Reagan Reveals Worst Mistake: Putting 241 Marines in Harm’s Way

President Reagan, asked in an interview to reveal his worst management mistake, suggested that it was an error in 1983 to put so many American servicemen in one building in Beirut where they proved vulnerable to a suicide bomber.

The explosion killed 241 men.

Reagan at first said he could not think of a particular incident, then raised the subject of Lebanon.

He was interviewed Aug. 8 by Fortune magazine.

Excerpts from a transcript of the interview, show this exchange:

Question: Mr. President, a hard question to ask. What is the worst managerial mistake you feel you’ve ever made? I know it will be comparatively small but . . .

Answer: Oh, golly, the worst managerial . . .

Q: Yes, if you had to do all over again in terms of managing, what . . .

A: Oh, I’m sure there are many things here and there--and you look and say if we’d done this, that--but I--I can’t--I just can’t bring one to mind here.

Q: OK.

A: Not that mistakes haven’t been made or situations have changed and things turned out wrong. One glaring one would be the terrible tragedy of our Marines in Beirut.

Now, the decision was made and there was great agreement on it--and the decision was made that with all those factions and with their own militia and so forth, that what Lebanon needed was the ability for the new president after the assassination of his brother--the new president of Lebanon to be able to move out and reclaim for the official Lebanese military and all . . . --these areas there being occupied by various factions with their own militia. . . .

Now, the terrible part of the tragedy is it was succeeding and that’s why the tragedy. They didn’t turn on the Americans and the French and the others there suddenly because they just didn’t want us there. It was the fact that they recognized that what we were seeking was going to be accomplished. . . . And this is why they turned the--their goal was through terrorism and so forth to get us to withdraw. Well, finally, accommodating terrorism was the result of a decision that maybe because the commanding officers didn’t feel that we were in a combat situation.

So the moving for personal comfort of all--as many of the men as they could into one building made possible that terrible tragedy.