REAGAN STOKES UP COMEBACK EFFORT, WITHDRAWS GATES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 3, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860002-0 STAT
AhTl . LL At t_n
ON PAM
WASHINGTON TIMES
3 `larch 1987
citizen of this nation, she's a great
lady and she obviously is a lady of
strong convictions. That's what I
meant"
Mr. Baker drew laughter when he
said he hadn't had a chance to talk to
Nancy Reagan all day and then pre-
tended to flinch as he said, "There's
the phone now!"
The contrast yesterday was
strong 'ietween Mr. Baker's folksy
style and the tough-guy approach
Mr. Regan had used in every White
House contact except those with the
president. The former Tennessee
senator started off his briefing by
saying he intended to come back as
often as circumstances warrant.
In his vigorous defense of Mr.
Reagan, faulted by the 'Ibwer com-
mission for his detachment from
and disinterest in the execution of
the Iran policy, Mr. Baker said, "I've
been with the president off and on all
day in a series of meetings.
"I've known Ronald Reagan since
1966 and I've never seen him more
energetic, fully engaged and more
in command with the difficult cir-
cumstances and questions we were
dealing with this day.
"Uppermost in many peoples'
minds is the question: Is this pres-
ident fully in control of his pres-
idency? Is he alert? Is he fully en-
gaged? Is he in contact with the
problems? And I'm telling you, it's
just one day's experience and maybe
that's not enough, but today he was
superb." Mr. Baker said.
He used humor to defuse ques-
tions about Mrs. Reagan and her role
in engineering the departure of the
authoritarian Mr. Regan, including
her legendary addiction to the tele-
phone.
"I've known Nancy Reagan a long
time, too. I did speak to her on Friday
and I expect that - there's the phone
now!"
Mn Baker said he did not intend to
Reagan stokes up
comeback effort,
withdraws Gates
By Jeremiah O'Leary
THE
President Reagan stepped up efforts to
rebuild his battered administration yester-
day by withdrawing his nomination of Rob-
ert Gates to head the CIA and scheduling an
address to the nation on the Iran-Contra af-
fair.
Newly installed White House Chief of
Staff Howard Baker, in his first official ap-
pearance, defended Mr. Reagan against
charges that he is "a hands-off leader" and
an "AWOL president."
Mr. Baker said the president would give a
"marvelous" speech to the nation at 9 p.m.
tomorrow in response to scathing criticism
from the board he appointed to investigate
the Iran-Contra scandal.
The 61-year-old former senator, who took
over as the top White House aide after Don-
ald Regan was unceremoniously dismissed
Friday, conceded the report of the 'Ibwer
commission had damaged the president.
"But I think it is more important that he
survived, and I think he's going to
grow from this point and strengthen
his popularity and resume his role as
a very effective president of the
United States," Mr. Baker said.
White House officials have said
%Ir. Reagan was stunned and deeply
disturbed by the board's depiction
Thursday of his Iran initiative as a
misguided policy run amok thanks
to the efforts of out-of-control na-
tional security aides.
In his first session before the
White House press corps, a relaxed
and personable Mr. Baker also an-
nounced that the president had re-
gretfully accepted Mr. Gates' re-
quest to withdraw his nomination as
CIA chief. Confirmation hearings
had hogged down over Mr. Gates'
role in the Iran affair and con-
gressmen urged Mr. Reagan to se-
lect someone "untainted" by the epi-
sode.
Mr. Gates' action spared the
president the embarrassment of
having to withdraw the nomination
himself.
Mr. Baker said the White House
was considering several names but
did not yet have an acceptance.
Sources said the front-runners were
former Sen. John Tower and former
National% Security Adviser Brent
Scowcroft, both of whom served on
the president's Iran-Contra review
board.
Mr. Gates, a 20-year-veteran of the
CIA, will remain as assistant direc-
tor.
"It is apparent that there is a
strong sentiment in the Senate to
await completion, at a minimum, of
the work of the Senate Select Com-
mittee on Iran before acting on my
nomination," Mr. Gates said in a let-
ter to the president. "I believe a pro-
longed period of uncertainty would
be harmful to the CIA, the intelli-
gence community and potentially to
our national security."
Mr. Reagan called Mr. Gates a "re-
markably talented and dedicated
man."
"I have been impressed with the
class he has shown under the enor-
mous pressures of recent weeks;' he
said in a statement read to reporters.
Mr. Baker got off to a good start
on his first day. Smiling and obvi-
ously enjoying himself, he used his
wit and good nature to field some
difficult questions about Mr. Rea-
gan's attention to business and the
first lady.
Asked if he stood by a quote attrib-
uted to him in Sunday's Miami Her-
ald that "the president has a half-life
memory" and that "the first lady,
when she gets her hackles up, can be
a dragon."
"Sure;' said Mr. Baker. "What I
said was that in my experience as
majority leader I tound that the
president was as good as anybody on
issues, but when you approached
him about it two weeks or two
months later, you found that the half-
life of that memory was short. But
so is mineand so is yours, I suspect.
"The first lady is a distinguished
he another "prime minister," a com-
mon description of the imperious
way in which Mr. Regan approached
the job.
"I am acutely aware that Ronald
Reagan is president and I am not:'
he said. "I will consult with the
president's friends and advisers,
and I will help him, if he will permit
me to, to devise a strategy to get
across to the country the perception
of Ronald Reagan that I saw today."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860002-0