LET'S DO IT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706120003-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706120003-6
.;; t ICL~ t~~i'EaRED
~ ? Pt~GE 3 7
T I NiE
28 October 1985
The Presidency/Hugh Sidey
"Let's Do It"
6e editorial in the Washington Times hit him hard on
T that Thursday morning. FISH OR CUT BAIT, MR. REAGAlY,
read the headline. These were his conservative friends talk-
ing. "If Ronald Reagan again fails to avenge the death of a
defenseless American, his constituents will want to know
why they sent him back for a second term."
Reagan brooded about it as he hurried through his morn-
ing briefing on the aftermath of the hijacking of the Achille
Lauro. Although U.S._intelligence had pinpointed the terror-
ists in tan a sc eme was be' hatched to and
capture them ' thev fled. thev wen still out of reach.
Reagan's frustration was deep. He had been thwarted af-
ter the Marines and the U.S. embassy were bombed in Leba-
non and following the hijacking of the TWA plane. He held
only a thin hope that things would turn out differently this
time. Bef he left the Oval
Oflicc for another fl ' tour
to pug tax reform, he or-
dered National Securit Ad-
viser o ert Mc arlane to
use every tote ence source
avails a to fret t e s p
'ai ckers. Then he strode to his
waiting helicopter.
The editorial still ran-
kled. As the chopper lifted
off. Reagan looked over at his
staff and recalled the writer's
barbs. He protested to his
aides: Did not his critics un-
derstand how hard it was to
find these people? Did they
not understand that to kill in-
nocent bystanders would cast
him as a terrorist? What he
wanted, and what he would
wait for, Reagan said, was "a
clean one," the chance to strike directly at the guilty.
As his jet sped toward Chicago, events were unfolding
that would give Reagan a clean one. But it is almost a given
in the history of presidential leadership that nothing hap-
pens when it should. This caravan was a celebration for tax
reform, with bands and balloons and healthy Americans
cheering. The President had to wear two faces that day, one
for his happy crowds in public, another for his private mo-
ments as terrorism avenger. At every critical point during
the jottrney Reagan would turn from blaring politics to a
whispered question: '`Have we found them yet?"
Historians who study this episode may call it the Sara
Lee decision because the moment of truth for Reagan came
just after he had addressed the employees of the Sara Lee
Bakery in Deerfield, Ill. By any meastue it is a singularly
clear look at how Ronald Reagan decides, and that is the
very essence of being President.
As he spoke to the enraptured employees of Sara Lee, the
word was flashed to McFarlane about the terrorists' plans to
fly out of Cairo. Onstage, Reagan thundered his ire against
deficits and roared another pledge to get Government spend-
ing down. "God bless you," he shouted from behind his fam-
ous grin. The red jacketed Deerfield High School band
swung into Military Escort, and the crowd cheered. Behind
the stage in what had been an employee conference room,
McFarlane and his aides waited somberly with their news.
The gentle folks of Sara Lee had rentod a big desk and hung
an ersatz presidential seal to make the place seem properly
official. A tiny pen holder shaped like a Sara Lee truck
checerily waved the bakery's banner. Reagan entered, the
door closed, the men who run the U.S. huddled.
"Can we make sure it's them?" Reagan asked first. We
could, came the answer. "What risk will there be to innocent
persons?" was Reagan's next question. Not much. But what
risk to the Americans carrying out the mission? And what
would be the diplomatic costs? Reagan listened to the an-
swers as the outside din began to fade.
Those gathered with the President watched his eyes,
his face. There was no wrenching emotion. Something inside
the man had hardened long ago, and now the pieces were
being fitted into place. At last, a clean shot. Reagan's gttes-
tions and the answers took just two minutes. A few more sec-
onds ticked off. "Let's do it," he said evenly. In 25 minutes
of F-14 pilots on the deck of
the carrier Saratoga in the
Mediterranean.
Barely have the intelli-
nce di lomadc and trt l -
tary appat'atW o t to rated
tes to suc ood
save. r Ps t tat is one
reason Reagan could move
through this drama so effort-
lessly. He had faith in his sys-
tem. He did not pick over the
details of the intercept plan,
as Jimmy Carter did for the
ill-fated Desert One raid in
Iran. He did not ask who was
at the other end of the com-
mand line, as John Kennedy
did when he sent troops over
the autobahn into West Ber-
lin. Reagan trusted them all,
whoever they might be, right down to the nameless young
men flying in their F-14's.
Later Reagan would learn that Vice Admiral Frank
Kelso, commander of the Sixth Fleet, was in the Mediterra-
nean's gentle swells aboard the U.S.S. Coronado. holding
together the whole effort. Kelso was not even an aviator.
He was a submariner. And Rear Admiral David Jeremiah,
commander of Task Force 60, which was the Saratoga
and support ships, was a destroyer skipper gone upstairs. Old
Navy hands swore that Reagan's faith was a principal factor
in the extra effort. "The President never questioned whether
we could do it or not," Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinber-
ger recalled last week "He trusted us totally. And if it
had not worked, he would not have blamed us. I've said it
for a long time. He has better judgment than all the rest of
us put together."
Events moved to their climax as the President neared
Washington and Air Force One settled for a landing at
Andrews Air Force Base. On the helicopter back to the
White Hottse, Reagan was already off on another adventure,
contending with another adversary. He looked down at the
lights of the Capitol and wondered what he should do to
persuade Democratic Leader Robert Byrd to release more
than 5,000 military and civil nominations that the Senator
had bottled up in his pique at the President. That is another
untold story for another time. Whatever Reagan did, or did
not do, Byrd soon httrriedly pushed the nominations through
the Senate.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/02 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706120003-6