REAGAN HOLDS STEADY AMID STAFF SHAKE-UP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010068-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: January 10, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-
WASHINGTON POST TER ONLI
10 January 1985
e
oan Holds
Amid
Staff
No Major Policy Shifts Predicted
By Lou Cannon
Washington Post Staff Writer
The dramatic job switch pro-
posed this week in which principal
members of the Reagan administra-
tion's supporting cast would change
roles is characteristic of a long se-
ries-of staff shake-ups that seem to
have barely affected the perform-
ance of the principal player.
Throughout a political career
now approaching two decades, Ron-
ald Reagan has been remarkably
distanced from the comings and go-
ings of his staff. He also has dis-
p;ayed a singular ability to follow his
o'.vn course after consenting to staff
changes that seem at first glance to
be harbingers of a new direction.
"I don't think Ronald Reagan is
going to change his habits because
he has a new chief of staff-if he
NEWS feels that chief of staff
AFtf,LYSIS is performing," Treas-
ury Secretary Donald
T. Regan said Tuesday in an inter-
view in his office after the an-
nouncement that he and White
House chief of staff James A. Baker
III would be swapping jobs.
What was unsaid in Regan's
statement but well understood is
that the president isn't going to i
change his habits in any case. De-
spite his reputation for geniality,
Reagan has shown during a series
of political campaigns, eight years
as governor of California and four
as president that he would rather
change his staff than his way of op-
erating.
"He is a very secure man," said
Edward J. Rollins, his 1984 cam- i
paign director. "He doesn't feel his
presidency succeeds or falls on the
basis of the people around him. It
succeeds or fails on his own ac-
tions."
Reagan is tolerant to what even
some supporters consider a fault in
retaining embattled Cabinet mem-
bers, such as Labor Secretary Ray-
mond J. Donovan. But it is a differ-_
ent story on his staff, where over
19 years he has dismissed or al-
lowed to quit such close advisers aS
Michael K. Deaver, William P.
Clark, Edward Meese III, Stuart K.
Spencer, Lyn Nofziger and John P.
Sears.
All except Sears, fired after Rea-
gan's victory in the 1980 New
Hampshire primary, came back to
work for Reagan. Deaver, now
White House deputy chief of staff,
became his closest aide.
But when Reagan was asked
Tuesday, in an interview with The
Dallas Morning News, about the de-
parture of Deaver and others in his
entourage, he replied that he could
"not expect them to contract in for
the run of the show."
This distance even from those
closest to him has been a hallmark
of Reagan's political style. On the
one hand, Reagan delegates so
much that his subordinates often
seem to govern in his name. On the
other, no aide is indispensable in
Reagan's eyes and all are seen by
him as advancing his agenda.
"The true believer in the White
House is sitting right here in the
Oval Office," Reagan said in the
Tuesday interview. "And no has
been whittling at me or trying to
change my philosophy since I've
been here."
Reagan went on to praise Regan
for his loyalty and to take a swipe at
critics on the right who say he is
drifting from his conservative prin-
ciples.
"Sometimes I wonder if some of
those very vocal conservatives are
really conservatives in conserva-
tives' eyes," Reagan said. "I know
they're not in mine."
It was typical of the president to
be one of the last to know about the
Baker-Regan job switch. He said in
his interview Tuesday that when
Regan suggested it to him he
thought it was "a great idea" and
preferable to either man returning
to private life.
At a time of staff disarray under
Gov. Reagan in 1967, Clark took
over as executive secretary, the
chief of staff's job, after the propos-
al had been approved by other
aides. When Clark left for a judge-
ship in 1968, he and Meese agreed
that Meese should be the successor
before the matter was brought to
Reagan.
The pattern continued in the
Reagan presidency. Deaver and
Clark, then allies, agreed that Clark
should become the president's na-
tional security affairs adviser before
they raised the issue with Reagan.
When Clark left to fill the vacancy
created by James G. Watt's resig-
nation at the Interior Department,
Baker and Deaver worked out a
plan making Baker the national se-
curity adviser and Deaver chief of
staff.
But conservatives led by Clark. Meese and CIA Director William I.
Casey, rallied against this appoint-
ment and persuaded Reagan to can-
cel the plan. He remained distanced
from the maneuverings and never
acknowledged them publicly.
One consequence of Reagan's
seeming separation from staff de-
cisions is that he rarely is blamed
when things go wrong or when key
members of his staff come under
fire. Casey and Baker were bruised
by a one inconclusive investigation
into how the 1980 Reagan cam-
paign obtained some of President
Jimmy Carter's debate briefing
books, but Reagan was scarcely
touched by it and he never Sulm-
.Moned either aide to' resolve the
matter.
In the comings and goings of staff
members, Nancy Reagan always
has played a quietly active role, no-
tably in the firing of Sears and the
original hiring of Baker as chief of
staff.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010068-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010068-7
But Reagan may be less removed
from power struggles in his official
family and more aware of the lim-
itations of various aides than he re-
veals. One intimate says the pres-
ident has "an intuitive understand-
ing" of when change is necessary
and acts on this intuition.
Reagan's relationship with,
Meese demonstrates this insight. In
1980 Reagan fired Sears rather
than get rid of Meese. But when
Nancy Reagan, Deaver and Spencer
came to him and said Baker would
be a better manager as chief of staff
than Meese, they found the pres-
ident to be a willing listener.
According to inside accounts,
Reagan expressed agreement with
criticisms of Meese's managerial
skills and quickly decided that Bak-
er should be chief cf staff. At the
same time Reagan made it clear
that he valued Meese's counsel and
wanted him in the White House.
When Attorney General William
French Smith told Reagan he
wanted to return to California,
Meese was the president's first and
only choice to replace him.
The latest proposed staff switch
also may reflect a personal choice,
although Reagan merely consented
to it. It is well known in the admin-
istration's inner councils that the
president is comfortable with
Regan, and Baker and Deaver know
better than to make a recommen-
dation that makes Reagan uncom-
fortable.
"Reagan is Reagan," Rollins said.
"As Regan will find out, Reagan has
strong feelings on things-and how
to get to those things isn't depen-
dent on staff options."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201010068-7