REGAN, POINDEXTER WORK WELL TOGETHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860023-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: January 24, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504860023-7
ARTICLE APPEARED. `~
u~ PAR.. ,
WASHINGTON TIMES
2~ January 1986
Regan, Pc?inde~er
work well together
By Jeremiah O'Leary
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
When the White House senior
staff meets every weekday at 8 a.m.,
Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan sits
at one end of the long table and Na-
tional Security Adviser John M.
Poindexter takes his place at the
other. There is no question about
which end of the table is in charge.
But in the six weeks since Mr.
Poindexter's promotion to the top job
in the National Security Council, a
number of insiders say a remark-
ably good chemistry has developed
between the tough, autocratic chief
of staff and the diffident Navy vice
admiral.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes and other high-ranking offi-
cials say Mr. Poindexter has com-
p:leteaccess toPresident Reagan. He
cam go into the Oval Office or call Mr.
Reagan on the phone whenever the
need arises, without first getting ap-
pr~~val from the chief of staff.
The White House officials say the
chief of staff always wants to know
abc-ut discussions between the NSC
director and the president. But, they
claim, Mr. Poindexter's access to the
president is not impeded by the con-
trol Mr. Regan exercises over the
peo~lle and paperwork that make
their"way to the president.
It has not always been that way
since Mr. Reagan took office five
years ago. Richard V. Allen, the first
natio~lal security adviser, briefed
the president daily on security mat-
ters but never had open-door access
to the Oval Office.
Judge William P. Clark - in the
days when the triumvirate of James
Baker, Michael Deaver and Edwin
Meese shared the White House au-
thority Mr. Regan now has -talked
to the president as he saw fit. Mr.
Clark, a Reagan friend from the
California days, completed his tour
hostile to Mr. Deaver. Tb a lesser ex-
tent he was at odds with Mr. Baker,
the former chief of staff and current
Tt~easury secretary.
Robert C. McFarlane was never
comfortable with Mr. Regan's take-
charge style. He was accustomed to
immediate personal and telephone
contact with the president. In a
building where access to .the pres- '
ident is equivalent to power, the two
former Marine officers did not hit it
off. McFarlane resigned from the
NSC post Dec. 4.
Mr. Poindexter, 49, is a good-
natured, unflappable man who
moves easily through the bureau-
cratic maze. Mr. Regan already was
established and was being called the
administration's "prime minister"
when the admiral was promoted
from the No. 2 post in the NSC.
These factors, according to officials,
have reduced friction between the
chief of staff's office and the NSC to
low intensity.
Mr. Poindexter knows well the art
of vanishing. In nearly 4'/z years on
the NSC, the admiral has not given
an interview and has held only one
press briefing.
When b1r. Poindexter was intro-
duced as the successor to Mr.
McFarlane last month, he was asked
by a reporter if the press would ever
see him again.
"Maybe," he replied.
In fact, he has been seen by the
press only through the window of his
West Wing office. This stylealready
has spawned a wry joke around the
White House that "there has been a
new Poindexter sighting."
There are signs that Mr. Regan's
advisers are considering the advis-
ability of making Mr. Poindexter a
bit more visible, if only to demon-
strate that the NSC has not become
an adjunct of the chief of staff's of-
fice.
If Mr. Poindexter emerges from
the bureaucratic shield to brief the
press or be interviewed by report-
ers, he could have a slight credibility
problem. No one has forgotten that
on the night before the United States
invaded Grenada, Mr. Poindexter
was asked about it and replied, "Pre-
posterous!"
The personalities of Mr. Regan
and Mr. Poindexter inevitably have
changed the role of the NSC. The
NSC staff is supposed to function as
the president's in-house specialists
and advisers on national security af-
fairs. '?he NSC also serves as a link
between the State Department, t e
Defense Department and other
agencies such as the CIA~an_d the
White House.
The influence of the NSC always
has depended on the status of the
reigning national security adviser.
Strong predecessors of the admiral,
such as Henry A. Kissinger and
Zbigniew Brzezinski, were greatly
influential in the Nixon, Ford and
Carter administrations. More self-
effacing men, such as Brent Scow-
croft,were mere channels for strong
secretaries of state and defense.
With Mr. Regan in full charge of
the White House machinery and
Secretary of Defense Caspar Wein-
bergeroften at odds with Secretary
of State George Shultz, it is not out
of character for Mr. Poindexter to
keep the low profile he likes best.
It is difficult to imagine Mr. Poin-
dexter ?taking sides in differences
between the two Cabinet secre-
taries. At best, he is likely to serve
the role of a referee who is strongly
under the influence of the chief of
staff.
Mr. Poindexter's forte is a tech-
nical knowledge of arms control,
military operations and diplomacy,
which Mr. Regan does not have or
the time to absorb. But that does not
mean that he is likely to become a
policy-maker in his own right.
His other strong points are guid-
ing the small, diverse NSC staff as it
tracks national security issues and
plowing through the mounds of pa-
ver and endless meetings.
Mr. Poindexter has beefed up the
NSC staff by bring Ron Lehman
back from Geneva to provide in-
house advice on the complex arms
control negotiations. Most NSC
staffers are either on loan from the
State epartment, t e mi itary or
the CIA or are from t e nation's
think tanks.
n t e end, his self-effacing ways
are bound to mesh better in the 1986
White House than if he were a fire-
brand on a collision course with the
chief of staff.
STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08 :CIA-RDP90-009658000504860023-7