Jackhammered

by Ed Bethune

  I think that this holiday for Martin Luther King will give us an annual opportunity to recommit ourselves to the proposition that all men are created equal. It will nourish the spirit of reconciliation that we need so desperately in this country right now.

  Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members and I urge particularly the Members on my side of the aisle to support this bill. Let us make this a bipartisan effort, as it should be.

  A significant number of blacks in the Second District supported me every time I ran for office, this in spite of the fact that I was a hard-core conservative on economic issues. I have long believed that the creation of a full-blown welfare state is an American tragedy, particularly for blacks, and I never pulled my punches on that. The trust I developed during the Rockefeller years held firm.

  Two prominent black scholars, Walter Williams of George Mason University and Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution, have written extensively, for decades, about the plight of blacks in America. They argue powerfully that the welfare state impedes black progress and destroys black families by creating dependency. I am hopeful that a majority of blacks will soon come to realize the truth of what they say.

  In 1981, my colleagues Bob Livingston of Louisiana, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, and I decided to bring a few prominent black leaders from our congressional districts to Washington, D.C. to meet with officials in the Reagan administration. Livingston and Edwards also had good support from blacks in their districts, and we wanted to awaken national Republicans who had just about given up on the black community. We had a series of high-level meetings at the White House, the Republican National Committee, and with leaders in the House and Senate; unfortunately, we got tepid responses and no action to promote better relationships. Our constituents were pleased that we had tried. It confirmed the trust we had with them, but the indifferent reaction we got from the people we visited was disappointing.

  32

  CONSERVATION AND WILDERNESS

  Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to

  play in and pray in, where nature may heal

  and give strength to body and soul.

  John Muir

  My fondness for the conservation ideas of President Theodore Roosevelt led me to support wilderness and environmental issues. In my first term I spent days studying the arguments for and against the construction of a series of earthen impoundments that would dam the Cadron Creek, a free-flowing stream that starts in Cleburne County and flows south into Faulkner County. I walked, rode, canoed, and flew over all the areas covered by the project, a brainchild of the Soil Conservation Service. It was a hot issue. Most farmers, concerned about flooding, were in favor of the dams, but the environmental community was deadset in opposition. After much thought and several public hearings, I decided to oppose the project. It was a good decision. Today, Cadron Creek is a favored, widely promoted, recreational spot in Central Arkansas. Outfitters provide tourists with canoes and provisions for floating the Cadron. The creek offers good fishing and spectacular scenery including many caves, bluffs and pinnacles.

  The Arkansas Wildlife Federation, in cooperation with the National Wildlife Federation, gave me a beautiful award, a miniature bronze bear, mounted on a wooden base. It was their 1979 Legislative Conservationist of the Year Award. I love my bear—it has been on my desk ever since I got it.

  In my first year in Congress, I also voted for the Alaska Lands Bill, an historic measure designating millions of acres of wilderness. The bill that I voted for in May of 1979 was adjusted in the Senate to take account of concerns about oil drilling, but overall it was a good step to take and on December 2, 1980, just before leaving office, President Carter signed the bill into law. T. H. Watkins, the noted environmentalist and author said the Alaska Lands Act “set aside more wild country than had been preserved anywhere in the world up to that time,” and that it stood as a ringing validation of the best of what the conservation movement had stood for.

  One of the best things I did was to support and lead the effort to pass the Arkansas Wilderness Act. In a paper delivered to the Arkansas Historical Association at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia on April 25, 2009, Little Rock banker French Hill remembered my work:

  Public support … came not from a Democrat, but from a Republican, Second District U. S. Representative Ed Bethune of Searcy. In April of 1983, Bethune, toured the areas and announced that he would introduce legislation to designate Flatside in Perry and Saline Counties as wilderness. Flatside (about 10,885 acres) was the only ACC [Arkansas Conservation Coalition] designated area in the Second District. He also told reporters that he would like to see all eleven areas recommended by the ACC included in a final bill.

  Bethune’s action prompted the Arkansas delegations only other Republican, U. S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-AR) of Harrison, to take a position. He announced that he was opposed to Bethune’s effort … recalling that he had told his constituents a ‘number of years ago that we probably had enough wilderness areas.’ However, by the end of 1983, Hammerschmidt and Bill Alexander had sided with Beryl Anthony and cosponsored his Forest Service-backed bill. Arkansas wilderness legislation was now deadlocked in the House, and Senators Bumpers and Pryor had yet to take any action.

  The Arkansas Democrat reported that Anthony and Bethune were applying pressure on Bumpers and Pryor and that Bumpers and Pryor were waiting on a compromise in the House. But in the ‘air war,’ Bethune was gaining ground. He obtained endorsements from pro-business groups such as The Little Rock Chamber, (Mack McLarty, Chairman) and the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission.

  Then, a miracle of legislative courage happened. On the last day of the 1983 session, Senators Bumpers and Pryor introduced a wilderness bill, S. 2125, almost a duplicate of Bethune’s. They indicated that they would hold public hearings in Arkansas despite the fact that two House subcommittees had already held extensive hearings in May 1983. Regardless of the two-year delay, proponents now had a House bill and a Senate companion. The delay also resulted in trying to legislate during the upcoming presidential election year. Indeed, it was an uncertain environment for wilderness.

  On Wednesday, February 15, 1984, on the campus of UALR, Bumpers and Bethune sat side by side, allied and ready to hear 130 scheduled witnesses—the most Senator Bumpers remarked he had seen in his nine years in the Senate. Senator Pryor would have joined them, but was attending the funeral of his mother. These hearings would be followed by a second set of hearings in Washington in April 1984.

  French Hill, then a legislative aide to Senator John Tower (R-Texas), enlisted the support of the senior senator and he co-sponsored the Arkansas Wilderness Bill. It was unusual for an out-of-state senator to support another state’s wilderness bill, thus his endorsement helped our cause. The Arkansas Gazette and the Pine Bluff Commercial also endorsed the bill.

  The U. S. Senate passed the Arkansas Wilderness Bill on August 9, 1984. Following House passage, President Reagan signed the bill into law on October 19, 1984.

  The Arkansas Conservation Coalition and Don Hamilton of Little Rock, another law school classmate of mine, were indispensable allies. They worked tirelessly to pass the Arkansas Wilderness Bill. They urged Susan Morrison, a famous wildlife artist, to give me the artist’s proof of her etching entitled Flatside Wilderness. It is a treasure and it, along with her poem of the same name, has hung in my home office ever since.

  33

  POLAND AND THE POPE

  Before his pontificate, the world was divided into blocs.

  Nobody knew how to get rid of communism.

  In Warsaw, in 1979, he simply said, “Do not be afraid.”

  Lech Wałęsa, founder of Solidarity.

  In August of 1980, Lech Walesa led Polish workers to strike the Gdansk shipyard. The strike gave rise to a wave of strikes all across Poland that forced the communist authorities to give Polish workers the right to strike and organize unions. Shortly thereafter, General Wojciech Jaruzelski took over the comm
unist party. He imposed martial law in December of 1981, and then arrested Walesa and other union leaders. The conflict between the workers and the state was the death-knell for communism in Eastern Europe.

  In 1982, I was fortunate to be a member of the first congressional delegation to visit Poland after the declaration of martial law.

  Shortly after we landed in Warsaw and left the airport, someone broke into our aircraft, the kind of thing that happens in a police state. We had left no official papers or materials on the plane so it did not turn into a big deal, but we lodged an official protest because the break-in was a dastardly violation of diplomatic protocol.

  Our small delegation toured many sites and visited with church leaders and others who were struggling to make the best out of a tense situation. At every stop, the Poles treated us with respect and were effusive in their praise and kindness. I concluded that the Polish people love America and love Americans. It gave me a good feeling to be on their side and to see how much they admired our country.

  It was impossible to feel good about anything on our third day in Poland. We visited Auschwitz, the concentration camp where the Germans held and exterminated more than a million people, mostly Jews—men, women, and children. It is a devastating experience to hear the stories of Auschwitz and to see the collection of shoes, garments and other personal possessions of the poor souls imprisoned and murdered there.

  The grisly tour brought back haunting memories of a trip that Lana and I made two years earlier to Dachau, the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis near Munich, Germany in 1933. There, the Germans abused and murdered thousands of political opponents, Christians and Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals—anyone they considered to be an enemy of the Nazi regime.

  The unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau—too extensive and painful to cover here—will haunt me forever.

  Just as our visit to Poland was winding down, we received a call from the Vatican. Pope John Paul II had heard of our trip. As a Pole he was curious to hear about our visit to his homeland. He invited us to meet with him at the Vatican on our way back to the United States, so we quickly rearranged our itinerary.

  When we arrived in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican officials met us and led us through vast hallways and rooms to the Pope’s private apartment. On our way, we passed through a large hall where hundreds of people were waiting for an audience and that made me realize that we—there were only seven in our delegation—were receiving special treatment. Eventually we were ushered into a small room that had what appeared to be a throne at one end. Within minutes, Pope John Paul II, dressed in a white cassock, entered the room through a side door. He took a seat on the throne, and began reading a prepared statement into a microphone welcoming us to the Vatican. I thought it was strange until he finished, shoved the microphone aside and stepped down to meet us. We shook hands and then, for a remarkable half hour we talked informally with the world’s most important religious leader. He asked about our families, but he was most interested to learn how things were going in his homeland, Poland. His magnetic, engaging personality reminded me of President Reagan.

  When our meeting was over the Pope put a maroon box containing a crucifix in my hands and gave it and me his blessing. He did the same for the other members of our small delegation and then he was gone.

  His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, met with our congressional delegation in the Vatican in 1982 after we visited Poland, his homeland. We were the first delegation from Congress to enter Poland after the Soviet-controlled government declared martial law.

  My trip to Poland, a country oppressed by the Soviets and suffering the heavy hand of martial law, exposed me to the hopes and dreams of the Poles, the horrors of the Holocaust, and finally, the goodness and grace of the Holy Father. Emotionally drained—having experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows—I hungered for home.

  34

  CHEMICAL WEAPONS

  As we recall the unspeakable horror endured by

  victims of chemical weapons, let us all

  reaffirm our common commitment to eliminate

  the dangers posed by such instruments of mass destruction.

  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

  In 1982, the Department of Defense declared that it wanted to spend $32 million to make 155-millimeter artillery shells and aerial Bigeye bombs that would contain binary nerve gas. Binary gas was a new development. It consisted of two agents considered harmless until mixed in flight. The new binary chemical weapons were to be produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. Many of my constituents worked at the arsenal and thousands lived nearby. In deciding whether to support or oppose the project, I had to consider economic, public safety, and national defense concerns.

  I began an intensive study of chemical warfare to determine what I should do about the request to spend millions on a new age of chemical weapons. I concluded it was a mistake for America to begin the new program. We still had a supply of unitary nerve gas sufficient to provide the necessary deterrence and there were other good reasons to forego production. The more I learned about chemical warfare the less I liked the idea of producing nerve gas, especially at Pine Bluff.

  Nerve gas is a terrible war weapon. One drop on the skin will send a person into rigors and painful death. I used to remind my constituents that the prevailing winds around Little Rock are south to north. When the paper mills in Pine Bluff were going strong, everyone in Little Rock had to hold their nose because the stench of a paper mill is awful. When I made the case against producing nerve gas in Pine Bluff, I used to say, “If you don’t like the paper-mill smell, wait till you get a whiff of this stuff.”

  I also railed against the Army Chemical Corps for all the mistakes they had made in storing and developing chemical weapons over the years. The unit was moribund and useless, so much so that the Army once tried to dissolve it. I did not hesitate to point that out; consequently, I was not a favorite of the Army Chemical Corps.

  When I showed up to inspect the operation at the Pine Bluff Arsenal the officer in charge told me I would have to give a blood sample before they could let me go through the facility. I think it was a rule more honored in the breach than the observance, but I did not object. I should have, because they sent in a man who reeked of whisky to draw my blood sample. I did not give them the satisfaction they were looking for. I let the man—conspicuously incompetent—poke around until he hit a vein and got his sample. Then we toured the facility, and when we were done, I wrote up the problems I had found.

  The stupid confrontation with me did the Chemical Corps no good. I began calling them the “Moribund Chemical Corps,” or the “MCC” for short.

  In July of 1982, I joined with Wisconsin Democrat Clement Zablocki, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to block production of the new binary weapons. We won by a vote of 251 to 158. My opposition set off a firestorm at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and throughout the Pentagon.

  In 1983, the Pentagon announced that it would try again to get funding for the production of binary nerve gas. I wrote a letter to President Reagan asking him to abandon the effort to launch a new age of chemical weapons. I urged him to restate the 1969 policy announced by President Nixon against the production of chemical and biological weapons. I argued that a restatement of the moratorium would give the United States the high ground in the struggle for world opinion because we could distinguish ourselves from the Soviet Union, a nation that was making and using chemical weapons. We could not make such a distinction regarding nuclear weapons.

  Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger came to my office and tried to get me to back off but I politely declined.

  On May 25, 1983, Chairman Zablocki and I went to the White House to state our case. It was a power-packed meeting in the Oval Office with President Reagan, Vice President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, Ed Meese, Jim Baker, Mike Deaver, William Clark, and Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein. The president’s command of detail wa
s startling. Zablocki and I did not expect him to lead the discussion but he did. We had a good exchange and I eventually urged the president to show the world our good intentions by restating Nixon’s moratorium. He said it was a good argument, but added, “The press wouldn’t let me get away with it.”

  Clem and I left the meeting agreeing that we had gotten a fair hearing. Soon thereafter, I re-filed my amendment to kill the program and once again, it passed the House.

  After I left Congress, the debate continued for a few years but in 1990, President George H. W. Bush met with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and reached an historic understanding to eliminate most chemical weapons. In 1991, President Bush took it a step further. He declared that the United States would give up chemical weapons saying he expected it would lead to a worldwide ban on their production. On April 24, 1997, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, the United States Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, making illegal the production, acquisition, stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons.

  35

  THE PAGE SCANDAL

  It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.

  Oscar Wilde

  In my second term, I put in a bid to select a young Arkansan to serve as a congressional page. Scores of young Arkansans had come to Washington to serve as pages, but none had come at the invitation of the Republican party. The Democrats, being in the majority, were entitled to twice as many pages as Republicans, but I thought I could make a good case to select at least one page for the Ninety-Seventh Congress.

  I asked Marlene Thompson, my personal assistant, to gather applications from deserving students in the Second Congressional District and told her I was determined to select a page based on merit. Most pages were the children of big contributors or people with political connections. I wanted to break that mold and open the selection up to kids that might not otherwise have a chance to serve. The people of Pocahontas gave me a chance when I moved there in the eleventh grade and it changed my life. I wanted to return the favor to a deserving youngster.