A Chara, - As an Irish-American, I am very proud that our president has played such a vital role in the peace process in Northern Ireland. However, that pride should not prevent us from holding our leaders to a very high moral standard when dealing with the public, particularly the citizens of their own country. In a recent Editorial ("Mr Clinton's Return", September 4th,) you make the statement: "Most Irish people would share the general view in Europe that the affair has been abused by his opponents and blown out of proportion." If this is indeed true, it demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of the situation in the minds of Irish people. The matter which most concerns me as an American is not that the president engaged in an affair, but that he lied about that affair to the American people for nine months. To say that the affair has been overblown by opponents is grossly simplistic because it fails to recognise that Mr Clinton could have avoided all of this trouble had he simply told the truth to the American public.
Granted, an admission of infidelity to the American people would have made front-page headlines and would have been a big story in the United States for several weeks. But it would not have been the first time the president had admitted to such behaviour and the matter would have quickly disappeared into a rather uninteresting footnote in history. Instead, the American people have been treated to the opportunity to pay for a long, drawn-out investigation, only to have the president finally admit that he was, indeed, guilty. This "opportunity" was provided by the President, not by his opponents.
It is a mistake to allow our respect for a leader's good points to cause us to turn a blind eye to his faults. We do no favour to the president by dismissing his lack of honesty. If The Irish Times genuinely respects Mr Clinton's abilities as a leader, I suggest that you challenge him to become an even better leader by holding him to a stringent code of conduct before his own people and the world. - Is mise, Brian P. Gillespie,
Easton,
Pennsylvania,
USA.