. One might disagree with Levis policies, but there was never any possibility that he would bend a principle for reasons of politics or personal ambition. The more common view in Washington is that everything must yield to ambition. Look at Vice President Bush. He was the victim of one of the most vicious men in the history of the American press, the late William Loeb of the Manchester Union Leader. Yet the other day Bush crawled to a dinner to honor Loebs memory. George Shultz won this test of principle. The day after he spoke out, President Reagan backed down on polygraphs. His spokesman, Larry Speakes, now said that there never was an intention to use them more broadly than as one tool in the investigation of someone suspected of providing information to the Soviets." The rare official who resigns on principle, or threatens to, does not usually affect policy. When Cyrus Vance quit as President Carters secretary of state over the plan to rescue the hostages in Iran, the plan went ahead to its disastrous end. But whatever happens to policy, the human being involved has won something for personal character and responsibility in office. The Public Forum Tribune Readers Opinions unworkable or Ice Skating on Pond It does not allow they might be. sales nor does it do away with firearms serial numbers. This new gun bill adds mandatory sentences for federal crimes that are committed with a firearm and denies probation or firstsuspended sentences for time offenders who use a gun, thus adding teeth to the 1968 Gun Control Act. mail-ord- It is sad that Liberty Park Lake, which cost the taxpayers a tidy sum several years ago to enlarge, stands empty. Were it full of water, with this cold weather, it would provide excellent ice skating for hundreds. The only thing lacking for a perfect skating area is water. Mother Nature would take care of the rest. If the Parks Department could see beyond their eyebrows and allow the lake to be filled, a great deal of pleasure could be had by many. FRANK H. KOTTAL er CLAYTON D. DUMAS Hunter Editorial Missed Mark The Dec. 12 Tribune editorial AMA Preference for Ad Banning Encourages Censorship made a point, but missed the mark. The primary focus was freedom of speech, which the article claims is compromised by the AMA's recommendation that tobacco advertising in newspapers be prohibited. Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to Tbe Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of tbe writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to tbe Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 807, Salt Lake City, Utak 84110. Usually the press criticizes the AMA as too conservative, g and resisting change rather than showing the creative health leadership that Americans deserve. Now they condemn the AMA for an appeal which, through reducing physicians incomes, is anything but and reflects strong leadership based on solid scientific evidence. self-servin- self-servi- Gun Act Adds Teeth The Firearms Owners Protection Act, (Senate Bill 49, House Bill 945), has the full support of the president, his attorney general, the departments of Justice and Treasury. After seven years of hearings and debate, the bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate, 79 to 15. It has gone to the House of Representatives, where it has 130 including all three of Utahs representatives. The act has been endorsed by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs Association and several other law enforcement organizations and publications. The act in no way undermines current state and local gun laws, regardless of how If freedom of speech does not include the right to shout fire in a crowded theater, why then is it permissible for newspapers to actively entice through advertising, an addicting behavior that kills at least 300,000 Americans each year, immobilizes countless dolothers and drains billions of health-car- e lars at the expense of all of us? Tobacco use has devastating consequences, and the AMA has taken a courageous and selfless stand. Might not the news-pape- also is promoting the unnecessary and untimely demise of many readers health. Shouldnt Tribune readers right to life and health also be considered? PAUL L. WHITEHEAD, M.D. The Way It Here are briefs from The Salt Lake Tribune of 100, 50 and 25 years ago. December 27, 1885 Thomas Bryne, yard master of the D. & R.G. at Green River is at the Clift House Hotel. December 27, 1935 Since some of the colleges have taken what is regarded as a big step forward this year in coming out into the open with their rs also show responsibility and leadership for healths sake. While The Tribune is technically correct in justifying newspapers advertising policy through First Amendment rights, it Was subsidizing and proselyting, the athletes are apparently doing likewise. December 27, 1960 a touch of snow hit Salt Lake City Just and Utah early Tuesday morning, but it was enough to make roads slippery and bring measurable precipitation. At Salt Lake the weather bureau recordof an inch of moisture in ed a light, powdery snow. Kennedy Name a Complicated Heritage News America Syndicate s and who in Amerihave ca is not included in that category? just had some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that Sen. Edward Kennedy has taken himself out of the 1988 presidential race and will therefore recede from public view. The good news is that two of the younger Kennedys are launching political careers of their own. As in the old joke, furthermore, there is a connection between these two pieces of news, since one of the reasons for Sen. Kennedys decision is that he feared his presidential campaign might have created difficulties for his nephew Joseph P. Kennedy II and his niece Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, both of whom are running for Congress. Strictly speaking, this new generation of Kennedys is only the third to enter American politics. In political terms, however, they represent not the third but the fifth generation of Kennedys to make an appearance on the national scene. The first Joseph P. Kennedy (who never ran for anything but held a number of important appointive posts) was so much a member of the isolationist generation of the 20s and 30s that he did everything he could to prevent the United States from going to war even against Hitler and on the side of Great Britain. Kennedy-watcher- His son John F. Kennedy, on the other hand, was so much a member of the postwar interventionist generation that in his inaugural address as president he promised to support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Robert Kennedy, as John Kennedys brother, of course belonged to the same bio logical generation, and at first he also belonged to the same political generation. Thus, as attorney general in the Kennedy administration, Robert fiercely supported American intervention in Vietnam and just as fiercely opposed aggressive enforcement of desegregation in the South. By 1968, however, Robert Kennedy had moved so far away from his assassinated brothers positions that he was now competing with Eugene McCarthy in the Democratic presidential primaries for the favor of the antiwar movement and becoming a hero to the black community. While claiming John Ernest Conine West Germany Is Flexing Muscles of Independence Los Angeles Times Syndicate During most of the years since World War Q, West German politicians were hardly capable of making a major decision without looking over their shoulders and asking each other, What will the Americans think of this? It still happens. But times are changing. And why not? World War II ended long ago. West Germanys credentials as a good ally are Democratic government is entrenched. Increasingly the country firmly is being run by men and women who do not remember Hitlers Third Reich, and therefore feel no responsibility for its crimes; they came to political maturity during an era when Americas own performance, both at home and abroad, has been less than impressive. The U.S. relationship with Britain and The fact France is far from trouble-frethat politicians in Washington and Bonn also find themselves on different wave lengths from time to time should not of itself disturb d. e. anybody. Still, it is difficult for a knowledgeable American to visit West Germany these days without wondering about the future of the German relationship. If you dont dig too deeply, things are In good shape. In the last national elections, held 33 months ago, West Get r isn voters rebuked the Social Democratic Party which showed signs of veering toward a neutralist, ven orientation by handing a decisive victory to a coalition of the conservative Christian Democrats and the small Free Democratic Party. U.S.-We- st n, A few months later a solid majority in the Bundestag approved the deployment of U.S.-mamissiles despite heavy-hande- d threats from Moscow and enormous demonstrations by forces. Chancellor Helmut Kohl is an outspoken friend and supporter of the Atlantic Alliance. And, with the next national elections only 15 months away, the polls indicate his Christian Democratic Union leads the opposition Social Democrats. However, the real situation is not so clear-cu- t. Neither Kohls party nor the SPD has much chance of winning a ruling majority in the Bundestag on its own. Historically, whichever of the two major parties gets more votes must either form a coalition with the small Free Democrats or enter a grand coalition with the other major party. The Free Democrats have fallen on hard times, however, and may not get enough votes in 1987 to qualify as a coalition partner. If that proves to be the case, the next West German government may be either a grand and quarrelsome coalition of the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats, or a partnership of the Social Democrats with the upstart Greens. To quote an eminent German pollster, The German situation is characterized by the biggest gap anywhere in values between parents and children. The most dramatic manifestation of this generation gap is the emergence of the radioal-chi- c a Greens and of environmentalists amalgamation neutralists who oppose NATO and favor unilateral disarmament. The Greens still enjoy the support of less but they tha- ..w p. anti-nucle- ar anti-Americ- . t have replaced the Free Democrats as West g party. Hardly anybody among the Social Democrats relishes the idea of trying to run the country in a coalition with the Greens, even if the Greens are so disposed. However, SPD Chairman Willy Brandt, among others, has convinced himself that by moving left the Social Democrats can absorb the Greens and stop defections from the SPDs militant Germanys third-rankin- wing. Andreas von Bulow, chairman of an SPD isstudy commission on national-securit- y sues, has called for a 40 percent cut in the and a long-terWest German army phasing out of the U.S. troop presence. Oskar Lafontaine, a leading SPD politician from Saarbrucken, has called for withdrawal from NATOs military infrastruca proposal that has been echoed by ture Ulf Skirke, leader of the partys youth organization. SPD moderates say that such talk should not be taken too seriously, that the partys mainstream still favors full participation in the alliance in partnership with the United States. Brandt has passed the word that these fundamentals will be reaffirmed in the new party program now under development. The fact remains that SPD officials in general have a tendency to speak of the great powers as equally threatening appariwith the benefit of the doubt, if anytions thing, going to the Soviets. The Christian Democrats are much more on the American wavelength. But they, too, must operate in a political environment that bias in the is colored by an and poisoned by the broadcast media blissful Insensitivity of the American politi- i cal system to allied concerns. For example: For years European leaders, sometimes at great political inconvenience to themselves, have upheld the necessity of maintaining a nuclear balance of terror between East and West. Yet President Reagan! did not bother to consult or inform them before making his March 1983 speech announcing Star Wars and seemingly throwing out nuclear deterrence as an operable doctrine. Washington rejected the formula, which involved a compromissiles that might mise on medium-rang- e have been acceptable to Bonn, without checking with Kohl until after the fact. Within the space of a few days, seemingly authoritative Reagan administration sources came up with dramatically different explanations of how far Star Wars research might go without violating the 1972 ABM treaty. Exasperated Bonn officials protest this sort of thing makes it very hard to give unconditional support to Washingtons negotalks in tiating position at the arms-contrGeneva. ol As a power with global responsibilities, the United States is bound to see things differently from West Germany. However, Western Europe is this countrys first line of defense, just as the U.S. nuclear umbrella Is the ultimate guarantor of the freedom and Independence of our allies. It is in our own interest to refrain from careless words and actions that bring comfort to West Germanys while making life difficult for our friends. But the West Germans would be equally unwise to fall into the habit of pulling Uncle Sam's beard to prove their own t Kennedys heritage, then, Robert Kennedy in fact identified himself with a new generation of Democrats who were openly repudiating that heritage. After he too was assassinated, the torch passed to the youngest member of the second biological generation, Edward, who has been more faithful to the latter-da- y political legacy of Robert than Robert himself ultimately was to the legacy of John. Yet the kind of liberalism for which Edward Kennedy has become the leading spokesman is even further to the left of the ideas and values of John F. Kennedys administration than Robert Kennedys was in the end. In that sense, Edward, although bio--' logically part of the second generation of. Kennedys, politically represents the fourth. , It is still much too early to say how the new generation represented by Roberts children Joseph and Kathleen will position itself in relation to this complicated family heritage. But it is not too early to say that the excitement created by Joseph Kennedys candidacy for Tip ONeills congressional seat in Massachusetts demonstrates that Americas obsession with the ' Kennedys has not yet exhausted itself. ' . Nor is it too early to say that this obsession does us very little credit. American history is full of political dynasties: the Adamses, the Lodges, the Longs. Today alone, there are many scions of such families active in political life: Christopher Dodd, Jerry Brown, Jay Rockefeller. For. that matter there is even a young Roosevelt competing with Joseph Kennedy in the Democratic primary race for Tip ONeills seat. Yet only the Kennedy name seems all by itself to qualify anyone who bears it for a political career. It is not that the Kennedys are all ex-- " traordinarily gifted, as was so notably the. case with the Adams family. On the contrary, there is not a single Kennedy, including the one who became president, who remotely compares in point of intellectual stature with John Adams (our second president), or his son John Quincy Adams (our sixth president), or his son Charles Francis Adams (who served with infinitely greater distinction as Lincoln's ambassador to Great Britain than the first Joseph P. Kennedy later did as Franklin Roosevelts), or his son Henry Adams (who made his mark as a writer rather than as a politician). As for moral integrity, those members of the Adams family who had it (almost to a fault) went into politics; those who did not (and there were more than a few) stayed away from politics altogether. The hero of Chappaquiddick, by most invidious contrast, is still a dominant figure in our political life. And now we have his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy II, who about five years after Chappaquiddick also cracked up a car, leaving one of his passengers, a young woman, paralyzed, while he himself escaped with a suspended drivers license. Here, then, is more good news for But for America-watcherit is bad news, a sign of the debasement of our standards in such matters, that we still regard the mere possession of the Kennedy name, quite apart from the character or quality of the person bearing it, as an automatic entitlement to serious political Kennedy-watc- hers. s, |
