REAGAN PRAISES BAKER, PLEDGES 2 'AGGRESSIVE' YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290091-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2012
• Sequence Number: 91
• Publication Date: March 1, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST AD-r
eclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290061 -4
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ON PAGE
BALTIMORE SUN
1 March 1987
Reagan praises Baker, pledges 2 'aggressive' years
Tower board lauded
for letting 'chips fall'
By Julie Johnson
Washington Bureau of The Sun
WASHINGTON ? President Rea-
gan. saying that his administration
would be "wasting no time" to plan
"another two years of aggressive
work," said yesterday he was
pleased that former Sen. Howard H.
Baker had agreed to serve as his
chief of staff.
"I've known Howard for years
and have enormous respect for his
abilities and talents," said the presi-
dent, speaking in his weekly Satur-
day radio broadcast.
Mr. Reagan used the speech to
again praise his national security re-
view board, which last week gave
him a highly critical assessment of
White House handling of the clan-
destine Iran arms-sale operation.
"When I asked John Tower, Ed-
mund Muskie and Brent Scowcroft
to investigate the Iran affair, my atti-
tude was to let the chips fall where
they may," Mr. Reagan said of his
three-member panel, which was
chaired by Mr. Tower, a former Re-
publican senator from Texas.
The stinging, 300-page report
found that the U.S. initiative to sell
weapons to Iran "became in tact a
series of arms-for-hostages deals."
It also portrayed a confused presi-
dent, who apparently was unaware
of any diversion of arms-sale profits
to aid the Nicaraguan contra rebels,
but who also was unable to grasp
the consequences of his actions.
"I told you, the American people,
that I wanted all the facts to come
out," the president said. "The board's
effort is a demonstration of my com-
mitment to find out what was wrong
and fix it." He added that he was still
"studying" the report.
? The White House also announced
that President Reagan stood by his
nomination of Robert M. Gates to
head the CIA, even though Senate
Republican leaders had suggested
that the nomination might be in
trouble.
;Senate Majority Leader Robert J.
Dole of Kansas was canvassing oth-
er senators over the weekend, trying
to determine whether there was
enough support for Mr. Gates or
whether the nomination should be
pulled back from the Democratic-
controlled-Senate.
"If there's not enough support for
Gates, it's likely they'll withdraw
and_put in somebody who can win,"
said one congressional source quot-
ed by the Associated Press.
But presidential spokesman Mar-
lin Fitzwater said, "The president
stands behind the nomination."
Mr. Gates, currently the CIA's
deputy director, was nominated to
replace William J. Casa, whore-
signed following surgery for brain
cancer.
At the White House yesterday, as
advisers sought to piece together yet
another Iran-contra strategy with
new staff leadership, Mr. Baker's
two-man transition team met for 90
minutes with about a dozen senior
presidential aides.
Longtime Baker aides James
Cannon and Thomas Griscom, who
are expected to be offered senior po-
sitions on the White House staff, met
with political and legislative advisers
to discuss Mr. Reagan's week ahead
and an upcoming midweek televised
address on the Tower board report.
Mr. Reagan, who is expected to
meet further with congressional
leaders and his Cabinet this week,
also may begin traveling around the
country ? placing particular em-
phasis on his package for trade com-
petitiveness ? to quash public
doubts about his ability to lead.
The president, while trying to -fix
his sights on the future, reserved a
few moments in his Saturday radio
speech for one of the more embattled
figures in his past: Former Chief of
Staff Donald T. Regan, whom the
Tower board blamed for the "chaos"
that ensued at the White House after
the Iran-contra affair became
known.
Mr. Regan, 68, who left the ad-
ministration in an angry burst Fri-
day, returned to the White House
yesterday morning to clear his desk.
A day earlier, he had dashed off a
cold letter that said ritsrely, "I hereby
resign as Chief of Staff to the Presi-
dent of the United States."
A White House official, when
asked yesterday about the brevity of
the resignation letter. said Mr. Re-
gan learned that the president had
asked Mr. Baker, 61, to replace him
on a televised news report before he
had personally been informed by the
president.
The official, speaking on back-
ground yesterday, acknowledged
that the handling of the matter had
been botched.
"I can't, imagine that it was
planned that way," he said.
Mr. Regan. who generally de-
clined to answer questions on his
ouster when he arrived at the White
House yesterday, said he would re-
serve comment on the matter until
later.
Mr. Reagan, in his speech, of-
fered to his ex-aide the warm good-
bye that had been noticeably absent
in the presidential statement issued
Friday after Mr. Baker accepted the
job.
"Don's been a friend and a valu-
able and trusted member of the ad-
ministration," said the president,
who termed Mr. Regan's six years of
service as Treasury secretary and
chief of staff "outstanding."
Meanwhile, North Carolina Sen.
Terry Sanford, delivering the Demo-
cratic response to Mr. Reagan's ra-
dio address, said Congress took "no
comfort from the disaster that has
befallen the Reagan administration"
and was ready to move beyond the
Iran-contra affair.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/16: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301290091-4