REAGAN SEEKS TO HEAD OFF EFFORTS TO CUT REBEL AID

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010011-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: December 4, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010011-9
WASHINGTON POST
4 December 1986
Reagan Seeks to Head Off
Efforts to Cut Rebel Aid
By Lou Ca_ntgkand David Hoffman
1,Vuhnigton Pn,t Jtaff Writer,
President Reagan, trying to take
the political offensive in what aides
acknowledge as the most serious
crisis of his presidency, said yester-
day that the Iran-arms and contra-
funds scandal should not become an
excuse for cutting off U.S. aid to
"freedom fighters" around the
world.
"We cannot let recent events dis-
tract us from the cause of those
brave freedom fighters around the
world," Reagan said in a speech to a
group of female entrepreneurs.
"Nothing that's happened makes
those causes less just or less impor-
tant for what we fight for."
Reagan's attempt to head off
what his strategists believe will be a
likely Democratic attempt to re-
duce or cut off aid to the guerrillas
fighting the Nicaraguan govern-
ment came on a day when an ABC
News poll showed further erosion in
his public support.
Republican congressional leaders
met with Reagan for the second
consecutive day and emerged from
the White House with their most
positive statements about his re-
cent actions to repair damage to his
presidency.
In private, however, they ques-
tioned im unt y about a secret
Central Intelligence Agency fund
supported by the U.S. and Saudi
governments to aid rebels fighting
Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The
president did not contest the fund's
existence and said he knew nothing
about purported diversions of pro-
ceeds from Iran arms sales into this
fund to buy military equipment for
the contras, according to sources
familiar with the discussion.
Majority Leader Robert J. Dole
(R-Kan.) said after the meeting that
he thought "this president is speak-
ing the truth ... and he's trying to
be helpful-no cover-up, no analogy
to Watergate or anything else-and
that's why I believe the numbers
are going to start coming back up
for Ronald Reagan."
An official familiar with surveys
by presidential pollster Richard B.
Wirthlin said the steep slide in Rea-
gan's approval rating appeared to
have stablilized since he called
Tuesday for appointment of an in-
dependent counsel to investigate
the scandal.
However, an ABC poll Tuesday
night showed that his approval rat-
ing had declined from 53 percent to
49 percent during the last week and
that those who trust him to make
the right decision in foreign affairs
had declined 3 percentage points to
54 percent.
While the poll showed a 91 per-
cent endorsement of appointing an
independent counsel, those sur-
veyed were evenly divided on
whether the inquiry would bring out
all the facts. Fifty-three percent
said Reagan was not doing as much
as he could to bring out the facts.
Dole told reporters that "there
are lots of loose ends" involved in
the crisis and that Reagan under-
stands that there will be further
disclosures. Asked how the scandal
would affect the Republican Party,
Dole said wryly, "If you went out
and hired a PR firm, you wouldn't
recommend this action."
Dole and House Minority Leader
Robert H. Michel (R-[Il.) said they
thought it unlikely that Reagan
would fire his embattled chief of
staff, Donald T. Regan. Michel has
called for Regan's replacement.
First Lady Nancy Reagan denied
yesterday that she had urged the
president to fire Regan and Secre-
tary of State George P. Shultz. "I
think that's up to my husband; it has
nothing to do with me whatsoever,"
she told reporters at the White
House Christmas tree ceremony.
"I've made no recommendations
at all," she added.
Other sources said the first lady
is upset about the arms-sales con-
troversy and has expressed displea-
sure with Regan. White House of-
ficials said, however, that she is not
pressuring the president to fire him
and that Regan is determined to
remain on the job, at least for the
near future.
Presidential spokesman Larry
Speakes said the president's new
national security adviser, Frank C.
Carlucci, will have direct access to
the president. However, Speakes
said that when Carlucci met with
Reagan Monday to discuss the job,
Regan accompanied Carlucci into
the Oval Office.
In support of Reagan's speech
yesterday, administration officials
appeared to open a campaign to
save the contra-aid program by sep-
arating the need for it from probes
into diversion of Iranian arms sales
proceeds to help the contras.
Elliott Abrams, assistant secre-
tary of state for inter-American af-
fairs, said in an interview that fac-
tors that led Congress to support
the aid last June have not changed
and that the contras "are not to
blame for anything wrong that was
done" and should not he penalized.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010011-9