An American Life

by Ronald Reagan

  I was determined to build more bridges to the moderate Arab countries, and emphasized this during separate state visits by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and King Hussein of Jordan during the spring of 1985. All of them promised help in the search for peace in the Middle East. In return, all wanted U.S. weapons and what they considered a more even-handed U.S. policy in the Middle East.

  Understandably, Saudi Arabia was vitally concerned about the security of its oil resources. King Hussein, who had been courageous in trying to persuade his Arab neighbors to come to terms with the reality of Israel, told me that, because of antipathy over his efforts to bring about peace, he felt threatened by Syria and its Soviet-equipped army. Both Hussein and King Fahd said they needed advanced U.S. arms for defensive purposes—weapons the Israelis viewed as a threat.

  I liked Shimon Peres, the man who succeeded Begin as Israel’s prime minister. A statesman who was more realistic about the Middle East than Begin, he recognized that any solution to the region’s problems would have to include a resolution of the issue of the Palestinian refugees. Ultimately, I was disappointed by his failure to use his term in office to turn his words of moderation into action—but he was up against stiff resistance in the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, to any accommodation with the Palestinians and moderate Arabs. Although Peres, like Begin, opposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, I found him more understanding than his predecessor of my desire to improve relations with the moderate Arabs—and more willing than many of Israel’s lobbyists in this country to consider alternative ideas. Even though our administration won congressional approval in early 1985 to increase substantially financial aid to Israel, the pro-Israel lobby continued to block our efforts to apply a more even-handed policy in the Middle East by persuading Congress to prevent the sale of modern weapons to moderate Arab nations. As a result, I was never able to strengthen our ties to these countries as much as I wanted. Once again it was a case of Congress—a committee of 535—setting foreign policy.

  In early June 1985, a new crisis erupted in the Middle East, which I will describe in the words I used to record it at the time:

  June 14

  Awakened before 7 A.M. with word that a TWA 727 with a full load of mainly American tourists took off from Athens, Greece, and was hijacked to Beirut. As morning went on it took off for Algiers. The hijackers—two armed men with handguns and grenades released 19 women and children. In Algiers the hijackers demanded release of Shiites held in Israeli jails or they would execute the passengers. Again they released another 21 mostly women and children. In early afternoon (here) they were in the air and headed back to Beirut.

  June 15

  An early call again. The plane has landed in Beirut about 2:20 A.M. their time. They had shot one hostage in the head and dumped his body out on to the runway. In the confusion there where Nabih Bern’s Moslem Shiites run the airport, we would learn later that ten more terrorists boarded the plane. Before the night was over they were on their way back to Algiers where they released several Greeks on the plane in a trade for the one Greek who had helped them in Athens and who had been arrested. He went on board and joined his evil cohorts. Another 53 hostages again women were released. We’re down now to about 40 men, mostly American, but they then released 10 men. Total on board now, three crew and 30 men . . .

  June 16

  We all decided after more night and early morning calls we should cancel an appearance I was to make this afternoon and get back here to the W.H. Had an N.S.C. meeting. It’s a frustrating situation. We have forces in the area—a specially trained unit, but it couldn’t be used in the hostile atmosphere of Beirut.

  The demand is still for the Shiites held in Israel. These are people the Israelis intend to release in a few weeks, but they are unwilling to let it appear that they are giving in to hijackers’ demands. I suggested there might be a way to do it and turn it around on the hijackers. But we’ve all decided to wait and hear the outcome of the Israeli cabinet meeting.

  June 17

  Day started with what’s getting to be my regular early call from Bud M [McFarlane]. Nabih Berri has taken the hostages from the hijackers and has them some place in West Beirut.

  His price is release of the 760 Shiites held by Israel. Israel is publicly saying they will, but the U.S. at the highest level of govt, must ask them to do it. This of course means that me—not they, would be violating our policy of not negotiating with terrorists. To do so, of course, negotiate with terrorists, is to encourage more terrorism. . . .

  June 18

  Today Berri released three of the hostages, one was a Greek citizen with an American girl friend and the third an 18 year old Armenian. . . . Tonight’s press conference went well and I had to walk a tight rope all the way, what with questions about the hijacking . . . we had the biggest phone and telegram response yet. . . about 74 per cent favorable.

  June 19

  Only thing new on hijacking was a plane side interview with plane captain through the pilot’s window. He confirmed that the three crew members were only ones on plane along with Shiite guards. That captain is quite a guy, absolutely unruffled . . .

  June 20

  We finally settled on availing ourselves of the generous proposal by Algeria to ask that the hostages be turned over to them. A face saver for Nabih Berri. Algeria wants us to find out what Israel would do with the 766 Shiites if there were no hostages left in Lebanon. We would then give the answer to that question to the Algerians who would use it in dealing with Berri. In the meantime, the Israelis are not being helpful. They have gone public with the statement that they would release their prisoners if we asked them to. Well, we can’t do that because then we would be rewarding the terrorists and encouraging more terrorism.

  June 21

  Off to Dallas to address convention of Lions Club International. In Dallas met back stage with several families of the hostages. They are of course uptight and looking for a ray of hope. I tried to provide that plus reassurance that we weren’t planning any military actions that could endanger their loved ones. They seemed very grateful and reassured. We are proceeding with a plan to have the Algerians intercede and ask that the hostages be turned over to them. In turn they want to be able to tell Berri that once the hostages are free the Israelis plan to continue returning the Shiites they hold. We were able to get a statement approximating that. [Foreign Minister] Rabin of Israel, by going public with a statement that the U.S. should ask them to release the Shiites, loused things up by establishing a linkage we insist does not exist.

  June 24

  An NSPG meeting re the Beirut situation. Bill Casey feels we must come up with a fig leaf for Berri or releasing the hostages would cause his assassination by the fanatics. Bill suggested a spokesman approaching him about offering Israel an assurance of safety in South Lebanon for which they would free the 700 plus Shiites they are holding. At the same time I’ve urged that we approach Assad of Syria to go to Berri and tell him he can be a hero by releasing our people or he can be stubborn and we will begin some actions such as closing down the Beirut airport, closing Lebanon’s harbors, etc., until he releases our people. This is all being staffed out now. I can agree to the need for a fig leaf but there also has to be threat of action (non-military).

  June 26

  N.S.C. and the newest hostage development: a light at the end of the tunnel. Berri (Assad’s doing) has offered to let the hostages go to a western country’s embassy in Beirut or Syria, supposedly to remain until Israel frees the Shiites it is holding. We prefer Syria and have no intention of letting them be held there. The Israelis are already planning to begin returning their prisoners. We want linkage between what they are doing and the release of the hostages. Berri released one today because of a heart condition. We are really optimistic. I’ve just learned that Berri owns a couple of markets and some oil stations here in the U.S. We might consider that a pressure point.

  June 27

  One hostage
home and lots of Berri talk about the rest going to the French embassy in Beirut or Damascus. No further word. Berri has said he has no control or influence on the kidnap victims. Qaddafi is talking to Iran and Syria about a joint terrorist war against us . . .

  June 28

  [Trip to Chicago] . . . meeting with families of some of the hostages and one family of Rev. Jenco, one of the seven kidnap victims. I did my best to inform them of what we’re doing. God bless people. When I had to leave, one young man, whose father is a hostage, told me he approved of what we were doing and he agreed we should not make a deal that rewarded the terrorists. . . . The rest applauded him.

  Back in Washington 5:15 P.M. We held an NSPG meeting. Word came in that our press had been notified by Syria to be in Damascus the next morning (tomorrow) to see the hostages arrive there. This could be what we are waiting for.

  June 29

  We learned the hostages minus four had been moved by Red Cross bus to a building a mile southwest of the Beirut airport. I was ready with a statement for the press to be read at 9 A.M. Having breakfast in bed, we turned on TV. There were our hostages still in Beirut, not in Damascus. Apparently neither Mr. Berri or Assad could spring the missing four from the bastardly Hizballah. The hours passed and it became apparent there would be no further movement today.

  June 30

  Word came that the hostages were going to leave in a Red Cross motorcade for Damascus. It was a long ride. We then were told that celebrations in small villages along their route were delaying them. About a quarter to three our time, they arrived at the Sheraton hotel in Damascus.

  Out to George Shultz’s home for dinner with George and O’Bie. A very nice and finally relaxed dinner. Before that, however, I spoke to the nation on TV from the Oval Office, then George took questions in the press room. When I spoke our people were just leaving Syrian air space in a military aircraft . . .

  Monday, July 1

  Awoke with knowledge our people were in Wiesbaden at our air base there. As far as we know now they and some of their families who flew to Germany to meet them will arrive here tomorrow afternoon. Nancy and I plan to meet their plane.

  An NSPG meeting to plan strategy now. We are limited because the seven kidnap victims are still being held. I phoned Assad to thank him and to call upon him to work for their release. He’s the only one who has any possible influence on the fanatics who did the kidnapping. He got a little feisty and suggested I was threatening to attack Lebanon. I told him nothing of the kind but we were going to do everything we could to bring the murderers of our young men to justice. A full cabinet meeting to report on the whole episode . . .

  July 2

  . . . Nancy and I went to the grave of Robbie [Navy diver Robert] Stethem, the hostage murder victim. His sister was there. Then we helicoptered to Andrews Air Force Base to meet the returning hostages and their families. It was a nice homecoming ceremony and a heartwarming one.

  July 3

  A frustrating NSPG meeting re the seven kidnap victims and the matter of Lebanon generally. Some feel we must retaliate. I feel to do so would definitely risk the lives of the 7. We are going to proceed to enlist other nations in closing down the Beirut airport. . . we know the identity of the two hijackers who murdered Robbie Stethem. The problem is how do we get them for trial in U.S. All in all, it’s frustrating even though we are overjoyed at our success in getting the hostages back.

  Although one American lost his life during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, thirty-nine others went home safely. After seventeen days, we had gotten them back without making any deals with the terrorists. It had been a close call, and America had reason to rejoice when the hostages were freed. But seven Americans were still captive in Lebanon, and I was determined to bring them home.

  65

  THE SPREAD OF international terrorism was very much on my mind during the flight I made aboard Marine One to the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland a week and a half after the crisis over TWA Flight 847 finally came to an end. In intervening days, the State Department had sounded out several of our allies about the possibility of joining us in imposing sanctions on countries that harbored international terrorists, but it had found a dry hole: Several of our allies in Western Europe still had close ties to former colonies in the Middle East and didn’t want to endanger profitable economic relationships.

  I was going to Bethesda for what I expected to be an overnight stay before leaving the following morning, a Saturday, for Camp David.

  My father-in-law, a surgeon, had always drummed into me the importance of having a yearly physical exam, which he said enabled doctors to spot a potentially serious problem in its earliest stages and respond to it when it was easiest to lick. In particular, he said people would never get cancer of the colon if they underwent a thorough annual checkup, because it would uncover early symptoms that could be responded to before cancer had a chance to get established and grow. There were two kinds of polyps that grow in the colon, he said, and one of them, if left alone, will develop cancer cells. If this kind of polyp is neglected and the cancer is allowed to grow, the malignant cells may escape and go through the wall of the intestine—and then you have cancer.

  Nancy and I had always followed her father’s advice and gotten an annual physical. Based on our experience, it’s advice that we enthusiastically want to pass on to everyone.

  During one of my routine checkups that spring, doctors found a small polyp in my colon. They said that it looked harmless, but they wanted to remove it as a routine precaution. I’d had one removed before, so I knew what to expect.

  After a Friday morning spent sipping eighty ounces of a medicinal concoction called Go Lightly, which is designed to clean out your system prior to certain procedures (and which does so with a vengeance), I went to Bethesda on Friday afternoon expecting to leave the following day—but my plans had to be changed. After the doctors removed the small polyp they had previously spotted, they inspected the entire colon and, several inches away, they found a large, flat polyp, the kind that with time can become cancerous. Nancy and I and Dr. John Hutton, a senior White House physician, held a strategy session: Should I go on to Camp David as scheduled, then return to the hospital in a few days and go through the whole business with the Go Lightly again? Or should I stay overnight at the hospital and just get it over with?

  I hated Go Lightly, so my decision was easy: “Let’s get it over with.”

  Before they wheeled me into the operating room, I signed a letter invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment, making George Bush acting president during the time I was incapacitated under anesthesia. They gave me a shot of Pentathol and I awoke several hours later feeling groggy and confused, with an incision that ran up past my navel to my chest, and my body laced by tubes of various dimensions. My stomach felt as if it had really been through something.

  The doctors said that the polyp was suspicious, and that they were testing the surrounding lymph nodes; we wouldn’t know the prognosis with certainty until Monday, following a biopsy.

  Later, when I was fully alert, I signed a letter reclaiming the presidency from George while Nancy began decorating my room with pictures brought from home. Didn’t I say she’s a nest builder? The pictures made things better, but I was in a lot of discomfort through the weekend and didn’t get much sleep. Again remembering W. C. Fields’s famous line, I once thought to myself, “All in all, I’d rather be at Camp David.”

  Wasn’t it a coincidence, I thought, that my brother had had virtually the same operation less than two weeks before me?

  On Monday, after it was brought over from the White House, I wrote in my diary: “Nancy came with more pictures and brought me up to date on messages, flowers, etc. This morning, though, I went back to sleep and did pretty well until noon. It turns out there were cancer cells in the tissue they are checking. But they swear they got it all. It means, however, I’ll have to have annual checks for the next five years.

  “Monday night was miserable. I ke
pt waking up and felt I’d had no good sleep at all. Did some walking around.”

  On Tuesday, Don Regan came by and we did a little office business. Nancy brought in more pictures and hung them on the walls. As always—as she had been for more than thirty years—she was there to unfurl that lovely smile at me when I needed her, looking fresh, radiant, and beautiful. What a lucky man I am.

  Soon, Nancy had the walls almost fully covered with framed color photos of the ranch, Camp David, and our family. Outside my room, there were bouquets and flower arrangements sent by well-wishers from around the world. “They really help,” I wrote at the time. “I’ve taken some short walks down the hall. Nancy visited the children’s ward and gave them some balloons that were sent and the flowers. The children responded with home made cards. Nancy visited one 13 year old boy and his heart beat went from 70 to 130. Tuesday night was the best for sleeping. All the way through until 5 A.M. . . .”

  By Wednesday, July 17, I felt better, although I still knew I’d been through something. George Bush and Don Regan and other White House staffers came to the hospital to discuss our latest battles with Congress over the budget. Then, in the next entry in my diary, unaware at the time where it would lead to, I recorded an event that was to mark the beginning of what became known as the Iran-Contra affair:

  “Miracle of miracles,” I wrote, “I had my first food by mouth. A cup of tea. I’m waiting to see what happens. By evening I repeated that menu with good results. The doctor says maybe he’ll take the feeding tube out tomorrow. Some strange soundings are coming from some Iranians. Bud M. will be here tomorrow to talk about it. It could be a breakthrough on getting our seven kidnap victims back. Evidently the Iranian economy is disintegrating fast under the strain of war.”