Reagan

by Bob Spitz

  “North and Poindexter would”: Ibid.

  “His fault was he”: Donald Regan, interview, Feb. 2, 1990, LCA, p. 15.

  He suggested that the president: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 701.

  “a smoking gun”: RR, diary entry, Nov. 24, 1986.

  “In the old Navy tradition”: RR, diary entry, Nov. 25, 1986.

  “He thought North had done”: Peter Wallison, interview, MCPA, Oct. 29, 2003, p. 92.

  “a liar” and “a fantasist”: “He doesn’t know the difference between reality and fantasy.” Ibid., p. 90.

  “He is a national hero”: Hugh Sidey, “An Interview with President Ronald Reagan,” Time, Dec. 8, 1986.

  He was still blaming: “This whole thing boils down to a great irresponsibility on the part of the press.” Ibid.; “We were right in what we were doing, and it was only the press that was to blame for calling it into question.” RR to George Shultz, Nov. 24, 1986, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 838.

  “They were like a circle”: RR, diary entry, Nov. 25, 1986.

  New polls were published: Richard J. Meislin, “Poll Rating Dives,” New York Times, Dec. 2, 1986.

  Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll: White House News Summary, Dec. 5, 1986, RRPL.

  And the president’s private pollster: RR, diary entry, Dec. 1, 1986.

  “The administration is in disarray”: Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 369.

  “Your Presidency, sir, is teetering”: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Nov. 29, 1986, quoted in Gerald M. Boyd, “Reagan Tells U.S. Not to Overlook Issues Beyond Iran,” New York Times, Nov. 30, 1986.

  “Reagan has surrounded himself”: Editorial, Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 25, 1986.

  Bob Dole urged recalling: “Dole Urges Recalling Congress for Inquiry,” Washington Post, Dec. 1, 1986.

  “a furtive 43-year-old”: George J. Church, “Who Was Betrayed?” Time, Dec. 8, 1986.

  The Israelis publicly denied: Gerald F. Seib, “Israel’s Role in the Arms Sale to Iran Puts It at Odds with Reagan, Congress,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3, 1986.

  Covert payments to the Contras: “Mr. Perot said in an interview yesterday that he gave $2 million in cash.” John Walcott, “U.S. Is Said to Have Made Hostage Offer,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3, 1986.

  “the first flight”: James LeMoyne, “Secret El Salvador Flights: High Risk on a Low Budget,” New York Times, Dec. 5, 1986.

  Failed ransom attempts were disclosed: Walcott, “Hostage Offer.”

  “Washington is awash”: Daniel Patrick Moynihan quoted. “Reagan Tells U.S. Not to Overlook Issues Beyond Iran,” Gerald M. Boyd, New York Times, Nov. 30, 1986.

  The “shovel brigade” comment: “I was furious when I read that.” NR/MT, p. 314.

  “I can’t deal with that man”: NR, quoted in KK/NR, p. 428.

  “He genuinely liked Don”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014; “Ronnie genuinely liked him, and they had a good rapport.” NR/MT, p. 317.

  “privately polled large numbers”: Wallison, Ronald Reagan, p. 207.

  “She was behind it all”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  Orrin Hatch called: “He did not protect the President. He did not inform the President.” Washington Post, Dec. 6, 1986.

  George Bush tended to agree: “I didn’t want to say this on the phone, but I think Don should resign.” George Bush to NR, quoted in NR/MT, p. 315.

  “You have a serious”: Robert Strauss, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 362.

  “Staff morale was very low”: Peter Wallison, interview, MCPA, Oct. 29, 2003, p. 93.

  On December 1, Bud McFarlane: Bernard Gwertzman, “‘No Indication’ to Doubt Reagan; Ex-Aide to Reagan is Said to Link Him to Early Iran Sale,” New York Times, Dec. 5, 1986.

  “I don’t think there is”: Oliver North, quoted in Bernard Gwertzman, “2 Reagan Ex-Aides Maintain Silence in House Hearing,” New York Times, Nov. 10, 1986.

  The Senate committee concluded: Wallison, Ronald Reagan, p. 217.

  As late as three days: George Shultz claims he revealed Casey’s new negotiations to RR on Dec. 14, 1986, “and the president was astonished. . . . I have never seen him so mad.” Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 851.

  “was deeply involved in”: NR/MT, p. 323.

  “He’s hurting Ronnie”: NR, quoted in KK/NR, p. 430.

  “unwise as well as inhumane”: Regan, For the Record, p. 66.

  “it was obvious that Casey”: Ibid., p. 75.

  “Nancy made it clear”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.

  “in a daze”: “I had never seen him like that before.” Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 863.

  In her memoir, Nancy Reagan: “Ronnie and I just don’t talk to each other that way.” NR/MT, p. 324.

  “They should be court-martialed”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 863.

  “just didn’t seem ready”: Ibid.

  FORTY-THREE: RECLAIMING THE SPOTLIGHT

  “about what he knew”: “The purpose of the meeting was to explore these questions.” Peter J. Wallison, Ronald Reagan (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2003), p. 226.

  “Put together some sequence”: RR, diary entry, Jan. 3, 1987.

  “Do you remember Bud”: Donald Regan, interview, May 17, 1989, LCA, Box 23, Folder 87, p. 15.

  “told her that January”: Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 70.

  “an old man hiding behind”: Donald Regan, interview, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 6.

  “She had CNN on”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013; “The parts about abortion have got to come out.” NR, quoted in Regan, For the Record, p. 77.

  “Look, this is wrong”: Donald Regan, interview, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 6.

  And she had new targets: “Don Regan had told me Nancy wanted to get Buchanan out of the White House.” Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 833.

  “I don’t remember you talking”: NR, quoted in James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.

  “We were in the back”: Mark Weinberg, interview with author, July 8, 2014.

  “The President had completely buffaloed”: George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 868.

  Little did anyone know: “I had put in his briefing book a copy of McFarlane’s public testimony.” Wallison, Ronald Reagan, p. 253.

  “surprised to learn”: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 709; Wallison, Ronald Reagan, p. 255.

  It reached a damning verdict: David E. Rosenbaum, “Senators Charge a Web of Deceit in Iranian Affair,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1987.

  The night before he was: Robert C. McFarlane with Sofia Smardz, Special Trust (New York: Cadell & Davies, 1994), pp. 14–16.

  “he had walked in the woods”: Peter Wallison, interview, MCPA, Oct. 29, 2003.

  “That’s just bullshit”: RR, quoted in Ibid.

  “a chorus building up”: Donald Regan, interview, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 6.

  “Whether Mr. Reagan leaves”: Gerald M. Boyd, “Reagan Is Facing Pivotal Week on Iran Scandal,” New York Times, Feb. 23, 1987.

  “We can’t have him talking”: Regan, For the Record, p. 90.

  “I’ve done a very bad thing”: Donald Regan, quoted in James Kuhn, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2013.

  her office leaked the details: Jane Mayer, “Nancy Reagan’s Behind-the-Scenes Maneuvering Stands Out in Circumstances of Regan’s Ouster,” Wall Street Journal, Mar. 2, 1987; “The First Lady Is No Longer Speaking to Regan.” Lou Cannon, Washington Post, Feb. 18, 1987.

&
nbsp; “obsession with the release”: Report of the President’s Special Review Board (Tower Commission), quoted in Steven V. Roberts, “Reagan Flustered, Tower Reports,” New York Times, Feb. 28, 1987.

  “the President clearly did not”: John Tower, quoted in New York Times, Feb. 27, 1987.

  “detached style, in which considerable”: Roberts, “Reagan Flustered.”

  “He especially should have ensured”: Tower Commission Report, part IV, p. 11.

  “I’m a delegator”: RR, quoted in Paul Laxalt, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 12.

  “over a million dollars”: Howard Baker, quoted in Jim Kuhn, Ronald Reagan in Private (New York: Sentinel, 2004), p. 209.

  During the flight, he grew: “I’d been planning all the way up on the airplane to tell him I couldn’t do it.” Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, Box 22, Folder 14, p. 13.

  “What am I doing here?”: Howard Baker, quoted in James Kuhn, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  “we’ve got a bad situation”: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 731.

  “No, George has got that”: RR, quoted in Paul Laxalt, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 15.

  “I deserve better treatment”: Reagan, For the Record, p. 97.

  president “badly shaken”: Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, Box 22, Folder 14, p. 13; Landon Parvin, quoted in Cannon, President Reagan, p. 734.

  “can’t delegate freely”: Paul Laxalt, quoted in Steven V. Roberts, “Reagan Is Asking Bipartisan Ideas to Help in Crisis,” New York Times, Mar. 1, 1987.

  “that you are the President”: Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 14.

  “inattentive and inept”: James Cannon, quoted in Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. ix.

  primarily to deal: “Howard wanted Ken to come in to deal with Nancy Reagan so that he wouldn’t have to deal with her.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  “find out everything there is”: Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 16.

  “You don’t want to be”: Howard Baker, quoted in A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “He was still resisting”: A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “There wasn’t supposed to be”: RR, quoted in A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “He kept arguing that the arms”: A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “We snuck Tower in”: Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.

  “I think he privately”: Paul Laxalt, quoted in Steven V. Roberts, “President Admits Error in Rejecting Warnings on Iran,” New York Times, Mar. 15, 1987.

  Overnight polls showed: CBS News showed a 9 percent improvement. White House News Summary, Mar. 4, 1987; Gerald M. Boyd, “President Asserts He Is Moving Away From Iran Affair,” New York Times, Mar. 6, 1987.

  “The President did”: Editorial, Washington Post, Mar. 5, 1987.

  Newsweek, however, reported: “Reagan’s Day of Judgment,” Newsweek, Mar. 9, 1987; “President Reagan’s Speech Helped Him, But Only Slightly,” Newsweek, Mar. 16, 1987.

  “The most popular soap opera”: NBC Nightly News, July 8, 1987.

  how she stuffed incriminating: Fawn Hall, interview with author, Feb. 18, 2015.

  And that Elliot Abrams: “North’s $10 million mistake,” New York Times, May 13, 1987.

  two files on A.B. Culvahouse’s: A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  He didn’t want a pardon: “A pardon implies guilt after the commission of a crime. I wasn’t convicted of anything.” Robert McFarlane, email to author, Sept. 19, 2017.

  On March 18, 1987: “Deaver Charged with Perjury,” New York Times, Mar. 22, 1987.

  “went off track”: NR/MT, p. 240.

  “Mike, you’ve made”: Ibid., p. 239.

  It galled Deaver: Michael K. Deaver with Mickey Herskowitz, Behind the Scenes (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1987), p. 257.

  “probably since the founding”: Arthur Burns quoted. Cannon, ROAL, p. 801.

  “I still have confidence”: RR, quoted in A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “AIDS affects all of us”: RR, speech, American Foundation for AIDS Research awards dinner, transcript, May 31, 1987, RRPL.

  “I come here today”: Gerald M. Boyd, “Raze Berlin Wall, Reagan Urges Soviets,” New York Times, June 13, 1987.

  “I think the spotlight”: RR, quoted in Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 402.

  Polls showed that only: New York Times/CBS News poll, quoted in Bernard Weinraub with Gerald M. Boyd, “Reagan’s Ability to Lead Nation at a Low, Critics and Friends Say,” New York Times, June 28, 1987.

  “More than ever”: Weinraub, “Reagan’s Ability to Lead Nation.”

  “General Secretary Shultz”: RR, quoted in Thomas M. DeFrank, “Reagan: A Valedictory for an Old Soldier,” Newsweek, Nov. 9, 1987.

  “recent detachment and vagueness”: Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 13.

  was “failing—fast”: “Cannon told Howard that the president wasn’t in very good shape.” Confidential source, interview with author.

  “members of his staff”: Douglas Martin, “James M. Cannon, an Adviser to Ford, Dies at 93,” New York Times, Sept. 20, 2011.

  “regardless of his own”: Bill Clinton, quoted in Joan Biskupic and Fred Barbash, “Retired Justice Lewis Powell Dies at 90,” Washington Post, Sept. 26, 1998.

  Reagan intended to appoint: “We wanted to move the Court in the right direction—toward the Constitution.” Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.

  “He is widely regarded”: RR, quoted in Washington Post, July 1, 1987.

  “Robert Bork’s America”: Senator Edward M. Kennedy, quoted in Congressional Record, U.S. Senate, 100th Congress, July 1, 1987, pp. 18518–18519.

  “We will fight it”: Benjamin Hooks, quoted in Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 1987.

  “Robert Bork is a lawyer”: “Judge Bork, the Senate and Politics,” New York Times, July 2, 1987.

  “I’ve passed over Bob Bork”: RR, quoted in A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “What do you want to do”: Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  the roll-call vote: “Senate Roll-Call on the Bork Vote,” Associated Press, Oct. 24, 1987.

  more conservative than Bork: “The hard-core conservatives thought Ginsburg was one of their own.” Howard Baker, interview, May 22, 1989, LCA, p. 12.

  “I know him well”: Edwin Meese, quoted in Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  Right to Life supporters: Cannon, President Reagan, p. 810.

  She’d also lied about winning: “Ginsburg’s wife called me at the office. ‘I said I won a beauty pageant, but in honesty I was runner-up.’” Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  “on a few occasions”: Douglas Ginsburg, quoted in Linda Greenhouse, “High Court Nominee Admits Using Marijuana and Calls It a Mistake,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1987.

  “I don’t see any reason”: RR, diary entry, Nov. 5, 1987.

  “he not only smoked”: A. B. Culvahouse, interview with author, Sept. 17, 2014.

  “You’re going to withdraw”: “I called Doug and he came in to see me.” Kenneth Duberstein, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.

  “are in no mood”: Howard Baker, quoted in Ibid.

  FORTY-FOUR: THE LONG GOODBYE

  “powered by consumer spending”: John M. Berry, “Underlying Flaws in Economy Mar Legacy of Reagan Years,” Washington Post, Nov. 6, 1988.

  “a very, very nasty run”: Jo
hn Kenneth Galbraith, quoted in Stephen Koepp, “How Ripe for a Crash,” Time, Oct. 5, 1987.

  “the underlying economy remains”: RR, quoted by Marlin Fitzwater in George J. Church, “The Great Crash: Panic Grips the Globe,” Time, Nov. 2, 1987.

  “just a correction”: RR, response to a reporter’s question: “What do you think of the stock market, Mr. President?” Oct. 17, 1987, quoted in Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 424.

  “His trust”: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 823.

  “I have great confidence”: “The Congress is responsible for the deficit.” RR, quoted in New York Times, Oct. 22, 1987.

  “I will meet with”: RR, press conference, transcript, Oct. 22, 1987, RRPL; R. W. Apple Jr., New York Times, Oct. 23, 1987.

  “I promise you”: Thomas M. DeFrank, “Reagan: A Valedictory for an Old Soldier?” Newsweek, Nov. 9, 1987; “Stock market or no stock market, it was mainly Nancy, not Wall Street, I worried about.” AAL, p. 695.

  “She went against all medical”: One of NR’s physicians, quoted in KK/NR, p. 439.

  “I couldn’t possibly lead”: NR, interview with Barbara Walters, 20/20, ABC-TV, transcript, Mar. 4, 1988; Tamar Lewin, “Nancy Reagan Defends Her Decision to Have Mastectomy,” New York Times, Mar. 5, 1985.

  “the best way”: NR/MT, p. 287.

  “Ronnie wept,” she said: Ibid., p. 294; “I just dropped my head and cried.” AAL, p. 694.

  “making her prospects”: Michael Specter, “Mrs. Reagan Expected to Make Full Recovery,” Washington Post, Oct. 19, 1987.

  “all but certain to leave”: DeFrank, “Reagan: A Valedictory.”

  “Very soon after Howard”: Confidential source, interview with author, Oct. 2014.

  He also advocated: Michael R. Gordon, “‘Star Wars’ Focus of Reagan Meeting,” New York Times, Feb. 10, 1987.

  “The spirit of compromise”: Pat Buchanan, quoted in White House News Summary, Nov. 16, 1987, RRPL.

  George Shultz had a mandate: “The President said he understood and agreed: we should go forward on START.” George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 985.