14176 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS May 17, 1976 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A MISSION DISASTROUS are words as foreign to them as Swahlll 1s to essential to free governmen~. Its legal pro­ Floridians. tection will be hollow, as Alexander Ha.mll­ Secretary Kissinger set off his African ex­ ton predicted, and its freedom will become pedition with the professed alms of helping a sham. HON. HARRY F. BYRD, JR. achieve a peaceful transition to majority rule The press has gradually learned that It has OJ' VIRGINIA In Rhodesia and weakening Soviet infiuence the inescapable obligation to Ulumlnate the IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES in Africa. reality behind the appearance. If following The effect of his trlp 1s most likely to be an that course tends to place the press in an Mondav, Mav 17, 1976 escalation of violence, since the extremists adversary position vis-a-vis not only gov­ now have the lmplled backing of the United ernment but any and all other institutions, Mr. HARRY F. BYRD, JR. Mr. Presi­ States for an all-out campaign against dent, the ably edited Tampa, Fla., Trib­ so much the better for us and for them, and Rhodesia--a country in which blacks have most of all for the public. The adversary une published an excellent editorial on more freedom and a higher standard of living position is Indeed the natural position for a Secretary Kissinger's African trip--and than 1n most of the black-ruled countries. press that takes seriously its responslb111ty to promises. I ask unanimous consent that When Kissinger began hls trip, we said it uncover what is wrong or corrupt in public this editorial, captioned "A Mission was a Mission Impossible. We would now call llfe, or with private Institutions or individu­ Disastrous," be printed in the RECORD. it a Mission Disastrous. als whose activities affect the public inter­ There being no objection, the article est. was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, But a much more ditncult problem is the as follows: obverse of this one. Does the press not also [From the Tampa Tribune] CONFIDENCE IN THE PRESS have the responsib1llty of making the judg­ ment not to publish, the responsibUity of A MissiON DISASTROUS self-restraint, of withholding a potentially secretary of State Henry Kissinger, report­ dangerous secret, or refusing to publish de­ ing to the Senate Foreign Relations Com­ HON. ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN tails that could damage the nation's security mittee ... on his trip to black Africa: OF NEW YORK or an individual's reputation? "We made, I believe, an immense and IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The dilemma is a terribly real one. No welcome impact in Africa on those ... who newspaperman wants to damage the national truly care for peace, independence and jus­ Monday, May 17, 1976 security; and yet no newspaperxnan any long­ tice." er places full faith and credit 1n the phrase Mr. Kissinger 1n this statement exceeds Ms. HOLTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, in a "national security" which has so often been ~ven the diplomatic license for hypocrisy. democratic society, the perpetual tug of used as a wrapper to clothe error, venality, Who are those who "truly care for peace, war between liberty and order frequently corruption or even a drift toward authoritar­ independence and justice"? is waged over the limits on freedom of is.nism and personal rule. Idi Amln, the dictator of Uganda, aptly de­ scribed by former United Nations Ambas­ the press. John Oakes, an editor of the However each time that Information al­ sador Pat Moynihan as "a racist murderer"? New York Times, recently made an im­ legedly Involving national security Is pub­ Samora Machel, leader of the Communist portant contribution to this debate in an lished In the American press, the ~uestlon is band which has made a pollee state of article that appeared on the Op Ed page unavoidable: Are we taking undue advan­ Mozambique? of that paper. I commend his article to tage of our First Amendment privilege to the President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, who my colleague's attention. detriment of the nation, or are we acting in deals with polltlcal opponents by throwing the publ1c Interest? Each case must be de­ them in jall? The text follows: cided on its merits, but each case legitimately The Marxist dictator of Tanzania, Julius CONFIDENCE IN THE PRESS raises the question anew. K. Nyerere, who aids the training of ter­ (By John B. Oakes) Freedom of the press in the United States rorlsts to operate against Rhodesia? (What 1s the Uberty of the press? ... Its today Is under more serious attack than at secretary Kissinger knows that 15 of the security, whatever fine declaration may be any time since the Sedition Act nearly two 49 countries 1n Africa are under direct mili­ inserted in any constitution respecting it, centuries ago. As the press has assumed the tary rule and 29 have one-party governments must altogether depend on public opinion, responsib111ty in recent years of inquiring which brook no opposition. Of the only five and on the general spirit of the people and Into the hidden recesses of government-­ which permit more than one political party of the government.-AZexander Hamilton) executive, legislative and judicial-the reac­ to offer candidates, one 1s the country which The experience of Watergate is the most tion on the part of governing authority has was the principal target of the Kissinger ex­ recent demonstration that a free press is es­ been to attempt to place new and unaccus­ pedition: Rhodesia. sential to a free democracy. Yet, ironically, tomed restrictions on it. In his effort to gain favor with the black­ just as government because of its size and The attacks take various forms. One used ruled governments, Mr. Kissinger promised complexity has distanced itself from the in­ with growing frequency, Is the "gag order," a "unrelenting opposition" to white control in dividual citizen, the press has been dis­ kind of prior censorship forbidding the press Rhodesia and South Africa. tancing ltseU from the individual reader at to publish certain material on the ground He also promised to tighten the economic the very moment when democracy needs lt that to do so would endanger the defendant's squeeze on Rhodesia by funnellng American most. strictions upon It. aid to its hostile neighbors (notably Mozam­ The intimate, almost personal, relation­ The First Amendment's guarantees and the bique) and trying again to persuade Congress ship between newspaper and reader of an Sixth Amendment's guarantee of trial by to cut off U.S. imports of Rhodesian chrome. earlier day has declined; and the consequent an impartial jury may often on occasion The secretary represented these policies as growing alienation of public from press conflict; the question is a real one and is necessary to deter further Soviet-Cuban in­ threatens even greater danger to press free­ under constant scrutiny and discussion by tervention of the kind which won Angola and dom than specific legislative or judicial re­ both press and courts. But lt would surely be to assure favorable treatment of American straints about which we are so rightly con­ better to impose sanctions on otncers of the interests in Africa. cerned. court to forestall leaks, and use other devices "Our chrome imports would be greatly en­ As the confidence of Americans in all our such as sequestration of juries and changes dangered," he told the Senators, 1! the black institutions has been weakened, as our so­ of venue than to Introduce censorship nationalists take over Rhodesia without ciety has at the same time become more through loose employment of the gag order, American support. complex, more broadly sophisticated and less as is done so often at present. Surely, Mr. Kissinger doesn't delude him­ trustful, and as newspaper management has Slmilarly, the repeated use of the sub­ self that his efforts to appease the African tended to move steadily away from the per­ poena power in recent years to force news­ radicals wlll either block Soviet imperialism sonally directed journalism of an Individual papermen to testify before a grand jury or or assure a permanent supply of Rhodesian editor toward the impersonality of a corpo­ to reveal their sources in criminal cases rep­ chrome for our strategic industries. rate structure, the newspaper's direct rela­ resents another potentially crippling attack If the black nationalists overthrow the tionship to the public has become more on press and publlc freedom, for the very present Rhodesian government, they will feel strained; and public understanding of the basic reason that confidentlali ty of sources free to shut off chrome supplles or quadruple inextricable connection between press liberty fs at the heart of the newspaper's ability to the price to the u.s. as suits their purposes. and publlc Uberty has been correspondingly function. They can be expected to act in concert with blurred. But the press does not help its case by Russia, the other principal source of supply. But once the publlc becomes convinced­ insisting on an absolutist position, on re­ As for good wlll? In the African dictator­ however wrongly-that the press does not garding the First Amendment as automati­ ships, to borrow a phrase from Mao, it grows deserve that First Amendment guarantee, cally overriding every other provision of the out of the barrel of a gun. "Peace and justice" which was written into the Constitution as Constitution, not to mention common sense. May 17, 1976 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 14177 The press Is not going to retain-or regain­ mittee only as a last resort. It was our belief moved the restrictions and reverter clause public confidence 1! it is perceived to be that the serious public charges raised during from all the property originally transferred constantly arrogant, unwilling to recognize the past year about the activities of Rep­ by the 1948 Act including the Holiday Isle confiicting rights, or not too concerned about resentative Robert Sikes presented precisely property.