Fawn Hall Week

The common theme of who owns the Government emerges from the witnesses appearing before the Iran-contra congressional hearings ((NATION, June 15)). Retired generals feel a sufficient proprietary sense to conduct foreign policy initiatives on behalf of the U.S. in the Caribbean and the Middle East. Active-duty officers, an ambassador and an Assistant Secretary of State project this same air of haughtiness. Perhaps this stand is best represented by Fawn Hall. She justified shredding documents and other actions she knew were improper and irregular by her belief in the correctness of Oliver North's "initiatives." Does Hall think that she, Lieut. Colonel North and others who temporarily occupy Government jobs of trust and responsibility are the Government? These people's actions are governed by job descriptions and the law.

Douglas E. Stouffer

Schenectady, N.Y.

National Secretaries' Week should be renamed Fawn Hall Week. This young woman has given the world its most riveting demonstration ever of the near superhuman demands of being a professional secretary. Skewered by the accusatory glare of global publicity like a pinned butterfly, she has faced her congressional inquisitors with poise and outlined her activities and opinions with candor, dignity and grace under the pressure of probing examination and political pettifogging. She offers no excuses for her absolute loyalty to her boss or for having provided her unquestioning support in pursuit of his operational goals. Fawn Hall has stolen the Iran-contra show.

L. Dee Belveal

Mountain View, Calif.

I have been watching the Iran-contra hearings, and it appears that the Congress of the U.S. and the contra supporters in the Administration are indeed fighting. But this is a battle that was initiated, continuously provoked and induced by Congress through legislation that is ambiguous in nature. The battle demonstrates to the world that elected officials in the U.S. Congress are not prepared, and seem unwilling, to fight Communism in America's own hemisphere. My hope is that the American people will learn what a real threat the Sandinista government is not only to neighboring Central American countries but to the U.S. as well.

Mike Ain

Frontenac, Kans.