Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403180281
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
``I never instructed him or anyone in my administration to mislead Congress on Iran-Contra matters or anything else,'' Reagan said in a one-page letter to former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev. ``And I certainly did not know anything about the Iran-Contra diversion. In fact, as you know, the minute we found out about it, we told the American people and called for investigations.''
Reagan also discredited claims North made repeatedly in the late 1980s that he held numerous private meetings with the then-president to discuss covert activities. ``The private meetings he said he had with me just didn't happen,'' Reagan wrote.
The former president stopped short of endorsing North's opponent for the Republican nomination, former White House Budget Chief Jim Miller, saying he always has refrained from taking sides in GOP contests. ``But I do have to admit that I am getting pretty steamed about the statements coming from Oliver North,'' he said.
North, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, responded with a letter to Reagan on Thursday accusing Miller's supporters of ``intentionally''distorting his comments ``in a blatant and desperate attempt to salvage foundering political campaign against me.''
North denied ever having said Reagan told him to lie or boasting that he had private meetings with the former president. North told Reagan that his illegal diversion of profits from arms sales to Iraq to anti-Communist fighters in Nicaragua was authorized ``by those superior to me who reported directly to you, and I had every reason to believe at the time that they had your authorization as well.''
The Reagan letter comes at a crucial time in the Republican campaign, with deadlines approaching Saturday for hundreds of delegates to register for the state GOP convention in June. North has been assiduously courting delegates and recently claimed that a good showing this weekend would lock up the nomination for him.
Reagan's departure from his time-honored ``11th commandment'' vow to ``never speak ill of a fellow Republican,'' shook many North supporters.
``It's a tremendous blow to the campaign,'' said Del. Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach. ``To date, everyone who has been throwing stones at North has an ax to grind. But this comes from the most respected Republican president in recent memory. I'm taken aback. I really don't know how to react.''
For months, Miller and his supporters have urged the former president to make an endorsement, or at least rebut North's statements about Iran-Contra.
Reagan finally responded to a two-page letter on March 14 from Laxalt, the national director of Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. ``I must tell you, my friend, that I sense North's irresponsible conduct has hurt you somewhat, primarily because you have not refuted his statements,'' Laxalt wrote.
Laxalt, a member of Miller's campaign steering committee, enclosed copies of two controversial statements North has made about Reagan.
In his best-selling book ``Under Fire, An American Story,'' North wrote he is ``convinced President Reagan knew everything.'' He said it is ``unlikely''that former CIA Director William Casey did not inform the president of the diversion.
During a Jan. 30 appearance on CBS' ``Face the Nation,'' North said Reagan encouraged him to lie to Congress in 1986.
``The president of the United States sat in a situation room meeting and said, `No one is going to reveal what is going on in this thing,'' North said. ``I think the actual quote, written by someone else, was, `They'll hang by their thumbs in the White House.'''
North did not address those specific comments in his letter to Reagan. ``I have never said that you told me to mislead Congress,'' he wrote. ``Never. What I have acknowledged is that I withheld information from certain politicians during the Cold War to save the lives of American hostages who were at that time held in Beirut and to save the Freedom Fighters in Nicaragua.''
In the 1980s, it was reported widely that North often boasted to colleagues, friends and journalists that he held regular private meetings with Reagan to discuss covert matters. In response, former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that North was in meetings with Reagan 19 times, but that the two were never alone.
``I have never called such meetings `private,' although they were certainly anything but public,'' North wrote Reagan.
Robert Holsworth, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Reagan's letter ``dramatically changes'' the Senate race. ``It exacerbates the concerns many Republicans have about North's veracity,''he said.
Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner said the Reagan letter undermines North's credibility. ``Oliver North has betrayed Ronald Reagan, he has betrayed the American people and now he is trying to betray the people of Virginia,'' said Warner, a vocal critic of North who had urged Reagan to issue a statement.
``If duty, honor and country have any meaning to Oliver North, he will withdraw from the race so that Virginia Republicans can nominate a candidate who can be elected United States senator.''
Warner said he will urge other prominent Republicans, including Gov. George Allen, to oppose North's candidacy.
But Ralph Reed, a North supporter who is executive director of the Christian Coalition, called Reagan's letter ``oblique'' and predicted it will have no impact. ``More than half of the delegates to the [GOP] convention have already registered and, as near as I can tell, Oliver North is running away with the nomination,'' he said.
``The process will not be decided by the insiders in Washington,'' Reed added. ``This is about grass roots. The people who are against Ollie will have more reason to be against him and the people who are for Ollie will have more reason to support him. When Ollie's under siege, his supporters really turn out.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB