Transcript: Chapter 25

Narrator: Three weeks after Reykjavik, reports from Beirut claimed the Reagan administration had approached Iran with an arms for hostage deal. Reagan denied it.

Reagan: Could I suggest an appeal to all of you in regard to this -- the speculation, the commenting and, all on a story that come out of the Middle East, and one that has no foundation -- that all of that is making it more difficult for us in our effort to get the other hostages free?

Narrator: Days later Reagan admitted arms had been shipped to Iran to forge a better relationship but denied they were arms for hostages.

Reagan: In spite of the wildly speculative and false stories of arms for hostages and alleged ransom payments, we did not, repeat, did not, trade weapons or anything else for hostages. Nor will we.

Cannon: Reagan had absolutely convinced himself, as much as he had convinced himself in SDI, once he believed in it, that we had this wonderful system in place, he had convinced himself that he was not dealing with the kidnappers. He had promised that he would never deal with the people who had taken the Americans hostage. He had convinced himself that he was dealing with these Iranian moderates, and that he was dealing with the middlemen, he was dealing with the people who were dealing with the kidnappers.

Matthews: The American middle had been confounded by this patriotic president who had won on standing tall, who was found to be paying tribute to the enemy in a kind of pusillanimous way.

Narrator: Reagan had questions to answer.

Reagan: Good evening.

Helen Thomas: Mr. President, how would you assess the credibility of your own administration in light of the prolonged deception of Congress and the public in terms of your secret dealings with Iran, the disinformation.

Bill Plante: The record shows that every time an American hostage was released there had been a major shipment of arms just before that. Are we all to believe that is just a coincidence?

Jeremiah O'Leary: What would be wrong with saying a mistake was made on a very high risk gamble so that you can get on with the next two years?

Reagan: Because I don't think a mistake was made.

Donaldson: Ronald Reagan doesn't see the world that you and I see. He sees a world through rose-colored glasses. It's a wonderful world. But it's not the real world that exists out there. And so, he didn't want to see a world in which he had traded arms for hostages. That ran against his grain. That's not his world, yet he did it.

Cannon: Reagan is a classic model of the successful child of an alcoholic. He doesn't hear things and doesn't see things that he doesn't want to hear and see. And that's the thing you learn. You learn that as a child, and Reagan learned it.

Narrator: Questions continued to nag Reagan and there was conflicting testimony by others. Attorney General Ed Meese offered to investigate the matter over the weekend. Meese insisted on seeing Reagan on Monday.

Regan: How about five minutes. He's got the Afghanistan freedom fighters coming in but we'll give you five minutes. He said okay, five minutes that's all I need. So he came in. He said Mr. President I got some bad news for you. What's that? He said there's been a probable diversion of funds from the arms sales to Iran then diverted to the Contras in Nicaragua. The president said I'll have to clean this up a little bit ... aw shoot, or words to that effect. The president actually turned white. He blanched and he said what could have been going through their minds. Why would they do this?

Narrator: Reagan had asked that the Contras be held together body and soul. They were -- in a manner which stretched if not violated the law.

Edwin Meese, Attorney General: He said, "We've got to get to the bottom of this immediately. And we've got to let the public know." He was very definite there should be every precaution taken that no one would think that there was any cover-up or any attempt to conceal whatever wrongdoing we might find.

Reagan: As I have stated previously, I believe our policy goals toward Iran were well founded. However, the information brought to my attention yesterday convinced me that in one aspect implementation of that policy was seriously flawed. And now I'm going to ask Attorney General Meese to brief you.

Reporter: Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, Sir?

Reagan: Hold it. No and I'm not taking any more questions. In just a second, I'm going to ask Attorney General Meese to brief you on what we presently know of what he has found out.

Reporters: Is anyone else going to be let go, Sir? Is Secretary Shultz going?

Reagan: No one was let go. They chose to go.

Reporter: Can you give Secretary Shultz a vote of confidence -- if you feel that way?

Reagan: May I give you Attorney General Meese?

Helen Thomas: Why don't you say what the flaw is?

Meese: That's what I'm going to say -- what it's all about.

Bill Plante: (How is it) that so much of this can go on and the president not know it? He is the president of the United States, why doesn't he know?

Meese: Because somebody didn't tell him, that's why.

Reagan: And to wish everybody else a very happy Thanksgiving Day.

Reporter: Mr. President, who's going to head that commission investigating what happened?

Reagan (to turkey): Did you ask a question?

Reporter: Mr. President, what did you know about money going to the Contras?

Reagan: All I know is this is just going to taste wonderful. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. He's not looking forward to it.

Narrator: "I felt I was the one being roasted," Reagan would later quip.

Reporter: Mr. President, how much trouble are you in because of the Contra revelations?

Reporter: Did you know about the Contras, sir?

Reporter: When will you be able to speak out on this Contra business?

Reporter: Is John Tower going to be the head of your commission?

Reporter: Mr. President, you've never ducked tough questions before.

Reporter: Mr. President, hasn't this damaged your presidency?

Narrator: If he knew of the diversion of funds to the Contras, he would be in trouble. If he did not, he was not in control of his White House staff. Reagan accepted the resignation of his National Security Adviser John Poindexter who presided over the operation and fired Oliver North who ran it. He resisted Nancy who wanted to fire George Shultz for not supporting him in public. But his oldest advisers pressured him to fire Don Regan.

Stuart K. Spencer: Yeah, Deaver and I told him to get him out of there. His days are numbered. You know, he basically said that he wasn't going to sacrifice anybody for any of his problems.

Michael K. Deaver: I finally said you know I think this has come to the point where you've got to get rid of somebody because you've got to do something that says this is an action I'm taking and I'm getting it behind me and I'm going to go on and do other things and unless you make a bold move like that the media is not going to let you go on. So I think you got to get rid of somebody. And, he got very angry and said that you know, I'll be damned if I'm going to throw somebody's ass overboard to save my own. And, for the life of me, I don't know why I said, "Ron," but I said "Ron (Laughing) it's not your ass I'm talking about, it's the country's ass. And he looked at me very quietly, and he said you know what I think about this country. And that was the end of the conversation.

Narrator: Nancy led the battle to get rid of Don Regan. Reagan could not escape the issue at home or in the Oval Office. As a child Reagan had learned to avoid pain by withdrawing. Now there was nowhere to go.

Reagan: Nancy and Byron, let's see if we can't turn this cold, dark evening into one of light and warmth.

Montage of Voices from Iran-Contra Hearings

Narrator: The shadow of Watergate descended over the White House.

"This presidency is over," columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote. "1987 will be a Watergate year and the following an election year."

Ron Reagan: Well, I went to the White House because it was clear that he was going through some sort of crisis, and I just felt that, you know, as his son, as a family member that I ought to be there, somebody ought to be there, that, you know, somebody ought to buck him up and help him get through this. It was the first time I'd really seen him with the wind completely out of his sails. One of his greatest assets was the trust of the public. And when it turned out that in fact there had been an arms for hostage deal, the public stopped believing him, at least for a while. And the polls all showed that, and you know, he got the polling data every day. And it became very troubling, for him to realize that he was losing the audience in a sense.

Morris: That was the first time I got the feeling that he was not able to handle anything that came at him again. He wasn't quite up to handling a crisis of that dimension.

Narrator: In early 1987, the White House grappled with how to extricate Reagan from the worst crisis of his presidency. Don Regan wanted to get the president on the road, to work his charm on the public. But Reagan was recovering from another serious operation, this time on his prostate. Nancy wanted him to stay put. And that wasn't all. Nancy's astrologer feared "the malevolent movements of Uranus and Saturn." The alignment of the planets, it seemed, raised the danger of impeachment and assassination.

Regan: And in the middle of all this turmoil she was incessantly calling me. One day I got home late from the office. No dinner. It was after nine o'clock. I was just starting to eat when she called and was on the phone fifteen or twenty minutes and we were getting nowhere about she telling me that I had to do something and I saying, Nancy, I got to either get the president out or something of that nature. He's going to have to be the key here. None of us can solve this for him. We went back and forth and back and forth and finally I was just so disgusted I hung up.

Stuart K. Spencer, Adviser: It goes with the turf if you're dealing with the Reagans. I mean I knew that back in '65, '66. And Don Regan, for some reason, took the point of view that Nancy Reagan wasn't important. That was wrong. And I guess when he hung up on her on the phone that was the end of it. Then we all had to go to work.

Howard Baker, Former Majority Leader: My late wife took the call and it supposedly went like this: "Joy, where's Howard?" According to her, she said to the president, ah, "Howard is at the zoo. "And Ronald Reagan was heard to say, "Wait till he sees the zoo I have in mind for him!"

Narrator: Don Regan heard that CNN was reporting the president had chosen former Senator Howard Baker to replace him.

Regan: And I blew my top. I said the hell with it. If that's, the way they're going to leak about me in the like I don't want to stay around anymore. I was so whizzed off at that point that I dashed off a very terse letter to the president. "I hereby resign." He called me, very soft tones. That he didn't mean for this to happen. He wished it hadn't happened. And I said it's too late. I'm out of here.

Morris: The president should have done it. The president should have spoken to him personally and said "Don, I think the time for your long planned retirement has come." But Reagan who was not good at that kind of human touch when a man's career is coming to an end simply let the phone lie in its cradle and let other circumstances force Don Regan out - was derelict in his duty.

Narrator: Don Regan had devoted six years of his life to Ronald Reagan. He never saw him again.

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