Carlucci Gathering Resignations at NSC

Frank C. Carlucci, the new national security adviser sweeping clean the senior ranks of the National Security Council before he takes over the White House agency on Jan. 2, has secured the resignations of more than a dozen top NSC officials and could receive a dozen more before year’s end, Administration officials said this week.

The departures will include that of Howard Teicher, director of the NSC’s political-military affairs office and the nominal boss of the man most closely tied to the Iran arms scandal, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North.

Teicher’s resignation, effective in late March, was disclosed Tuesday, as he was scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on his role in the operation.

Carlucci ordered the NSC housecleaning after a team of advisers sharply criticized the performance of the professional staff assembled and managed by Carlucci’s predecessors, Robert C. McFarlane and Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, officials said.

Successor to Poindexter

Poindexter resigned the national security adviser’s job on Nov. 24, after admitting that he had known about North’s secret plan to skim profits from the arms sales to Iran and divert the funds to rebels battling the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Carlucci’s advisers include former State Department director of counterterrorism Robert Oakley, former Pentagon assistant secretary for legislative affairs Russell A. Rourke and Grant Green, an aide to Carlucci when he was deputy secretary of defense in the early 1980s and later when Carlucci headed Sears World Trade, a now-defunct export trading firm.

Officials say the trio has recommended that Carlucci replace most of the agency’s top officials, beginning with the so-called “Navy mafia” brought into key NSC positions by ex-Marine McFarlane and Poindexter, an active admiral.

Most of the agency’s top officials are reported to be departing the NSC staff. They include Alton G. Keel, the acting national security adviser since Poindexter’s resignation; Paul W. Hanley, the agency spokesman; Stephen R. Sestanovich, the top policy development official; Paul B. Thompson, the NSC’s top lawyer, and Ronald K. Sable, chief legislative strategist.

Top Candidates Named

Among the reported replacements, Green is said to be a top candidate to run day-to-day NSC operations. Lt. Gen. Colin Powell, one of the Pentagon’s highest-ranking black officers, is reported to be Carlucci’s choice to succeed Keel as deputy assistant for national security affairs.

Rodney B. McDaniel, executive secretary and the man in charge of day-to-day NSC operations, also resigned on Tuesday, the White House said.

Teicher’s resignation had long appeared to be unavoidable. He played a major part in the Iran-arms dealings and, last month, helped North write a history of the operation that was presented to the Senate and House in the name of the White House. The completeness and accuracy of the history--which made no reference to the controversial cash-skimming operation--since has been contested by McFarlane and others.

‘There Will Be Others’

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Tuesday that Teicher resigned “because there is a new NSC director” and for “personal reasons.”

“I’m sure there will be others,” Speakes told reporters.

Teicher, as director of political-military affairs on the NSC staff, would have appeared, at least on paper, to have been North’s supervisor, but a Speakes deputy, Dan Howard, said that was not the case.

When Speakes was asked to whom North reported, he said: “I presume he reported to Poindexter, when he reported.”

Staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.