President Ronald Reagan Addresses the Nation after congressional hearings on Iran-Contra affair — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00my fellow Americans I've said on several
2. 0:02occasions that I wouldn't comment about
3. 0:04the recent Congressional hearings on the
4. 0:06Iran Contra matter until the hearings
5. 0:09were over well that time has come so
6. 0:12tonight I want to talk about some of the
7. 0:14lessons we've learned but rest assured
8. 0:17that's not my sole subject this evening
9. 0:20I also want to talk about the future and
10. 0:22getting on with things because the
11. 0:24people's business is waiting these past
12. 0:27nine months have been confusing and
13. 0:29painful for ones for the country I know
14. 0:32you have doubts in your own minds about
15. 0:33what happened in this whole episode what
16. 0:36I hope is not in doubt however is my
17. 0:39commitment to the investigations
18. 0:41themselves so far we've had four
19. 0:44investigations by the justice department
20. 0:46the tower board the independent councel
21. 0:49and the Congress I requested three of
22. 0:52those investigations and I endorsed and
23. 0:55cooperated fully with the fourth the
24. 0:57Congressional hearings supplying over
25. 1:00250,000 pages of White House documents
26. 1:04including parts of my own private
27. 1:06Diaries once I realized I hadn't been
28. 1:09fully informed I sought to find the
29. 1:11answers some of the answers I don't like
30. 1:14as the tower board reported and as I
31. 1:16said last March our original initiative
32. 1:19rapidly got all tangled up in the sale
33. 1:22of arms and the sale of arms got tangled
34. 1:24up with hostages secretary Schulz and
35. 1:27secretary Weinberger both predicted
36. 1:30that the American people would
37. 1:32immediately assume this whole plan was
38. 1:34an arms for hostages deal and nothing
39. 1:37more well unfortunately their
40. 1:39predictions were right as I said to you
41. 1:42in March I let my preoccupation with the
42. 1:45hostages intrude into areas where it
43. 1:47didn't belong the image the reality of
44. 1:51Americans in Chains deprived of their
45. 1:54freedom and families so far from home
46. 1:57burdened my thoughts and this was a
47. 1:59mistake
48. 2:01my fellow Americans I thought long and
49. 2:02often about how to explain to you what I
50. 2:05intended to accomplish but I respect you
51. 2:08too much to make excuses the fact of the
52. 2:10matter is that there's nothing I can say
53. 2:13that will make the situation right I was
54. 2:16stubborn in my pursuit of a policy that
55. 2:18went astray the other major issue of the
56. 2:21hearings of course was the diversion of
57. 2:23funds to the Nicaraguan contess Colonel
58. 2:26North and Admiral poin Dexter believed
59. 2:29they were doing what I would have wanted
60. 2:30done keeping the Democratic resistance
61. 2:33alive in
62. 2:34Nicaragua I believe then and I believe
63. 2:37now in preventing the Soviets from
64. 2:39establishing a beach head in Central
65. 2:42America since I have been so closely
66. 2:44associated with the cause of the contr
67. 2:47the big question during the hearings was
68. 2:49whether I knew of the diversion I was
69. 2:52aware the resistance was receiving funds
70. 2:54directly from third countries and from
71. 2:57private efforts and I endorse those EV
72. 2:59Endeavors
73. 3:01wholeheartedly but let me put this in
74. 3:03capital letters I did not know about the
75. 3:06diversion of funds indeed I didn't know
76. 3:09there were excess funds yet the buck
77. 3:12does not stop with Admiral Poindexter as
78. 3:14he stated in his testimony it stops with
79. 3:17me I am the one who is ultimately
80. 3:20accountable to the American
81. 3:22people the Admiral testified or
82. 3:24testified that he wanted to protect me
83. 3:27yet no President should ever be
84. 3:28protected from the truth no operation is
85. 3:31so secret that it must be kept from the
86. 3:33commanderin-chief I had the right the
87. 3:37obligation to make my own decision I
88. 3:40heard someone the other day ask why I
89. 3:42wasn't outraged well at times I've been
90. 3:45mad as a hornet anyone would be just
91. 3:49look at the damage that's been done and
92. 3:50the time that's been lost but I've
93. 3:53always found that the best therapy for
94. 3:55outrage and anger is action I've tried
95. 3:58to take steps so that what we've been
96. 4:00through can't happen again either in
97. 4:02this Administration or future ones but I
98. 4:05remember very well what the tower board
99. 4:08said last February when it issued this
100. 4:12report it said the failure was more in
101. 4:15people than in process we can build in
102. 4:19every precaution known to the world we
103. 4:21can design the best system ever devised
104. 4:23by man but in the end people are going
105. 4:27to have to run it and we will will never
106. 4:30be free of human hopes weaknesses and
107. 4:33enthusiasms let me tell you what I've
108. 4:35done to change both the system of the
109. 4:37people who operated first of all I've
110. 4:39brought in a new and knowledgeable team
111. 4:42I have a new National Security adviser a
112. 4:45new director of the CIA a new Chief of
113. 4:48Staff here at the White House and I've
114. 4:50told them that I must be informed and
115. 4:52informed
116. 4:54fully in addition I adopted the tower
117. 4:57board's model of how the NSC process and
118. 5:00staff should work and I prohibited any
119. 5:03operational role by the NSC staff in
120. 5:07covert
121. 5:08activities the report I ordered
122. 5:10reviewing our nation's covert operations
123. 5:12has been completed there were no
124. 5:15surprises some operations were continued
125. 5:18and some were eliminated because they'd
126. 5:20outlived their
127. 5:22usefulness I am also adopting new
128. 5:24tighter procedures of on Consulting with
129. 5:27and notifying the Congress on future
130. 5:29covert action findings we will still
131. 5:32pursue covert operations when
132. 5:34appropriate but each operation must be
133. 5:37legal and it must meet a specific policy
134. 5:40objective the problem goes deeper
135. 5:43however than policies and
136. 5:45Personnel probably the biggest lesson we
137. 5:47can draw from the hearings is that the
138. 5:50executive and legislative branches of
139. 5:51government need to regain trust in each
140. 5:54other we've seen the results of that
141. 5:57mistrust in the form of Lies leaks leak
142. 5:59s divisions and
143. 6:01mistakes we need to find a way to
144. 6:04cooperate while realizing foreign policy
145. 6:07can't be run by committee and I believe
146. 6:10there's now the growing sense that we
147. 6:12can accomplish more by
148. 6:15cooperating and in the end this may be
149. 6:18the eventual blessing and disguise to
150. 6:20come out of the Iran Contra mess