Katzenbach Says Executive Branch Restricts Military

Congress can hardly carry out its Constitutional mandate "to raise and support armies" with the present restrictions on military information and advice, Edward L. Katzenbach, Jr., associate director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program, said yesterday in the New York Times magazine.

The executive branch of the government now withholds information necessary to allow competent consideration of proposed bills, Katzenbach declared. The Joint Chiefs of Staff after an executive decision are forced to parrot the official word and any attempt to introduce other considerations leaves a leader open to charges of insubordination, he stated.

"In the case of tariff policy, agricultural policy, or tax policy, contrary-minded advice from various 'experts' is the order of the day, every day," he declared. Congress, however, after hearing only one side of the story, must pass defense legislation largely as "an act of faith," although the system of the separation of powers presumes a free flow of information into both the Legislative and Executive branches of the government, he added.

Furthermore, despite the Constitution, Congress has had increasingly less to do with the making of military policy in the positive sense," he said. While it can cut an appropriation it has no power to force the President to spend more than he wants.

"Since military policy is public policy, the broad outlines of military alternatives should be publicly aired, he concluded.