Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a review of Max Boot’s Reagan: His Life and Legend, in which the biographer tells of Israel’s role in the Iran-Contra affair. Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.
SAN DIEGO — After David Kimche, director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, told U.S. National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane in July 1985 that Iranian “moderates” had expressed a desire to improve relations with the United States and possibly release five American hostages, President Ronald Reagan instructed McFarlane to explore the idea.
Iranian businessman Manucher Ghorbanifar was the middleman who said the hostages, including CIA station chief William Buckley, might be released in return for the U.S. supplying Iran with 100 U.S. antitank TOW missiles. Israel said it could deliver the weapons to Iran covertly if the U.S. agreed to replenish Israel’s stock. Once that was agreed, Israel chartered an unmarked aircraft which brought to Tehran 96 TOW missiles that were promptly seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Iran said another 400 TOW missiles must be made available for purchase to get even one hostage back. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North, who had been put in charge of the covert operation to ransom the hostages, reported to the White House that the price had gone up. On Sept. 15, 1985, the U.S. delivered 408 TOW missiles and Iran freed Rev. Benjamin Weir, one of the hostages.
Biographer Boot wrote that Iran’s demands from that point on accelerated. Eighty U.S. Hawk anti-aircraft missiles from Israel’s store were rejected by Iran because “the missiles were not the latest model and came stenciled with the Star of David,” Boot reported. On January 6, 1986, Reagan signed a directive to the CIA that it could deliver arms to Iran without notifying Congress in order to preserve secrecy.
“North envisioned shipping 4,000 TOWS and 50 Hawk missiles to secure the remaining U.S. hostages,” Boot narrated. “Ghorbanifar was selling the missiles to Iran for $10,000 each — far above the actual cost of $3,469. Even after various middlemen took their cut, the arms sales would generate millions of dollars profit that by law, should have gone back to the U.S. Treasury. Instead, North decided to send money to a private group called the Enterprise, started by [retired Air Force Major General Richard] Secord and Iranian American businessman Albert Hakim, that was buying weapons and supplies for the Contras [a right-wing group in Nicaragua opposing the left-wing Sandinista government.]”
Word of the secret, extra-legal dealings led to a six-year investigation by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh, who indicted 14 people including McFarlane; North; Secord; John Poindexter, the deputy who succeeded McFarlane as national security adviser; and Elliott Abrams, a Jewish State Department official who was convicted of a misdemeanor for lying to Congress when questioned about the Iran-Contra affair. As for President Reagan, biographer Boot wrote, “Walsh concluded that Reagan had known about the diversion of funds, as claimed by Oliver North, but he could never prove it.”
In an unrelated development, Reagan in 1987 replaced his unpopular White House chief of staff Don Regan with former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, a soft-spoken Tennessee Republican. Baker selected Kenneth Duberstein, who earlier had served as White House director of legislative affairs, to be his deputy chief of staff. Duberstein, who is Jewish, was one of many sources whom Boot interviewed for the Reagan biography.
On the Senate’s rejection of Robert Bork’s nomination for U.S. Senate, Duberstein said Bork knew in advance that he would be defeated but declared, “I want the sons of bitches to vote up or down.” After the 52-48 vote against Bork, Jewish jurist Douglas H. Ginsburg was nominated, but within a few days reporters discovered he had smoked marijuana while serving on the Harvard Law faculty. Ginsburg was forced to withdraw, paving the way for the successful nominee, Anthony Kennedy, to be vetted by Duberstein and White House Counsel Arthur B. Culvahouse. As they began to question Kennedy about possible skeletons in his closet, Kennedy told them, “You know you are in for a very boring Sunday morning.” That, Boot commented, was “just what they wanted to hear.”
In 1988, during Reagan’s last year in office, Duberstein succeeded Baker as chief of staff. During his tenure, Duberstein insisted that the U.S. – Soviet treaty banning intermediate nuclear missiles be signed precisely at 1:45 p.m., December 8. When Colin Powell, the National Security Adviser asked why, Duberstein hemmed and hawed “but eventually revealed that the First Lady’s [Nancy Reagan’s] astrologer insisted.”
Other Jews rated passing mentions by biographer Boots:
–Edward Teller publicly agreed with Reagan’s proposal to create space-based defenses against incoming missiles, an idea that was derided at the time as “Star Wars.”
–Solicitor General Charles Fried told of the Justice Department’s debate over a civil rights case, ultimately resulting in a decision not to oppose a consent decree instructing the Alabama State Police to hire African-Americans.
–Paul Wolfowitz, then assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, was among the successful advocates for forcing corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos to leave the Philippines.
–Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. lobbied Reagan unsuccessfully to oppose South African apartheid.
–Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger opposed the treaty to ban intermediate nuclear missiles, which the Senate ratified by a vote of 93-5. In hyperbolic language, Kissinger said the INF Treaty was the “worst thing since World War II.”
–Playwright Larry Kramer said he founded ACT UP in response to Reagan’s turning a deaf ear to AIDS research proponents and virtually ignoring the crisis that was decimating the gay community. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) was cited as a strong proponent for research to find a cure for AIDS.
Any U.S. President will deal with a great variety of issues during his (or her) term of office. Biographer Boot provides an excellent summary of the high points of Reagan’s administration and his life. While no member of the Jewish community was a member of Reagan’s inner circle — which many people said was occupied exclusively by his wife Nancy — some Jews had walk-on parts and others were featured players in the drama of Reagan’s life and legacy.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.