Admission of Mistakes Hailed by Lawmakers

Congressional leaders from both parties Sunday welcomed President Reagan’s guarded admission that “mistakes were made” in the burgeoning Iran arms- contra aid controversy, but they said that Reagan would have to “get ahead of the information curve” and make more information public if he is ever to put the matter behind him.

Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), one of Reagan’s closest political advisers, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” called on the President to “marshal all the forces in the federal government, the FBI and everything else” to get control of the situation, rather than endure “the weeks and months ahead on a Chinese water treatment basis and have these disclosures.”

Called ‘Unique’ Situation

Laxalt said that when the scandal first broke he believed White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan was primarily responsible and should resign. Since then, Laxalt said, he has come to believe that “it’s one of those unique situations where neither Don Regan or the President knew” that surplus funds paid by Iran in the secret arms dealing were funneled to the anti-Sandinista forces in Nicaragua.

But Laxalt hinted pointedly that Regan may eventually have to decide “whether or not, because of all the controversy, he’s less than effective in representing this President in the weeks and months ahead.”

Regan, he said, has up to now “been loyal, been the lightning rod. But eventually in this business you get to the point that you have to take (into account) the overall national interest, the interests of the presidency, and submerge your own interests accordingly. . . . I don’t think he’s near that, yet.”

But Laxalt refused to join those calling for the ouster of CIA Director William J. Casey, whose role in the complex episode is still unclear. Instead, the Nevada senator praised him for “a fantastic job.”

Reagan’s steps toward public disclosure and his guarded confession of error in a radio address Saturday were also praised by Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), a key Reagan backer in the House. “A lot of us who are friends and supporters of the President have been urging him to make those kind of statements,” Cheney told the CNN program “Newsmaker Sunday,” referring to Reagan’s Saturday radio speech.

Cheney added: “I don’t think it is going to put out the fire yet, though. The only thing at this point that is going to quiet down the uproar will be very thorough, comprehensive investigations.”

Dole Offers Advice

Another Administration loyalist, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Reagan should simply call in the two officials most implicated in the controversy, former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and his deputy, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, and demand a straight accounting of all the facts.

“Many people wonder why the President doesn’t call in Mr. Poindexter and Ollie North and say, ‘Fellows, let’s sit down and you tell me precisely what happened,’ ” Dole said. “Let’s inject a little common sense. . . . It would seem to me that, if it can’t be done directly with the President, it’s time that somebody else asked those two gentlemen: ‘Just lay this out.’ ”

Various Democrats also appearing on network interview programs Sunday agreed, including Rep. Jim Wright (D-Tex.), who is scheduled to be named House Speaker today. Asked on “Meet the Press” if such a move would clear up the controversy, Wright declared: “I think that if the President sincerely wants to help, he would insist that his aides who carried out this elaborate plan be forthcoming with Congress and not hide behind the Fifth Amendment and refuse to tell Congress what happened.”

On their lawyers’ advice, both Poindexter and North, who face investigation by two congressional committees, the Justice Department and an independent counsel into possible criminal behavior, invoked their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves when called last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

For that reason, Laxalt, in the NBC interview, pointed out that an Oval Office confession might “present a problem, legally, to these men.” But in general, Laxalt added, “it would be just absolutely fantastic to have the President call both of them in (and ask): ‘Now tell me, gentlemen, just what in the world happened?’ ”

Question of Policy

But Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) declared that the controversy is not primarily one of possible criminal behavior at all. What is more at issue, he told ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” is that Reagan was bent on carrying out policies Congress disagreed with and tried to block--in particular, the attempt to send funds to the anti-Sandinista contras.

Hollings theorized that Reagan may have told his aides: “If there is any way that money can be gotten to these contras, I’d be the happiest man in Washington.”

“This is not criminality; this is policy,” Hollings said. “Arms to Iran is not a crime, it is policy. Aid to the contras is not a crime. . . . It is an offense against congressional wishes.

“There was a limitation on spending, and yes, he went against that. But Congress has limited itself regularly . . . (with laws) that you shall not spend more than you take in. And we have been violating that ourselves,” Hollings said. He noted that last summer Congress reversed its ban on military aid to the contras with approval of $100 million in aid. “Now even Congress approves that particular policy,” Hollings pointed out.

Telegram to Shamir

In other developments Sunday:

--Secretary of State George P. Shultz was reported to have assured Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in a telegram that the situation in the long run would turn to the United States’ advantage. Shamir was told that “Washington is taking care of the situation created by the Iranian arms affair in a way that will strengthen its world status in the long run,” an Israeli government spokesman said in Jerusalem.

--A Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman in Bern said that the State Department had asked the Swiss government Friday to cooperate by blocking funds transfers from a numbered bank account reportedly used as a conduit for channeling Iranian funds to the contras.

The spokesman, Clemens Birrer, told Reuters news agency in Bern that Swiss authorities “informed the bank concerned and it immediately took measures, of its own accord, to ensure that nothing would happen with the account that could not later be reversed--in other words, it was blocked.”

State Department spokesman Deborah Cavin said there would be no official comment, but it is understood that any such request would have originated in the Justice Department.