Letters to the Editor
Retired Top Brass Have Right to Freedom of Speech
Regarding the article “Top Brass Not Above the Law” in the May 24 issue, while I agree with General Brewster’s assertions that there has been some inappropriate conduct by some government officials who are currently in the military service or are retired military officers, I disagree with the author’s suggested solution to use the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as the method of correcting the problem. If any legal action is to be taken regarding the current government employees who participated in politically motivated verbal attacks on President Trump, it should be done under the Hatch Act, a federal law designed to restrict the use of federal employees for partisan political activities.
The author cites Article 88 of the UCMJ, noting that it authorizes courts-martial for officers who utter contemptuous words against the president or certain other high government officials. While the spirit of this statement is upright, the word “contemptuous” can be ambiguous. Fortunately, our country has not experienced what the German people experienced when the Nazis used similar wording to interpret the word “contemptuous” as meaning any criticism of Adolf Hitler or any member of the Nazi government.
In 1964, the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater, was a major general in the Air Force Reserve. Fortunately, Goldwater was allowed to speak his mind as a candidate. Of course, the liberal news media gave little coverage of the issues he raised while much of the news coverage portrayed him as unfit to serve if he were elected. The Goldwater campaign attempted to point out many mistakes that were made in Washington, D.C., such as Castro’s rise to power in Cuba, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, the no-win policy in Vietnam, and others. Fortunately, Goldwater was not recalled to active duty to face a court-martial for making these criticisms.
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