McFarlane Reportedly Quits Post : Security Adviser Apparently Weary of Rifts in Cabinet

Robert C. (Bud) McFarlane, apparently weary of friction with President Reagan’s top policy advisers, has resigned as the President’s assistant for national security affairs, Administration sources said Tuesday.

McFarlane, a key figure in Administration foreign policy for the last four years, has had strained relations with White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan and also reportedly is tired of refereeing foreign policy disputes between Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.

The President, White House spokesmen and McFarlane himself refused to comment on the resignation. But a longtime Reagan adviser said McFarlane definitely is leaving his post and and indicated that an announcement is imminent.

Reagan Questioned

Reagan, questioned during a brief photo session at the White House, would not say whether he had discussed McFarlane’s future with him. “I talk to him every day,” he said, declining to elaborate.

When asked about published speculation that McFarlane would resign, White House spokesman Larry Speakes responded: “I don’t have anything on Bud. . . . I can’t confirm or deny.”

The Administration may be delaying any announcement in hopes of being able to name a successor at the same time the resignation is announced, some officials said.

‘Cross Fire’ Feared

“I don’t think they want to get caught in a cross fire between Shultz and the conservatives,” said a former Reagan aide with close White House contacts. “They’d like to get it resolved before saying Bud’s leaving.”

Names of possible successors circulating in Washington include McFarlane’s deputy, John M. Poindexter; former Undersecretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger; Brent Scowcroft, who served as President Gerald R. Ford’s national security adviser; David Abshire, U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and former U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.

Some sources suggested that Abshire would be a likely compromise choice because he has conservative credentials and probably would be acceptable to Shultz, who undoubtedly would oppose any move to name Kirkpatrick, a favorite of Reagan’s more conservative followers.

On two different occasions earlier this year, the President talked McFarlane out of resigning, one source said. “He even took in a letter of resignation last summer, but Reagan talked him out of it,” this source said.

McFarlane has been a key figure in Reagan’s foreign policy apparatus for almost four years, first as the President’s deputy assistant and since 1983 as the assistant for national security affairs.

Regan Role at Summit

Although he played a major role at last month’s Geneva summit conference between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, he reportedly was irritated by the prominent role played by Regan, who has little background in foreign policy. At the summit’s plenary sessions, Shultz sat on one side of the President and Regan on the other, and McFarlane was assigned a chair beside the chief of staff.

An Administration official who participated in the summit sessions said McFarlane also was upset that State Department officials “went around him” at times in dealing with the Soviets and bypassed him in formulating a joint statement signed at the conclusion of the summit by Reagan and Gorbachev.

“Bud likes to coordinate those things, and that didn’t happen,” the official said. “It was quite clear to all of us he didn’t like it.”

Bitter Policy Disputes

According to several sources, McFarlane’s problems in trying to settle sometimes bitter policy disputes between Shultz and Weinberger were as serious as his differences with Regan.

“He was caught between two of the most powerful Cabinet members and getting bashed on the head,” one Administration official said.

During the summit, McFarlane irritated Defense Department officials by telling reporters that the leaking of a letter from Weinberger to the President urging Reagan to make no commitments to the Soviets on existing arms control agreements amounted to an “act of sabotage.” The implication appeared to be that the Defense Department leaked the letter for the purpose of reducing Reagan’s options at the summit.

Weinberger ordered an investigation to determine who leaked the letter to the media but so far has announced no results of the probe.

Different Approaches

Weinberger generally has been a leader of Administration hard-liners on Soviet affairs. Shultz and McFarlane have composed a moderate faction that has expressed a willingness to accept significant compromises with the Soviets.

McFarlane, 48, a former Marine lieutenant colonel, is Reagan’s third national security adviser. He replaced William P. Clark in 1983 when Clark left to become secretary of the Interior. Clark had succeeded Richard V. Allen, who resigned under pressure after allegations of wrongdoing, though investigations by the Justice Department and White House counsel found that he had not broken any laws nor violated ethical standards.