McFarlane Resignation Talk Grows

The White House declined today to confirm or deny reports that Robert C. McFarlane has decided to resign, fueling speculation that President Reagan’s national security affairs adviser is on his way out.

“I don’t have anything to offer,” presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said amid a spate of “no comments” by high officials, including McFarlane himself, to reports that his resignation, in protest of White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan’s managerial policies, is imminent.

“I don’t have anything to offer,” Speakes repeated.

In response to other questions, Speakes said, “I think the President would abide by the wishes of any member who wanted to leave.”

“No comment,” said White House spokesman Edward Djerejian when asked about McFarlane’s departure.

Reagan Silent

The President, asked at an East Room event about McFarlane’s future, refused to respond. Asked whether he had talked with McFarlane about his job, Reagan said only, “We talk every day.”

McFarlane’s own spokeswoman on the National Security Council staff, Karna Small, did not return telephone messages which were piling up on her secretary’s desk.

McFarlane has been feuding for several months with Regan over access to President Reagan and the chief of staff’s intrusion into foreign policy, reports said.

At the Geneva summit meeting, Regan sat next to Reagan and McFarlane sat further away at the table. The pecking order was duly noted by diplomatic observers.

Speakes said he did not know whether Reagan and McFarlane “had talked in detail.” Other reports said Reagan had tried to talk McFarlane out of resigning.

Japanese Post Mentioned

Some reports said McFarlane is in line to become ambassador to Japan when Ambassador Mike Mansfield retires, as expected, soon. Others said that even before the Geneva summit McFarlane was seriously considering a lucrative job offer in New York.

The White House rumor mill, always active grinding up the careers of senior staff members, quickly produced a list of likely successors, including former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who served President Gerald R. Ford; former Under Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger; and David M. Abshire, U.S. ambassador to NATO.

McFarlane, a retired Marine Corps field officer, is Reagan’s third national security adviser and has been credited with successfully mediating the often heated policy disputes between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.

In the process, his own public profile rose from that of a quiet, even plodding professional analyst to one of a key adviser with the President’s ear at any time of day or night. But that position was quickly threatened by the arrival of a new player.

With the appointment earlier this year of Regan, another ex-Marine, as White House chief of staff, reports inevitably surfaced that the two most influential men under the President were at odds.