MCFARLANE OUT, POINDEXTER IN AT NSC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860026-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: December 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

11 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860026-4
ON PACs
WASHINGTON TIMES
4 December 1989
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Mr. McFarlane said he would not The president yesterday would
? accept another job immediately. not answer reporters' questions
at NSC The departure of Mr. McFarlane, about Mr. McFarlane.
M which had been rumored for some H@ did say, "We talk every day
time, comes largely because White when asked if he had spoken to the
national security adviser recently.
By Jeremiah O'Leary
and Mary Belcher
THE ..SHINGTON TIMES
National Security Adviser Robert
McFarlane, frustrated by a growing
lack of access to the president, has
resigned and will be replaced by
Adm. John Poindexter, his chief as-
sistant, according to administration
sources.
These sources say that the an-
nouncement is being held up only
until a successor is chosen.
Mr. Poindexter, 49, is credited
with coordinating the October inter-
cept of an EgyptAir jetliner carry-
ing the Arab terrorists who hijacked
the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro
and killed an American tourist.
Several other names were men-
tioned earlier yesterday as possible
successors. Lawrence Eagleburger,
a former undersecretary of state
who has the backing of Secretary of
State George Shultz and former Sec,
retary of State Henry Kissinger, had
a good chance for the job until early
yesterday afternoon, according to
administration sources.
But the plan to appoint Mr. Eagle-
burger, who is opposed by con-
servatives who say he talks tough
but is not decisive in a crisis, appar- -
ently unraveled later in the day,
these highly placed sources say.
Others who were under consider-
ation included John Tower, a former
Republican senator from Texas and
a member of the U.S. arms-control
negotiating team, and Navy Secre-
tary John Lehman, who is a former
National Security Council staff
member.
Mr. 'Ibwer, who was chairman of
the senate Armed Services Commit-
tee for which Mr McFarlane worked
for two years, was the choice of con-
servatives, according to an influen-
er
servatives included former U.N. lane during last month's Geneva
ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and summit and "muscled him out of
Rozanne Ridgway, an assistant sec- prominence" during the sessions be-
retary of state for European and tween Mr. Reagan and Soviet leader
Canadian affairs. Mikhail Gorbachev.
Mr. McFarlane has been men
tioned as a replacement for M&*,
Mansfield, the 82-year-old ambassa-
dor to Japan, t> a source close to
House Chief of Staff Donald Regan
has restricted the national security
adviser's previously easy access to
President Reagan, creating an "in-
tolerable situation" for the national
security adviser, a senior adminis-
tration official said.
The official said geopolitical is-
sues "get poorly translated" when
they go through a non-expert such as
the chief of staff.
Mr. McFarlane, who once had an
open door to the Oval Office and saw
the president three or four times
daily, now must go through the chief
of staff for access to the president.
Mr. McFarlane 48 also has rown
tired o 71 CIA Director W iam Cas
w o as attempte to go directly to
the ores] en wi ma ers r.
McFarlane believes should move
throu t e ationa ecurrtv oun-
cisai a source c ose to Mr. McFar-
ane.
Taddition, Mr. McFarlane has
grown increasingly irritated by
what the source described as the "in-
sensitivity" of Mr. Shultz, the secre-
tary of state.
Adm. Poindexter, promoted from
an NSC military assistant to be Mr.
McFarlane's assistant two years ago,
graduated first in his 1954 Naval
Academy class, has served as an
aide to three Navy secretaries and
holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics.
That White House officials yester-
day refused to squelch rumors about
Mr. McFarlane's job plans fueled
speculation that his resignation was
forthcoming.
Mr. McFarlane, a soft-spoken but
strong-willed ex-Marine, has played
an increasingly high-profile role as
the president's adviser in recent ter-
rorist attacks on Americans abroad
and in the planning and execution of
last month's U.S.-Soviet summit.
Sources said Chief of Staff Regan
Oth names advanced by con- and Mr. Shultz muffled Mr. McFar-
Neither Mr. McFarlane nor his
spokeswoman, Karna Small, could
be reached for comment.
There have been rumors over the
past several months that infighting
between Mr. McFarlane and Mr. Re-
gan had become more intense. Mr.
McFarlane also has expressed a de-
sire to spend more time with his
family.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said he could neither con-
firm nor deny reports that Mr.
McFarlane would resign soon.
"I think the president would cer-
tainly abide by the judgments of any
member of his administration about
what they need to do:' Mr. Speakes
said, leaving open the possibility
that Mr. McFarlane has expressed a
desire to leave the White House.
"The president has certainly val-
ued his [Mr. McFarlane's] and other
members of the national security
community's service and continues
to value their services," Mr. Speakes
said.
Mr. McFarlane had once de-
scribed his ascension to the post of
national security adviser as a "com-
promise choice:' saying that he was
not viewed as "a threat" by other
senior administration officials.
But in the more than two years he
has held the post he has been a
highly visible public official, more
well known than his immediate pre-
decessors - William Clark and
Richard Allen.
Mr. McFarlane is often pictured at.
the president's side or as an admin-
istration spokesman on the evening
news and Sunday news programs.
He was the most senior official who
accompanied Mr. Reagan on his re-
cent six-day California vacation.
One oft-repeated story says that
Mr. McFarlane was so in tune with
Mr. Reagan that he often signs
memos "Robert C. McFarlane for
the president.'
Mr. McFarlane, whose father, Wil-
liam Doddridge McFarlane, was a
Democratic congressmen from
Texas during the New Deal in the
1930x, was born in Washington. He
was graduated from the Naval Acad-
emy and was among the first
Americans to fight in Vietnam.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/27: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504860026-4