PRESIDENT REAGAN ADMITS ARMS-FOR-HOSTAGES SWAP BY HIS ADMINISTRATION AND SAYS IT WAS 'A MISTAKE'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060014-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: March 5, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060014-0
ARTICLE
ON P
President Reagan Admits Arms-for-Hostages swap
By His Administration and Says It Was `a Mistake'
Skirts Apology in Speech,
Accepts Responsibility;
Says Staff Failed Him
By JANE MAYER and JOHN WALcoTr
_
Staff ReporfP_rf_of THE WALL STREET OURNAL
WASHINGTON- President Reagan last
night acknowledged for the first time that
his administration had swapped arms for
hostages, and he concluded that "it was a
mistake."
"A few months ago. I told the American
people I did not trade arms for hostages,"
the president said in a televised address to
the nation. "My heart and my best inten-
tions still tell me that is true, but the facts
and the evidence tell me it is not."
Many political advisers viewed the
speech as a critical opportunity for Mr.
Reagan to explain
his role in his ad-
ministration's secret
arms sales to Iran
and aid to Nicara-
guan rebels. The 13-
minute speech was
among the presi-
dent's most per-
sonal, and while he
stopped short of ad-
mitting he had made
mistakes himself, he
came closer than he
has in the past.
The president
sought to put the debacle behind him, ar-
guing that "what should happen when you
make a mistake is this: you take your
knocks, you learn your lessons, and then
you move on.'' But the investigations into
the Iran-Contra fiasco are likely to con-
tinue into next year's election campaign,
complicating Mr. Reagan's already trou-
bled Central American policy, his efforts to
combat terrorism, and faltering U.S. diplo-
macy in the Middle East.
As his advisers had urged, the president
took overall responsibility for his failed
policies. But he didn't apologize, and in
keeping with his past statements, he de-
nied knowing that money had been di-
verted from the arms sales to the rebels,
said he hadn't intended to trade arms for
hostages and blamed his staff for acting
without his knowledge.
Defends Hands-Off Management
Mr. Reagan said he was "disappointed
in some who served me." He blamed his
aides' failure to keep "proper records of
meetings or decisions" for his own inabil-
ity to remember whether he had given ad-
vance authorization for Israeli sales of
U.S. arms to Iran in 1985.
STAT
The president defended his hands-off
management style, which the Tower Com-
mission had criticized. He said his style
had worked successfully during his eight
years as governor of California and for
ledged that in the Iran affair, "my style
As he has done for the past four
months, the president insisted that he had
sold arms in an attempt to foster a strate-
gic opening to Iran. But he conceded for
the first time that "what began as a strate-
gic opening to Iran deteriorated in its im-
plementation into trading arms for hos-
tages. This runs counter to my own beliefs,
to administration policy, and to the origi-
nal strategy we had in mind."
In the past, Mr. Reagan has staunchly
defended the goals of his policy, criticizing
only the execution. Last night he continued
on this line. but included the possibility
that his own concern for the hostages had
contributed to the deterioration of that pol-
icy.
Last week, in its report, the Tower
Commission blamed the president's "in-
tense compassion for the hostages" for the
fact that the administration continued sell-
ing arms to Iran over the objections of sev-
eral top officials, and in the face of evi-
dence that the strategy was failing.
"1 let my personal concern for the hos-
tages spill over into the geopolitical strat-
egy of reaching out to Iran," Mr. Reagan
said last night. "I asked so many questions
about the hostages' welfare that I didn't
ask enough about the specifics of the total
Iran plan."
Mr. Reagan defended his 31:-month si-
lence on the scandal, which political ex-
perts say has fueled concern that he no
longer is fully in command. He claimed he
was unable to speak out until the Tower
Commission finished its investigation into
the decisions he and his aides made. "The
reason I haven't spoken to you before now
is this: You deserve the truth. And as frus-
trating as the waiting has been, I felt it
was improper to come to you with sketchy
reports, or possibly even erroneous state-
ments .... "
The commission found, however, that
the president had made incorrect state-
ments based on misleading accounts of the
Iran affair prepared by his staff. The
panel, headed by former Sen. John Tower,
also found that some of Mr. Reagan's most
senior aides had made incomplete or mis-
leading statements to Congress. The report
also found that the president didn't seem to
be "aware of the way in which the opera-
tion was implemented."
Demonstration of Command
Mr. Reagan's advisers have told him
that in order to restore public faith, he
must demonstrate that he has taken com-
mand. Last night, speaking confidently, he
said he was "taking action" in three basic
areas "to put the house in even better or-
der."
First, he stressed that he has brought
new blood, new energy, and new credibil-
ity and experience" to his administration.
He praised his new chief of staff, former
Sen. Howard Baker, but failed to mention
his recently departed chief of staff, Donald
Regan. He also praised his new national
security adviser, Frank Carlucci, and
newt named Central Intelligence Agency
director, William Webster. He pointed out
that nearly-haff Of Me ional Security
Council staff already has been replaced.
Second, the president said he has or-
dered the NSC to review all U.S. covert op-
erations, and has issued a directive bar-
ring the NSC from undertaking secret op-
erations of its own. "I expect a covert pol-
icytthatif Americans saw it on the front
page of ttheir newspaper s, l e d say 'that
makes sense.' " The Tower Commission
faulted the president and his staff for fail-
ing to plan for the probability that their se-
cret o rations would be revealed.
Third. e president sat a is adopting
the Tower Commission's recommendations
on national security policy. The commis-
sion said no major changes in the structure
of the NSC were needed, however, finding
that "the NSC process didn't fail, it simply
was largely ignored."
Mr. Reagan also vowed that in the fu-
ture, "proper procedures for consultation
with the Congress will be followed. not only
in letter, but in spirit." But while Senate
Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D, W.Va.I
last night welcomed Mr. Reagan's "will-
ingness to have a new working relationship
with Congress," he faulted the president
for not informing Congress about his Iran
policy.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole i R,
Kan.) said Mr. Reagan has "taken the first
big step on the comeback trail."
Although his critics have suggested that
he may be too old for the job, Mr. Rea.-an
in his speech made a virtue of his ige.
"You know, by the time you reach my age,
you've made plenty of mistakes if you've
lived your life properly. So you learn. You
put things in perspective. You pull your en-
ergies together. You change. You go for-
ward."
Outsider Worked on Speech
The speech largely was written not by
the usual team of White House
speechwriters, but by an outsider to the
administration, Landon Parvin. Mr. Par
vin has written some of First Lady Nancy
Reagan's anti-drug speeches as well as
gag lines for a number of well-known
Washington officials, including former
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060014-0
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Chief of Staff Regan. Mr. Parvin also
wrote Vice President George Bush's widely
praised speech acknowledging that "mis-
takes were made" in the Iran policy.
There was no official explanation about
why the White House had farmed the
speech out. But some presidential aides
suggested that Mr. Reagan's State of the
Union message Jan. 21 was so poorly re-
ceived that Mrs. Reagan. among others,
urged a new process. turning to someone
who had successfully written for her.
White House speechwriters. who hadn't
even been shown the speech before it was
delivered, complained that, as one said.
"Nancy's running the White House-we
had nothing to do with it."
Yesterday, in a photo session with re-
porters, Mr. Reagan appeared defensive
and angry over reports that his wife has
been playing a powerful role behind the
scenes, calling the reports "despicable fic-
tion." When asked what he objected to par-
ticularly. he said ''the idea that ... she's
being a kind of dragon lady. There is noth-
ing in that."
A reporter asserted that Chief of Staff
Baker, who was in the room yesterday
with Mr. Reagan, was the one who had
first used the phrase. Mr. Baker denied it.
In fact, while he has acknowledged telling
a reporter last Friday that Mrs. Reagan
can be "a dragon when she gets her
hackles up." he didn't use the "dragon
lady" term that the president was com-
plaining about.
Although Mr. Reagan's speech laid
blame on his staff, he didn't criticize
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, whom he
fired from the NSC for his part in the af-
fair. Asked yesterday if he still thought
Col. North was a "national hero," as he de-
clared on Nov. 26, the president replied.
His military record was one of numerous
rewards for his courage."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060014-0