speculated that Roosevelt instigated the Japanese attack on Pearlharbor by refusing to trade with Japan until it stopped its military exploits in Asia(Hargrove 102). If Roosevelts intention was indeed to pull the United States into a warabroad, he succeeded. His actions raise the question of whether or not the president hasthe right to go against the publics wishes if he deems them unwise. The realistic answerto that question is hard to discern. If the president wishes to adhere to the idea ofdemocracy, however, the answer to that question is no. Under the democratic definitionthe people are the supreme power and thus their wishes most be of paramountimportance to the president.A president can also misuse his power when he uses misinformation toaccomplish his prerogatives. It is not just the public that the president can misinform, hecan also exclude Congress from his activities. By doing this he is effectively shuttingdown the democracy. The way that must presidents use misinformation is by neglectingto tell the public certain details about the state of affairs or actions the president wishesto implement. For example, Johnson used misinformation to continue his war inVietnam. At the time that Johnson was involving the United States in the Vietnam Warhe was also trying to pass much of the legislation for his Great Society (Neustadt 210). Johnson feared that his momentum would be slowed in Congress if he provided themwith all the information about the military efforts in Vietnam. Johnson continued tospend troops to Vietnam but never fully acknowledged the scale of his effort to Congressor to the public (Neustadt 210). Reagans Iran-Contra affair is also an instance in which the president did notinform the public about his actions. Reagan violated the public trust twice in thisscandal. First, he continued to deal with the Contras covertly, even after Congress haddeclared that no American intelligence agency was allowed to do ...
