Washington cover-up

by Clark R. Mollenhoff

The Teapot Dome scandals could have been fully disclosed in a few months instead of several years. The details of some of the Truman tax scandals could have been uncovered in a few weeks. And again, a frank accounting could have explained the Dixon-Yates contract in a matter of days.

Congress can be of great service to a cabinet officer in keeping his agency clean. If a congressional committee is unreasonable, or brutal, or oversteps its jurisdiction, such abuses, it must be remembered, take place in public where they can be seen and remedied. The President and others in the executive branch have the personnel and facilities for pointing out the abuses so they can be eradicated in the face of public opinion.

Ours was designed to be a government of laws, and not a government of men. It was not intended that the President or any other official would have a right to disregard the laws of Congress in accounting on government activity. The President, it should be pointed out, has all of the protection he needs to prevent Congress from unduly interfering with him in carrying out his executive responsibilities. The separation of powers of the three branches of government is clearly set out in the Constitution, and the only way the Constitution has provided for Congress to take action against the President is to impeach him. Since no President yet has been impeached, this procedure would be resorted to in only the most drastic of circumstances.

The President of the United States, with the vast power and prestige of his office, has the obligation to set a tone of government that assures the fullest possible flow of information consistent with the nation’s security. He must take the lead in breaking down the arrogance of the bureaucracy that assumes a right to keep the knowledge of the people’s business from the people themselves, and thus restore the people’s faith in their governmental servants.

President Kennedy has made an uncertain start. Whether he succeeds depends not only on him, but on the press and the public as well. We cannot afford to allow our faith in a President’s good intentions and his own personal integrity to blind us, as we did during President Eisenhower’s administration, to the machinations of the Washington cover-up. The press, the Congress, the public must make certain that Attorney General Kennedy and other key members of the Kennedy administration remember how “terribly important” it is that Congress and the Government Accounting Office maintain full access to the records of government.

When the old secrecy practices are cast aside and the freedom of information guaranteed, then will our democracy flourish as the founding fathers intended it should.

APPENDIX A
Letter from President Eisenhower
to the Secretary of Defense

THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 17, 1954

The Honorable the Secretary of Defense,
Washington, D. C.

Dear Mr. Secretary: It has long been recognized that to assist the Congress in achieving its legislative purposes every Executive Department or Agency must, upon the request of a Congressional Committee, expeditiously furnish information relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of the Committee, with certain historical exceptions—some of which are pointed out in the attached memorandum from the Attorney General. This Administration has been and will continue to be diligent in following this principle. However, it is essential to the successful working of our system that the persons entrusted with power in any one of the three great branches of Government shall not encroach upon the authority confided to the others. The ultimate responsibility for the conduct of the Executive branch rests with the President.