TRYING A COMEBACK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2012
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: March 16, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
istration that had been foundering.
Though it failed to address several of the
more troubling aspects of Iranscam, the
meticulously crafted twelve-minute
speech showed that Reagan recognized
the severity of the crisis and had deter-
mined to take steps to remedy the
situation.
By summoning his tremendous skills
as an orator, Reagan once again managed
to swing events his way, however tempo-
rarily. The address won bipartisan plau-
dits on Capitol Hill and favorable cover-
the scandal and his passive work habits.
Reagan's address was not enough to
convince his critics that he has learned
the lessons of the past few months. "The
President gave an excellent speech," said
New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, "but no
mere speech can dispel the doubts raised
by the Iran-contra affair. Only time will
tell whether the President has asserted
control over the foreign policy of our na-
tion." Massachusetts Democratic Con-
gressman Barney Frank was even blunt-
er. "The Tower commission," said Frank,
"did not find Reagan a lousy
orator; they found him a lousy
President."
Reagan and his support-
ers, however, insist that last
week marked a turnaround.
"He's doing it," said Republi-
can Senator Alan Simpson of
Wyoming. "He's appointing
good people. There will be
more changes; I'm not going
to speculate who, but others
will go. The President went
about as far last night as his
persona would take him. He
didn't apologize, but he ad-
mitted his mistakes. He said
he had learned. He said he
would change. That's quite a
bit for a President."
A presidential comeback
of any sort was long overdue.
For three months Reagan had
"You pull your energies together. You change. You go forward. "
hostages' well-being, the President re-
fused to disavow the initiative as wrong-
headed from the start.
Instead, Reagan looked to the future,
assuming the tone of a grandfatherly
sage: "By the time you reach my age,
you've made plenty of mistakes. And if
you've lived your life properly, so you
learn. You put things in perspective. You
pull your energies together. You change,
you go forward."
Forward momentum was something
Reagan desperately needed after months
adrift in the Iran-contra scandal and the
devastating report from the Tower com-
mission depicting an inattentive Presi-
dent surrounded by reckless advisers. The
President's response to the report, and his
widely applauded appointments of a new
White House chief of staff and CIA direc-
tor to go along with his new National Se-
curity Adviser, gave a boost to an Admin-
unflinchingly accepted re-
sponsibility for the Iran-
contra scandal that has
threatened his presidency.
But while admitting that his
overture to Iran quickly
turned into an arms-for-
hostages swap because he was
so deeply concerned about the
61 TIME
16 March 1987
Trying a Comeback
Reagan concedes error in Iranscam, but can he still lead?
on my watch ...
"There are reasons why it
happened, but no excuses. It
was a mistake. "
"I take full responsibility for
my own actions and for those of
my Administration. As angry
as I may be about activities un-
dertaken without my knowl-
d
I
ll
e
ge,
am sti
accountable for
those activities. As disappoint-
ed as I may be in some who
served me, I am still the one who must an-
swer to the American people for this behav-
ior. And as personally distasteful as I find
secret bank accounts and diverted funds,
well, as the Navy would say, this happened
For the old trouper it was
a masterly performance.
Speaking to the nation on Ash
Wednesday in perhaps the
most important address of his
long political career, Ronald
Reagan was simultaneously
repentant yet still proud, re-
gretful yet determined. He
age in the press. Overnight polls showed
the President's approval rating, which
had sagged to a four-year low, rising by as
much as 9 points. At the White House,
the mood changed from tragic to trium-
phant. "There's a big difference over
there," said Nancy Reynolds, a close
friend of the Reagans'. "You can hear it
in people's voices. You can smell it in the
air."
But like the false spring temperatures
that warmed the nation's capital last
week, the uptick in the President's for-
tunes could be merely transitory. Artful
as it was, Reagan's speech did not resolve
the most serious question raised by Irans-
cam: Is the President at 76 sufficiently
alert and involved to lead the country? To
regain political advantage for the final
two years of his Administration, Reagan
must still overcome formidable obstacles,
particularly the ongoing investigations of
refused to speak out on the crisis that
swirled about him. Since the diversion of
Iran arms profits to the Nicaraguan con-
tras was disclosed last Thanksgiving
week, the President had made only one
major public appearance: his recycled
State of the Union address in January.
But the Tower commission's report, with
its damning disclosures of ineptitude and
malfeasance, seemed to serve as a cathar-
sis for the White House. Finally, now that
the Administration's sins had been ex-
posed, the President was forced to act de-
cisively, beginning with the ouster the fol-
lowing day of Chief of Staff Donald
Regan and his replacement with Howard
Baker, the capable and popular onetime
Senate majority leader from Tennessee.
The President's speech was the
launching pad for an energetic public re-
lations offensive that Robert Dole, the
Republican Senator from Kansas,
1onhnued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
agan's first
Week.
Comeback
Re
dubbed
important move was to accent the with-
drawal of Robert Gates' nomination to
become director of Central Intel ' e e.
As the CIA's deputy director and a close
ally of his disabled former b )YiUiam
Case Gates had come under fire for his
involvement in Iranscam, and his
chances for Senate confirmation were
looking dim. In Gates' place Reagan
nominated FBI Director William Web-
ster, a former judge who is widely respect-
ed for his integrity. B selectinWebster,
the President won the same bipartisan
for
the ap-
received
kudos he a
pointments o Baker and recently
costa e NSC -rector Frank Car-
lucci. Significantly, none of the
three is a red-white-and-blue Rea-
ganite. All are notably cool, non-
ideological pragmatists.
No one symbolized the Ad-
ministration's renewed vitality as
much as Baker. The personable
Tennessean with the easygoing
manner was received almost as a
savior in the siege-ridden White
House. Baker quickly installed his
own team and tried to thaw the
frosty relations between the Ad-
ministration and his old colleagues
on Capitol Hill. "We were lucky Willia
the change in personnel came al-
most simultaneously with the Tower re-
port and the speech," said a Reagan aide.
"It enabled us to appear to get a com-
pletely fresh start."
Appearances were foremost in the
k
'
h
dl
l
t
i
d
f R
retreated quickly after reading a brief
statement welcoming Soviet Leader Mik-
hail Gorbachev's latest proposals for re-
ducing intermediate-range nuclear mis-
siles in Europe.
After virtually banning questions by
reporters at photo opportunities for more
than two months, Reagan suddenly wel-
comed the White House press corps for
two sessions a day. He held conferences
with congressional leaders, with Ameri-
can arms-control negotiators. For the
first time in his presidency, Reagan met
with staffers of the National Security
wee
.
eagan
s
an
ers
as
m
n
s o
Baker set out to limit the damage of the
Tower report's criticism of the President's
detached "management style." In his first
day on the job, the new chief of staff
popped into the White House briefing
room to announce that he had "never
seen Ronald Reagan more energetic,
more fully engaged and more in com-
mand of difficult circumstances and ques-
tions." The following day the President
appeared in the briefing room for the first
time since late November, although he
Council on their turf in the Old Executive
Office Building and lectured them on his
directive prohibiting all covert NSC opera-
tions. On his way to the meeting, Reagan
practically bounded up two flights of
stairs, leaving Baker and another aide,
Presidential Spokesman Martin Fitz-
water, panting behind him.
The President tried to shift attention
to his political agenda. Speaking before
the National Newspaper Association last
week, Reagan said that the nation had
spent enough time concerning itself with
"who's up and who's down, who's in and
out" (an inadvertent echo from King
Lear) as a result of the scandal. "So far as
I'm concerned," said the President, "the
American people sent me here to do a job,
and there are just two years left to get it
done." Among the President's top priori-
ties for the remainder of his term: an
arms treaty with the Soviets.
But the President and his advisers are
.well aware that the burst of public ap-
pearances can do' only so much. "We
can't manage by photograph," noted one
aide. If the Tower commission report gal-
vanized the President, aides say, it also
made him conscious finally of how seri-
ous his difficulties are. Reagan slogged
through the report over the weekend fol-
lowing its release, and those who saw him
before and afterward sensed his
s dawning realization of the depth of
I
his
roblem-as well as
enuine
n
p
g
surprise at much of what he read.
When Reagan returned to the
Oval Office Monday morning, he
at last seemed to recognize what
he was up against. That day he
went to work on his response.
The basic draft was written by
Landon Parvin, a White House
speechwriter who has done more
work for the First Lady than for
the President. According to Fitz-
water, Parvin received advice
from "everybody and his brother":
Howard Baker, Frank Carlucci,
Treasury Secretary James Baker,
Pollster Richard Wirthlin, Politi-
cal Consultant Stuart Spencer, Nancy
Reagan's former and current press secre-
taries Sheila Tate and Elaine Crispen,
Fitzwater and his staff.
Parvin first met with the President the
day after the Tower report was released.
Reagan had read only about a third of the
document, but he was able to give Parvin a
sense of what he wanted to say. While he
did not substantially alter the work the fol-
lowing week, the President added a few
important flourishes. "It was a personal
speech," said a White House source, "so it
had to come from him."
Reagan had insisted on waiting for
the release of the Tower report before fac-
ing the public on Iranscam, and he used
the document as a guide for his com-
Take-charge image: Reagan meeting with the staff of the National Security Council in the Old Executive Office Building
A sudden burst of photo opportunities for reporters, but as one aide said, "We can't manage by photograph. "
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
ments. The President once again depicted
himself as an innocent bystander in the
Iran-contra affair, accepting responsibil-
ity for actions that took place "without
my Knowledge." Reagan said he "had to
hunt pretty hard to find any good news in
the board's report," but patted himself on
the back by citing a sentence he was "re-
lieved" to find in the 288-page document:
"The President does indeed want the full
story to be told."
Reagan accepted the commission's
finding that his Iran initiative "deterio-
rated" into an arms-for-hostages trade.
But he stubbornly clung to the notion that
his dealings with the Iranians were in-
tended as a diplomatic overture: "My
heart and my best intentions still tell me
that is true, but the facts and the evidence
tell me it is not." Reagan attributed the
deterioration of the initiative to his deep
compassion. "I let my personal concern
for the hostages spill over into the geopo-
litical strategy of reaching out to Iran," he
explained. "I asked so many questions
about the hostages' welfare that I didn't
ask enough about the specifics of the Iran
plan."
The President repeated the assertion
he made to the Tower commission that
"no one kept proper records of meetings
or decisions," and without such records
he could not remember whether he had
approved the initial Israeli arms ship-
ment to Iran before or after it occurred.
Said Reagan: "I did approve it:I just can't
say specifically when."
Since the Tower commission could
not answer the question of what hap-
pened to the funds diverted to the contras,
Reagan hardly discussed the matter, sim-
ply expressing confidence that the "truth
will come out." He did not address a cen-
tral finding of the report, that NSC offi-
cials secretly managed the contra war ef-
fort at a time when U.S. law prohibited
U.S. military assistance to the rebels. As
he has done previously, Reagan assured
his audience that "I didn't know about
any diversion of funds to the contras, "
adding, however, that "as President, I
cannot escape responsibility."
Reagan defended the "management
style" that the Tower board cited as a key
reason for the White House crisis, saying
it was a mode of leadership that served
most of his presidency. While he conced-
ed that his style "didn't match its previ-
ous,track record" in the Iran-contra af-
fair, he made no serious promise to
reform his ways.
The President did announce that he
was going "beyond the board's recom=
mendations" for restoring order to the
.NSC. The moves he enumerated, however,
were window dressing. He said he had is-
sued a directive prohibiting the NSC staff
from undertaking operations, but Car-
lucci instituted such an order two weeks
after he took over the NSC in January.
Reagan told his audience he would put a
legal adviser on the NSC staff "to assure a
greater sensitivity to matters of law." The
council already had such an adviser, most
That Was Then... This Is Now
We'll do everything necessary to
get at the truth, and then we'll make
the truth known. !!
Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Calif., Nov. 30
id I've paid a price for my silence in
terms of your trust and confidence.
But I have had to wait, as you have,
for the complete story. If
id We did not trade weapons or
anything else for hostages. !!
Television speech, Nov. 13
I do not believe it was wrong to
establish contacts with a country of
strategic importance or to try to
save lives. If
State of the Union address, Jan. 27
I think we took the only action we
could have in Iran. I am not going to
disavow it. I do not think it was a
mistake. !!
TIME interview, Nov. 26
Surround yourself with the best
people you can find, delegate
authority, and don't interfere as long
as the policy you've decided upon is
being carried out. If
FORTUNE interview, Sept. 15
ii Lieut. Colonel North... is a
national hero. My only criticism is
that I wasn't told everything. III
TIME interview, Nov. 26
Ad I had no knowledge whatsoever
of [the contra diversion] until Ed
Meese briefed me on it. If
White House statement, Dec. 1
Ad A few months ago, I told the
American people I did not trade arms
for hostages. My heart and my best
intentions still tell me that is true,
but the facts and evidence tell me it
is not. What began as a strategic
opening to Iran deteriorated... into
trading arms for hostages. 99
I let my personal concern for the
hostages spill over into the
geopolitical strategy of reaching
out to Iran. 1111
Ad [Trading arms for hostages] runs
counter to my own beliefs, to
Administration policy and to the
original strategy we had in mind...
It was a mistake. fill
id Much has been said about my
management style ... When it came
to managing the NSC staff, let's
face it, my style didn't match its
previous track record. !11
fi As disappointed as I may be in
some who served me, I am still the
only one who must answer to the
American people for this
behavior. 111Y
fi As I told the Tower board, I didn't
know about any diversion of funds to
the contras. But as President, I
cannot escape responsibility. 119
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
recently Paul Thompson, who served un-
der former National Security Advisers
Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter
and is still with the NSC.
The President ordered an NSC review
of all U.S. covert activities, directing that
future covert operations must be "in sup-
port of clear policy objectives and in com-
pliance with American values-" Such--a-
review would hardly be more effective
than the congressional oversight required
by law, which Reagan ignored when he
approved the arms sales to Iran.
Although the President was more
forthright than ever before in accepting
blame for the Iran fiasco, he made no at-
tempt to assign responsibility for specific
actions. In his State of the Union address
he assumed the passive voice, saying "se-
rious mistakes were made." Reagan was
nearly as vague last week when he said.
"It was a mistake."
More significantly, the President
did not question the wisdom or
morality of using weapons sales
to try to buy influence in a hos-
tile nation like Iran. It was a question that
prominent figures of both parties wanted
him to raise. Said former Nevada Repub-
lican Senator Paul Laxalt, one of Rea-
gan's closest advisers: "I'd particularly
like to have him, in retrospect, look back
and say, 'This was a flawed policy.' -
Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright
declared it was a "wrong policy to send
arms to the terrorist government of Iran,
whether or not they were offered in ex-
change for hostages." But the President
would not concede error on that score.
If the President minced some of his
words, he nevertheless went further in
coming to terms with the scandal than he
had on any previous occasion. But his
mea culpa was not nearly as straightfor-
ward or as timely as the one delivered by
Jimmy Carter immediately following the
disastrous failure of the 1980 Desert One
mission to rescue U.S. hostages in Iran.
Carter faced the issue squarely: "It was
my decision to attempt the rescue opera-
tion. It was my decision to cancel it when
problems developed. The responsibility is
fully my own." Reagan put a more posi-
tive spin on his confession by offering a
bit of homespun wisdom worthy of Will
Rogers. "Now what should happen when
you make a mistake is this," he said.
"You take your knocks, you learn your
lessons, and then you move on. That's the
healthiest way to deal with a problem."
While the President showed that he
can still do wonders with a carefully
wrought address, the aftershocks from
the Tower report are likely to continue.
He might be forced to confront two re-
maining aides who have been criticized
for their behavior in the Iran initiative.
Secretary of State George Shultz and De-
fense Secretary Caspar Weinberger ob-
jected last week to the Tower report's cri-
tique of their performance in Iranscam.
According to the document, the two offi-
cials "simply distanced themselves from
the program. They protected the record
as to their own positions on this issue.
They were not energetic in attempting to
protect the President from the conse-
quences of his personal commitment to
freeing the hostages."
Traveling in the Orient. Shultz told
reporters, "I do not agree that my actions
were designed somehow or other to make
a record to protect myself. I do not oper-
ate that way." In Boston, Weinberger
complained that the "commission state-
ments just don't have any evidence or any
support behind them at all." He added
pointedly, "It's a little odd to be criticized
for being opposed to a program that the
Tower commission also opposed."
The White House had a cool reaction
to the Secretaries' carping. "The Presi-
dent accepts the report," said Fitzwater
curtly. "Mr. Shultz and Mr. Weinberger
can speak for themselves." Speculation
around Washington last week that
Shultz's days are numbered was undercut
by the President when the White House
announced that the Secretary of State
would visit Moscow next month for re-
newed discussions with the Soviets. A
highly regarded diplomat whose depar-
ture would be unsettling to U.S. allies.
Shultz has enraged Reagan loyalists by
his criticisms of the Iran initiative. Nev-
ertheless, he flatly stated last week, '"I
have no plans to leave. So wipe that off
your slate."
If the President is to get beyond the
Iran scandal. he will have to concentrate
on the second half of the remedy suggested
to him last fall by Richard Nixon: fire two
or three more people involved, and then
change the subject. As televised congres-
sional hearings on Iranscam get under way
next month and Special Prosecutor Law-
rence Walsh prepares possible indictments
against former White House officials. the
Administration could be hard pressed to
find a subject that will compete for the
Senate Majority Leader Byrd tunes in: "One speech is not enough to rebuild trust"
Democrats tentatively hailed Reagan 's message but criticized the messenger.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3
public's attention. An arms treaty with the
Soviet Union, signed at a summit confer-
ence in the U.S. with Gorbachev, undoubt-
edly represents Reagan's best opportunity
to surmount his difficulties and crown his
tenure in the White House.
On Capitol Hill, there is a sense of an-
ticipation as lawmakers from both parties
wait to see how the power dynamic will
change in the coming legislative battles.
Since the start of the 100th Congress in
January, the Democrats have snatched
the political agenda from the Republi-
cans. In addition to forming two special
committees to investigate Iranscam, the
resurgent Democrats have been challeng-
ing Reagan on Central American policy,
arms control, taxes, trade issues, the
clean-water bill, aid for the homeless. As
the White House hunkered down, G.O.P.
congressional unity started crumbling.
"The effect was devastating," said Repre-
sentative Lynn Martin of Illinois, vice
chairman of the House Republican con-
ference. "We were sort of helpless. A Car-
ter malaise had struck Republicans."
But there was a palpable excitement
among congressional Republicans the
morning after the address. South Dakota
Senator Larry Pressler used a hockey
metaphor to express his glee. "The Gip-
per has had some time in the penalty
box," said he. "But now he's back on the
ice. The speech revived, rekindled, re-
newed, renovated and recharged the Rea-
gan presidency."
Some prominent Republicans were
more cautious in their praise.
Conservative Georgia Congress-
man Newt Gingrich, who de-
clared after the release of the Tower re-
port that the President "will never again
be the Reagan he was before he blew it,"
was generally pleased with the address,
but he warned, "It's going to take five or
six months of steady, systematic work to
restore his presidency." Democrats,
wanting to keep pressure on Reagan, ten-
tatively hailed his message but criticized
the messenger. Said Senate Majority
Leader Robert Byrd: "The President has
to become involved. He is going to have
to change his work style. One speech is
not enough to rebuild trust."
The Democrats say they plan to hold
the President "to higher standards." Ex-
plains one party strategist: "The measure
we're going to set is, Will he work with
Congress on the budget, on arms control
and on trade? If he does, then the prob-
lems get solved." Looking ahead to the
'88 elections, this Democrat adds, "If he
doesn't, then we win next time around."
The situation may not be quite so cut
and dried. On issues ranging from deficit
reduction to foreign policy, the Demo-
crats need Reagan's support if they are to
attain their legislative goals. On most key
matters, the party simply does not have
the votes to override a presidential veto.
The Democrats will have to be particu-
larly careful on tax issues. Last week
Speaker Wright called for a tax hike of as
much as $20 billion a year to help reduce
the Administration's somewhat optimis-
tic $108 billion projection for next year's
deficit. Wright's proposals were met with
a slight shudder by Illinois Congressman
Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee. "I don't
think there's any member of my commit-
tee who wouldn't support revenues geared
to deficit reduction," said Rostenkowski.
"But they don't want to give the President
the chance to kick them around and then
no( accomplish the goal."
From the Administration's view-
point, some solid legislative victories
could help immensely in getting Reagan
back on track. The need to stroke Con-
gress was a principal reason why Baker, a
beloved figure on Capitol Hill, was cho-
sen to replace Donald Regan, who never
bothered to foster friendly ties with the
lawmakers. "It's dramatic because Re-
gan's weakest suit is Baker's strongest,"
said a presidential aide. "Congress holds
the key to all the flash points. They're
such important critics, sources for so
many stories. If they can be defused, half
the battle is over."
Yet Reagan and Baker could be vul-
nerable to an attack from G.O.P. conser-
vatives if they get too cozy with the Dem-
ocrats. New York Republican Jack
Kemp, who hopes to carry the conserva-
tive banner to the G.O.P. presidential
nomination next year, is already sound-
ing warnings about the conciliatory tone
at the White House. "We can call sum-
mits with the Soviets and the Democrats,
or we can move out with the Reagan
agenda," says Kemp. "If the White
House sits down to write a trade bill or a
budget in a summit with Bob Byrd or Jim
Wright, it's over." When the President
met last week with a delegation of conser-
vative Senators, he listed as his legislative
priorities the deployment of Star Wars, a
balanced-budget amendment and prohi-
bition of abortion. While that may be an
agenda that does not smack of compro-
mise, it is also one that does not hold
much promise of achievement.
The President's first confrontation
with the new Congress could come imme-
diately. Last week Reagan made a formal
request to the lawmakers to release the
last installment of $100 million in aid that
was granted to the Nicaraguan contras in
1986. To win the release of the $40 mil-
lion, the Administration had to certify
that peaceful efforts to reform Nicara-
gua's Marxist Sandinista regime have
been futile. Congressional Democrats
hope to counter Reagan's move by impos-
ing a moratorium on any further contra
aid until the Administration accounts for
money that has already been sent to the
rebels, including the funds diverted from
the Iranian arms sales and contributions
solicited from private sources. Reagan is
in for an even more ferocious struggle
over contra aid next fall, when he makes
his official request for an additional $105
million in assistance for the rebels.
Ronald Reagan is not necessarily
doomed to repeat the dispiriting pattern
of failure that has hounded too many re-
cent Presidents. If the Iran-contra scan-
dal has left many Americans uneasy
about Reagan's grip on his job, last
week's performance demonstrated that
the still popular President retains at least
some of his powers. But if he is to recoup,
he will have to resist his tendency to rely
on theatrics rather than hard work. As
the President and the First Lady depart-
ed for Camp David last week, Reagan
cheerfully bantered with a group of young
supporters. Talking about his agenda for
the next two years, he recalled an old
show business adage: "Save something for
the third act." -By Jacob V Lamar Jr.
Reported by David Beckwith, Michael Duffy and
Barrett Seaman/Washington
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290010-3