In Times of Crisis, How Much Power Does the President Have?

Washington Times, June 3, 1987; reprinted inĀ The World and I (August 1987).

Excerpt:

Lt. Col. Oliver North may or may not have broken the law, but that he was a hero Patrick J. Buchanan had no doubt.

Unlike the other members of the Reagan White House – he was still the communications director at the time – Mr. Buchanan defended Col. North without qualification. Col. North, he said, could be likened to those Americans who, in defiance of the law, “ran escaped slaves up the underground railroad” or, even more to the point, to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, before our entry into World War II, “secretly ordered American destroyers to hunt down German submarines in the North Atlantic and to relay the information to the British Fleet.”

Online:
The World and I