THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Your report ``North moves to discredit McFarlane'' is in error (news, Sept. 10). Your reporters quote ``retired Lt. Col. Edward J. Bronars.''
Ed Bronars is a retired lieutenant general, far more than a lieutenant colonel. Ed was the deputy chief of staff (manpower) at Headquarters Marine Corps at the time that Ollie North was assigned to the National Security Council in 1982. You can believe Ed Bronars, because no one knows better than Ed as to why Ollie North's tour of duty on the NSC was extended.
The Marine Corps has always sent its finest officers to the NSC. Some became commandants of the Marine Corps. Unfortunately, Ollie North was trapped between his duties to the president and the Boland Amendment. The Boland Amendment was the Democratic Party's method to usurp the president's constitutional authority and responsibility to execute foreign policy. Without a line-item veto, the amendment stood in the same manner as ``pork'' amendments.
Anyone who has ever held a top-secret clearance knows that access to that information is on a ``need to know'' basis. North made a judgment call that congressional staffers had no need to know.
Our present Democrat leaders in Congress maintain that Bill Clinton does not need congressional approval to invade Haiti. Those same Democrats insisted that President Bush could not commit U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf war without congressional approval. Those same Democrats support the present Democratic administration's intent to invade Haiti.
Ollie North was caught in the cross-fire of politics.
ROBERT J. THOMAS
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (ret.)
Norfolk, Sept. 12, 1994 by CNB