Reagan
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“Though they do not want”: Rev. Benjamin Weir, quoted in Robert C. McFarlane with Sofia Smardz, Special Trust (New York: Cadell & Davies, 1994), p. 39.
At her insistence, hospital officials: KK/NR, p. 391; Mark Weinberg, interview with author, July 8, 2014.
“Don was already on”: Sheila Tate, interview with author, Oct. 3, 2014.
“That seemed wrong to me”: NR/MT, p. 313.
“It came directly from”: KK/NR, p. 391.
“he intended to bring”: Sheila Tate, interview with author, Oct. 3, 2014.
Pat Buchanan, a fierce defender: “I was sure Buchanan was undermining the policy by sending Reagan right-wing clippings, which distorted his thinking.” Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
“eliminated the segregation”: RR, quoted in New York Times, Aug. 25, 1985.
“I couldn’t care less”: Thomas Dawson, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 131.
“Fish or Cut Bait, Mr. President”: Washington Times, October 10, 1985.
“We had the JSOC”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
“advised strongly against”: Larry Speakes, press conference, Oct. 10, 1985, transcript, RRPL; Judith Miller, “Hijackers Yield Ship in Egypt, Passenger Slain, 400 Are Safe; US Assails Deal with Captors,” New York Times, Oct. 10, 1985.
“They aren’t here anymore”: Hosni Mubarak, quoted in John Poindexter, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
“We had a guy—a spy”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
Oliver North had similar intelligence: “Ollie talked to Simhoni and told him we’d like as much help as possible locating the terrorists.” John Poindexter, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
“You may be in a situation”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
“I don’t want to give”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
“But we couldn’t get through”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 8, 2014.
“You are to follow us”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014; Time, Oct. 21, 1985.
“Can you get the terrorists”: Caspar Weinberger, quoted in John Poindexter interview with author, Oct. 16, 2014.
“a God-sent opportunity”: Gerald M. Boyd, “A Setback to Terrorism,” New York Times, Oct. 12, 1985.
“a message to terrorists everywhere”: RR, press conference, Oct. 11, 1985, transcript, RRPL.
Newspapers in France and Egypt: Transcript of articles in Libération and al-Akhbar, White House News Service summary, Oct. 13, 1985, RRPL.
Reagan’s approval ratings: Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 277.
“a major turning point”: Lee Attwater, quoted in Boyd, “A Setback to Terrorism.”
“That guy in Mubarak’s office”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
Throughout the fall, Oliver North: “The Israelis will deliver 80 Mod[ified] HAWKS at noon on Friday 22 Nov. . . . There is a requirement for 40 additional weap[on]s of the same nomenclature for a total requirement of 120.” Oliver North, memo to John Poindexter, Nov. 20, 1985, NSC file, RRPL.
“without grand expectations”: “We viewed the Geneva meeting realistically . . .” Memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev (NY: Doubleday, 1996), p. 403.
“When Mr. Gorbachev and I”: RR, quoted in “UN: 40,” address to the United Nations General Assembly, Oct. 24, 1985.
“from a distinctly different mold”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 586.
“In Gorbachev, we were clearly”: Ibid., p. 577.
“Was it science fiction”: Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1995), p. 407.
“What is Gorbachev made of?”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“I am familiar with”: Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in Ibid.
“The Soviet Union will only”: Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 593.
“Gorbachev,” he reported: AAL, p. 631.
“Thanks to what you’ve done”: NR, quoted in Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
THIRTY-NINE: “A FRESH START”
Ronald Reagan was noticeably edgy: “The president was a little nervous—not intimidated, but nervous.” Mark Weinberg, interview with author, July 8, 2014.
“bounced around, joking”: “Mrs. Reagan was in the best mood I’d ever seen her in.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
Insiders suspected the hand: “No doubt it came from Bill Casey, who was eager to sabotage the summit.” Ibid.; Robert McFarlane, quote in Lou Cannon, “Reagan Voices Summit Hopes,” Washington Post, Nov. 17, 1985.
“Goodwill without illusion”: Caspar Weinberger, Fighting for Peace (New York: Warner Books, 1990), p. 34
“to make a fresh start”: RR, quoted in R. W. Apple Jr., “Reagan–Gorbachev Talks End,” New York Times, Nov. 22, 1985.
prepare Gorbachev’s horoscope: Don Regan revealed that Quigley was consulted to “choose auspicious moments for meetings between” Reagan and Gorbachev, “but also to draw up horoscopes.” Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 301.
“Are you ready, Dad?”: Ron Reagan, quoted in Evan Thomas, “Fencing at the Fireside Summit,” Time, Dec. 2, 1985.
More than three thousand: Jay Winik, On the Brink (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 389.
Nancy Reagan had signed off: “Mrs. Reagan was very keen on it.” William Henkel, quoted in Hedrick Smith, The Power Game: How Washington Works (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988), p. 422.
“Eddie, can I have my coat”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“Here we are”: Thomas, “Fencing at the Fireside Summit.”
“the No. 1 Communist”: Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1995), pp. 405–6.
“an intelligent man”: AAL, p. 638.
“was warmth in his face”: Ibid., p. 635.
“was a man you could”: Gorbachev, Memoirs, p. 405.
“I’m not walking into”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“Are you crazy?”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“This guy is different”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“done good,” and: “Our gang told me I’d done good.” RR diary entry, Nov. 19, 1985.
described them as “bizarre”: Regan, For the Record, p. 320.
“Well, let’s see what happens”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015; Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 166.
“Make no mistake”: Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State, p. 600.
“Mr. President, you cannot do this!”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“We should ban introduction”: Thomas, “Fencing at the Fireside Summit.”
“Well, I disagree with everything”: Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted in Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“How about taking a walk?”: Gorbachev, Memoirs, p. 407.
The president had concocted it: Smith, The Power Game, p. 422.
“tell Mr. Arbitov”: Thomas, “Fencing at the Fireside Summit.”
Gorbachev later acknowledged: “The walk, the change of scene, the crackling of burning wood—all these helped to alleviate the tension.” Gorbachev, Memoirs, p. 407.
A lifelong Edgar Rice Burroughs: “It’s true—it happened. The president told me about it later that day.” Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
They’d
decided that their attendance: “The two of them decided they didn’t need to attend the plenary session.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
whose “eyes shone”: “When he got excited, you knew he was excited.” Regan, For the Record, p. 313.
“My fundamental impression”: NR/MT, p. 338.
“We have things of substance”: Donnie Radcliffe, “First Ladies, Firsthand,” Washington Post, Nov. 21, 1985.
“She was very sharp-tongued”: Edward Rowny, interview, MCPA, May 17, 2006, p. 18.
Nancy Reagan didn’t want: “Her conversational style made me bristle.” Rowny, interview, p. 339.
“Who does that dame think”: Regan, For the Record, p. 314.
“He just couldn’t resist”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013; Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“They’re not going to understand”: Donnie Radcliffe, “Nancy Reagan’s Peak Role,” Washington Post, Nov. 18, 1985.
“How dare he upstage”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“keep a low profile”: Regan, For the Record, p. 20.
“Both sides are going to have”: Mikhail Gorbachev, Nov. 22, 1985, quoted in Thomas, “Fencing at the Fireside Summit.”
“We remain far apart”: RR, address to joint session of Congress, Nov. 21, 1985, transcript, RRPL.
An overnight CBS News poll: White House News Summary, Nov. 22, 1985, RRPL.
“There is much that divides us”: Larry Speakes with Robert Pack, Speaking Out (New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons, 1988), p. 136.
“Larry often made up quotes”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“If I could ever get”: RR quoted, Edward Rowny transcript, Miller Center Interview, May 17, 2006, p. 14.
Gorbachev let it be known: RR “told Nixon that he thought the leader of atheistic world communism, on some level, believed in God.” Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 294.
“The missiles arrived”: Manucher Ghorbanifar, quoted in Michael Ledeen, deposition, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaragua Opposition, June 19, 1987.
“This is criminal!”: Attributed to John McMahon, in Oliver North’s notebook, Nov. 25, 1985, U.S. Senate Select Committee, documents, 1987.
“And I want it retroactive”: John McMahon, to CIA general counsel Stanley Sporkin, deposition of CIA officer Edward Juchniewicz, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 167.
“We know of your distaste”: David Jacobsen, Lawrence Martin Jenco, Terry Anderson, and Thomas Sutherland, undated letter, personal papers, RRPL.
“This thing is really eating”: Noel Koch, testimony, U.S. Senate Select Committee, documents, June 23, 1987.
“I think the tension”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Oct. 15, 2014.
saying, “I’ll go”: Ibid.; Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 65.
“You get it into”: “It was clearly said in a tone that he was talking down to a subordinate.” Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 18, 2015.
Meg Greenfield, the editorial: “She was a friend who came to lunch and told me Regan was putting out nasty stories about me.” Ibid.
Reports of McFarlane’s alleged exploits: “Bob Simms, the NSC’s press spokesman, told me, ‘Don Regan is still spreading these stories about you.’” Ibid.
“He’s the most complex man”: Richard Perle, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
“he broke down and sobbed”: Unnamed White House official, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 165.
“When Mondale said”: RR, to Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., quoted in Smith, The Power Game, pp. 494–95.
“I think we need to discuss”: Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 163.
“knew the president didn’t understand”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 18, 2015.
“It’s a big mistake”: Michael Deaver, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 171.
FORTY: “SO FAR DOWN THE ROAD”
It clearly laid out: “It clearly made it look like it was an arms-for-hostages deal.” John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
instructed CIA Director: Report of the President’s Special Review Board (Tower Commission), Feb. 26, 1987, p. B-40.
Rather than circulating: “I didn’t want it circulated.” John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014; Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Nov. 1987, p. 197.
“significant political embarrassment”: Iran-Contra Affair Report, p. 197.
“anyone who wanted”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014.
“We all agree”: Oliver North, PROF to John Poindexter, Dec. 4, 1985; Tower Commission Report, pp. B-40–42.
Shultz and Weinberger: “I argued that it was a betrayal of our policies. . . . Cap Weinberger expressed the same point of view.” George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State, p. 799; Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 629.
“Look,” he said: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 631.
“no stone be left unturned”: “I want to leave no stone unturned.” RR, quoted in John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014; John Poindexter, testimony, July 15, 1987. U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition.
“Israel selling some weapons”: RR, diary entry, Dec. 7, 1985.
“The American people will never”: RR, quoted in Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 179.
“It’s a risky operation”: RR, quoted in John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 9, 2014; Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 18, 2015.
“He didn’t know the difference”: Confidential source, interview with author.
“The baby has been strangled”: Caspar Weinberger, Fighting for Peace (New York: Warner Books, 1990), p. 373.
“If you had to cast”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 18, 2015.
“The hell with the hostages!”: Robert C. McFarlane with Sofia Smardz, Special Trust (New York: Cadell & Davies, 1994), pp. 48–49.
“Go pound sand!”: Iran-Contra Affair Report, p. 199.
“a borderline moron”: Ibid.
“Ollie’s boys in Central America”: Manucher Ghorbanifar, quoted in Ibid., p. 205.
“other cooperative activities”: Iran-Contra Affair Report, pp. 201–2.
Ed Meese assured him: Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 184.
“Sometimes you have to deal”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 8, 2014.
Bill Casey assured the president: William Casey, “eyes only” letter to RR, Dec. 23, 1985, private papers, RRPL.
“Casey believes that Cap”: Oliver North, PROF message to John Poindexter, Jan. 15, 1986, Iran-Contra Affair Report, p. 206.
“his people have looked”: Ibid., p. 208.
“Involves selling TOW anti-tank”: RR, diary entry, Jan. 17, 1986, Private Papers, RRPL.
“We sit quietly by”: RR, diary entry, Jan. 7, 1986, Private Papers, RRPL.
He’d juggled his schedule: “We did everything we could to get Reagan to Cape Canaveral.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“Those people out there”: RR, quoted in Tip O’Neill with William Novak, Man of the House (New York: Random House, 1987), p. 434.
as though “it was measles”: Warren King, “Reagan Regarded AIDS Like It Was Measles,” Seattle Times, Aug. 31, 1989.
“Sir,” he cried: Larry Speakes with Robert Pack, Speaking Out (New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons, 1988), p. 117; “Buchanan just came flyi
ng through the door, which you never do.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“We watched that footage”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.
“added proximity to the tragedy”: AAL, p. 403.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began: RR, televised speech, Jan. 28, 1986, transcript at history.nasa.gov/reagan12866.
In some recollections, he said: Justin Wm. Moyer, “Exactly the Right Words, Exactly the Right Way,” Washington Post, Jan. 28, 2016.
“As I listened to him”: O’Neill, Man of the House, p. 435.
“He lacked most”: Ibid., p. 431.
“One of our highest”: RR, address to employees of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, Feb. 5, 1986, transcript, RRPL.
“The poor homosexuals”: Pat Buchanan, quoted in Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), p. 311.
“marked by considerable fraud”: Richard J. Kessler, “Reagan and Philippine Reality,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 1986.
a pillar “of great importance”: AAL, p. 362.
she would put Marcos: New York Times, Dec. 17, 1985.
“a dazed, vacant woman”: A. M. Rosenthal, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 617.
“Marcos people were considering”: “I said to get word back that we . . . would not countenance any such action.” Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 618.
“The Philippine elections are looking”: Sara Fritz and Don Shannon, “Philippine Election Rigged, Members of Senate Committee Charge,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24, 1986.
“a very disturbing pattern”: Richard Lugar, quoted in Seth Mydans, “Observers of Vote Cite Wide Fraud by Marcos Party,” New York Times, Feb. 10, 1986.
One Marcos critic was chased: Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 309.
the bodies of ten opposition: New York Times, Feb. 15, 1986.
A day or two later: “Lugar estimated that Aquino had won more than 70 percent of the vote.” New York Times, Feb. 13, 1986.
“I am the President”: “They are not going to drive me out because the people are behind me.” Ferdinand Marcos, quoted in Seth Mydans, “Aquino Proposes Nonviolent Moves to Depose Marcos,” New York Times, Jan. 17, 1986.