by Bob Spitz
“he was a cinch to win”: Joan Quigley, quoted in KK/NR, p. 362.
“It’s been nearly three years”: “Text of Speech by President on Plan to Seek Reelection,” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1984.
“He made good sport”: Editorial, “The President and His Signs,” New York Times, Jan. 30, 1984.
“Don’t screw up”: Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
Washington Post–ABC News poll: White House News Summary, May 1984, RRPL.
“They don’t have”: Stuart Spencer, quoted in Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 4.
“There is nothing left”: Richard Darman, quoted in Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“This is America”: Tom Messner, “The Tuesday Team: The Inside Story of the Admen Who Got Reagan Reelected in 1984,” AdWeek, Apr. 19, 2016.
“Prouder, Stronger, Better”: William Grimes, “James D. Travis Dies at 83; His TV Ads Lifted Reagan,” New York Times, May 15, 2016.
“I am ready to defeat”: Walter Mondale, quoted in Howell Raines, “Mondale Wins Handily in Iowa; Close Race for 2nd as Glenn Trails,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1984.
Gary Hart gave Nancy: “The one guy who shook her up was Gary Hart.” John Roberts, quoted in KK/NR, p. 365.
“so broad and unspecific”: Howell Raines, “Hart Takes Massachusetts, Florida and Rhode Island,” New York Times, Mar. 14, 1984.
“the homeless, you might say”: White House News Summary, recap of Good Morning America appearance, Feb. 1, 1984, RRPL.
“My fellow Americans”: “Just Kidding,” New York Times, Aug. 14, 1984.
“I appointed five members”: James Watt, quoted in White House News Summary, Sept. 22, 1983, RRPL.
“whether or not they agree”: Steven Weisman, “Teflon Man,” New York Times Magazine, Apr. 29, 1984.
“I’ve always thought”: AAL, p. 472.
Only a mere 18 percent: White House, internal memo, cited in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 15.
Outrage over the mining: “I am pissed off. . . . This is an act violating international law. It is an act of war.” Sen. Barry Goldwater, letter to William Casey, quoted in Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), p. 322.
“Bud, I want you to do”: Robert C. McFarlane with Sofia Smardz, Special Trust (New York: Cadell & Davies, 1994), p. 68.
“That allowed Bud and Ollie”: John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 19, 2014.
“Mum’s the word”: McFarlane, Special Trust, p. 70.
“champions who helped free”: RR, speech, quoted in Joseph Petro with Jeffrey Robinson, Standing Next to History 2308 (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), p. 173.
“Going to third countries”: George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 415.
“It is merely helping”: Caspar Weinberger, quoted in Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 225.
“Reagan only has himself”: Claibourne Darden, quoted in “Tackling the Teflon President, Time, June 25, 1984.
“an exciting choice”: Walter Mondale, speech, Democratic National Convention, July 19, 1984.
“Questions about Social Security”: Roger Rosenblatt, “Mondale: This Is an Exciting Choice,” July 23, 1984.
only 22 percent of women: Andrew Glass, “Ferraro Joins Democratic Ticket,” Politico, July 12, 2007.
“Reagan is detached from reality”: Walter Mondale, quoted in Evan Thomas, “Tackling the Teflon President,” Time, July 18, 1984.
In March, William Buckley: “The men apparently forced Buckley into a white Renault 12 with covered license plates and drove away.” White House Situation Room, confidential teletype, Mar. 12, 1984, p. 2, declassified July 15, 2002, Exec. Secretariat Country file (Lebanon), Box 41, RRPL.
a date chosen by: Joan Quigley, What Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), p. 92.
“I flattened out”: AAL, p. 328.
“We spent eight hours”: Stuart Spencer, interview, MCPA, Nov. 6, 2001, p. 54.
“He was just plain lazy”: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 547.
“God, I was awful”: RR, quoted in Ibid.; Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“that debate was a nightmare”: NR/MT, p. 266.
“I was sitting in my room”: Stuart Spencer, interview, MCPA, Nov. 15–16, 2001, p. 93.
“He was trying to combat”: Carolyn Deaver, interview with author, Mar. 17, 2015.
“New Questions in Race”: Wall Street Journal, Oct. 9, 1984.
“for the last ten days”: Roger Ailes, quoted in Peter Goldman and Tony Fuller, The Quest for the Presidency (New York: Bantam, 1985), p. 339.
“I recall,” Trewhitt said: Commission on Presidential Debates, “October 21, 1984 Debate,” transcript.
“I knew he had gotten”: Walter Mondale, interview with Jim Lehrer, PBS News Hour, Dec. 12, 2000.
“among probable voters”: Hedrick Smith, “Failure to Win Independents Hurting Mondale, Poll Finds,” New York Times, Oct. 26, 1984.
“taken enough and swallowed enough”: Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 18.
THIRTY-SEVEN: “LET REAGAN BE REAGAN”
North’s guest was an unnamed: Oliver North, memo to Robert McFarlane, Nov. 7, 1984, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition.
“There is plenty of work”: RR, quoted in Edwin Meese, interview with author, July 8, 2015.
“These were tough jobs”: Michael Deaver, interview, MCPA, Sept. 12, 2002, p. 44.
“an ambitious man”: NR/MT, p. 241.
A Cabinet post: “Jimmy wanted a more prestigious job, a Cabinet job.” Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
called “Potomac fever”: Ibid., p. 240.
“The power intoxicated him”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2015.
Adding insult to injury: Meese, in his defense, says, “I thought it was costume jewelry.” Edwin Meese, interview with author, July 8, 2015.
“finding the same problems”: Donald Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, May 17, 1989, LCA, Box 23, Folder 87, p. 25.
“You know what’s wrong”: Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 219.
Deaver helped sell the plan: Don Regan recognized, “We’ve got to get Mrs. Reagan aboard or this thing isn’t going to fly.” Regan, interview with Cannon, May 17, 1989, LCA.
“a bright man”: NR/MT, p. 312; “Deaver had to do a sales job there.” Stuart Spencer, interview with Lou Cannon, May 2, 1989, LCA, p. 24.
“I don’t get ulcers”: Donald Regan, quoted in Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 39.
“an absolute dictator”: Chris Welles, “The Making of a Treasury Secretary,” Institutional Investor, Mar. 1981.
“Mr. President,” Regan said: Donald Regan, interview with Johanna Neuman and Owen Ullmann, Dec. 7, 1986.
“More than anything”: Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“a trigger-happy cowboy”: AAL, p. 557.
“Improving U.S.-Soviet relations”: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 509.
“The President has already won”: Richard Nixon, memo, “A New Approach for the Second Term,” Jan. 6, 1985, James A. Baker papers, White House Staff and Office files, OA 10514, RRPL.
“We propose that the Soviet Unio
n”: Konstantin Chernenko, letter to RR, Nov. 17, 1984, quoted in George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 500.
“the elimination of all nuclear”: Konstantin Chernenko, letter to RR, Dec. 21, 1984, quoted in Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, pp. 507–8.
The odds-on favorite: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Apr. 17, 2015.
“I like Mr. Gorbachev”: “Gorbachov [sic] Links Arms Curb to Star Wars Ban,” The Times (London), Dec. 18, 1984; Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 507.
“He knew what she”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
“This could happen now”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Nov. 11, 2014.
“When he read something”: Donald T. Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, Feb. 2, 1990, LCA, p. 13.
“horrified” the president’s top men: Ibid.
Stu Spencer ordered Mike Deaver: “I told Deaver to hide the damn thing.” Stuart Spencer, interview with author, July 21, 2014.
“once they were ingrained”: Donald T. Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, Feb. 2, 1990, LCA, p. 1.
“stubborn determination and willingness”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 559.
“a handclasp over the graves”: Ibid., p. 541.
“You know, he’s a cheerful”: New York Times, Apr. 18, 1985.
“I had to get”: Michael Deaver, interview, MCPA, Sept. 12, 2002, p. 58.
“It was very picturesque”: Hedrick Smith, The Power Game: How Washington Works (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988), p. 375.
But he was assured: “Was there anything there that might embarrass our President, our country? The answer was no.” Michael K. Deaver with Mickey Herskowitz, Behind the Scenes (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1987), p. 180.
“You can be assured”: AAL, p. 612.
“has iron teeth”: Andrei Gromyko, speech to Politburo, transcript, Mar. 11, 1985; Doder Dusko and Louise Branson, Gorbachev: Heretic in the Kremlin (New York: Viking, 1990), p. 64.
they were good bargaining chips: “We needed the vote badly for the sake of our security interests and for our negotiations.” Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 533.
“The Contra funding is like”: National Security Planning Group meeting, minutes, May 25, 1984, p. 11, RRPL.
third-party contributions: “In mid-April 1985, Lt. Col. North advised McFarlane that the Resistance had received a total of $24.5 million.” United States of America v. Oliver North, court document, “U.S. Government Stipulation on Quid Pro Quos with Other Governments as Part of Contra Operations,” Apr. 6, 1989, p. 3.
Oliver North, who was coordinating: “Lt. North informed McFarlane that the funds remaining were insufficient to support these operations.” Ibid.
“We cannot have”: RR, quoted in Richard Reeves, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 247.
“Who’s buried in Bitburg?”: Myron Waldman, quoted in White House press conference, Apr. 11, 1985, transcript, White House Communications office files, RRPL.
Elie Wiesel, the esteemed: “I know the President. I know this is not his sentiment.” David Hoffman, “President Defends Tour Plans,” Washington Post, Apr. 13, 1985
“Get off this—don’t go”: Donald T. Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 22.
“We were hoping that Kohl”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Nov. 20, 2013.
He laid it on thick: The United States was allying itself with “past and present Nazis.” Izvestia, Apr. 25, 1985.
“That place, Mr. President”: Bernard Weintraub, “Wiesel Confronts Reagan on Trip,” New York Times, Apr. 20, 1985.
“The drumbeat of criticism”: Robert McFarlane, letter to Horst Teltschik, Apr. 18, 1985, copies in Edwin Meese papers and elsewhere, RRPL.
“Bitburg is a disaster”: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 548.
“deeply offensive and insulting”: Margaret Thatcher, quoted in The Times (London), Apr. 27, 1985.
In an ABC News poll: George J. Church, “Scratches in the Teflon,” Time, May 6, 1985.
“really sucking blood”: RR, diary entry, Apr. 18, 1985. Private Papers, RRPL.
“Well d—n their hides”: RR, diary entry, Apr. 24, 1985. Private Papers, RRPL.
“It’s a memorial”: Smith, The Power Game, p. 379.
“He was just sitting there”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Nov. 20, 2013.
“I’m trying to do my damnedest”: Deaver, Behind the Scenes, p. 183.
Deaver was ordered to coordinate: Joan Quigley, What Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), p. 120.
“We’re talking about”: Reeves, President Reagan, p. 251.
“She was really agitated”: James Kuhn, interview with author, Oct. 1, 2014.
“loyalty up, and loyalty down”: Donald Regan, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 41.
“They were the court jesters”: Edwin Meese, interview with author, Apr. 24, 2014.
As a result, McFarlane: Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph, p. 536.
“A President in his second”: Nixon, “A New Approach for the Second Term.”
“This of course means”: RR, diary entry, June 17, 1985, Private Papers, RRPL.
First Blood Part II: RR, diary entry, June 29, 1985, Private Papers, RRPL.
“Let’s get them out”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
THIRTY-EIGHT: INTO THE ABYSS
During the president’s annual physical: “During the colonoscopy, two very small (1–1½ mm. in size) polyps were discovered and removed.” Dr. T. Burton Smith, statement, in Gerald M. Boyd, “Doctors Remove Two Small Polyps in Reagan’s Colon,” New York Times, June 21, 1986.
designation was “precancerous”: “The polyp was described as precancerous.” Larry Speakes, press conference, July 13, 1985.
was “beside herself”: “She was just scared to death.” James Kuhn, interview with author, Nov. 20, 2013.
“a protective bubble”: Sheila Tate, interview with author, Oct. 3, 2014.
“My Friend”: “The First Lady referred to the woman in San Francisco as ‘My Friend.’” Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 4.
“He can’t be seen this way”: NR, quoted by Terry Arthur, White House photographer, in KK/NR, p. 389.
“no mention of the words”: Larry Speakes, quoted in KK/NR, p. 389.
the Soviet Union had agreed: Anatoly Dobrynin to George Shultz, July 1, 1985, in George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Scribner, 1993), p. 571.
“Any word on the hostages?”: Regan, For the Record, p. 10.
“longer than I would”: Ibid., p. 11.
“a moderate faction”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
Nancy Reagan refused to let: “She kept Bud McFarlane out for three or four days.” Donald Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 12.
“It could be a breakthrough”: RR, diary entry, July 17, 1985, Private Papers, RRPL.
“Gosh, that would be great!”: “That is spot-on what he said.” Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
“unwilling to allow the United States”: Robert McFarlane testimony, Congressional Hearings, pp. 100–102; Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Nov. 17, 1987, p. 167.
“it did not seem unreasonable”: AAL, p. 506.
“was all for letting”: Robert McFarlane, PROF note to John Poindexter, Nov. 21, 1986, Iran-Contra Affair Report, p. 167.
“I didn’t have to think”: AAL, p. 506.
“Yes, go ahead”: Report of the President’s Special Review
Board (Tower Commission), Nov. 26, 1987, p. B-16.
“He was dealing with”: Donald Regan, interview with Lou Cannon, May 17, 1989, LCA, p. 12.
“This is almost too absurd”: George Shultz, handwritten note on National Security Decision Directive, June 17, 1985, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaragua Opposition.
“a very bad idea”: Iran-Contra Affair Report, p. 167.
“You know that thing”: Robert McFarlane, interview with author, Dec. 10, 2014.
His Portuguese passport: Top-secret dossier on Manucher Ghorbanifar, declassified Mar. 27, 1987, in author’s possession.
a Fabricator Notice: Dennis St. John, profile of Manucher Ghorbanifar, U.S. State Dept., declassified Dec. 19, 2013.
“should be regarded”: James Risen, “How a Shady Iranian Deal Maker Kept the Pentagon’s Ear,” New York Times, Dec. 7, 2003.
“Ghorbanifar is a con artist”: William Casey to Robert Gates, in John Poindexter, interview with author, Dec. 8, 2014.
“contingency plans for extracting hostages”: Tower Commission Report, p. B-25.
“You were never quite sure”: “I wasn’t really happy going through the Israelis.” John Poindexter interview with author, Dec. 8, 2014.
“We had great respect”: AAL, p. 506.
Meanwhile, David Kimche: “So because David believed in this guy, I was willing to believe in him—almost entirely because of that.” Robert McFarlane, quoted in Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 126.
Apparently, the shipment: Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 617.
Because the faction he represented: Peter Kornbluth and Malcolm Byrne, eds., The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (New York: New Press, 1993), p. 245.
“Do you want the Iranians”: Manucher Ghorbanifar, quoted in Los Angeles Times, Dec. 28, 1986.
“We might as well”: Michael Ledeen, deposition, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaragua Opposition, Sept. 10, 1987.
“It looks as though”: David Kimche, quoted in Mayer and McManus, Landslide, p. 134.