Secret White House Memo Released Listing 3 Motives : Cites ‘Only Way to Free Hostages’

The White House today released secret documents indicating that President Reagan approved the sale of weapons to Iran as “our only way to achieve the release of the Americans held in Beirut.”

While the documents portray the weapons deal as part of a larger strategy to “help bring about a more moderate government in Iran,” they also raise new questions about the President’s motives and what he knew when he approved the Iranian arms deal a year ago.

The original plan, as outlined in the document, was for the sale of 4,000 U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran. But the memo said, “If all of the hostages are not released after the first shipment of 1,000 weapons, further transfers would cease.”

A White House official who briefed reporters on the contents of the documents said he could not explain why the weapons shipments continued while the pro-Iranian kidnapers of the American hostages released only one of their captives at a time and did so only sporadically.

Reagan’s ’86 ‘Finding’

The White House, which previously had steadfastly refused to release information about the case “piecemeal,” today released Reagan’s Jan. 17, 1986, intelligence “finding” that authorized the sales and the withholding from Congress of information about the covert operations, as well as a three-page supporting memorandum.

The finding gave three motives for the overture to elements in Iran: establishing a “more moderate” government in Tehran, obtaining intelligence information from those elements and gaining the release of American hostages in Beirut.

Reagan has insisted that there was no swap of arms for captives.

The previously highly classified memo was addressed to Reagan, but apparently he did not read it, and it was delivered to him verbally by Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, then national security adviser.

Neither the memo nor the finding mentions the diversion of arms sales funds to the Nicaraguan contras, the other end of the complex affair.

Channels to Moderates

Reagan, who has insisted for years that the United States would not make concessions to terrorists, has contended that the arms sales were aimed only at opening diplomatic channels to moderates in Iran.

He said he hoped to gain the hostages’ release as a show of good faith and called the two releases that were gained a “byproduct” of the initiative.

The documents, however, offer only partial support for that contention.

Although the memo notes that Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger opposed the operation, neither was present for the meeting at which Reagan apparently gave his final approval to the Jan. 17 finding.

Backed by Casey, Meese

The memo said CIA Director William J. Casey and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III believed that the objectives “warrant the policy risks involved.” Casey reportedly was eager to gain the release of kidnaped Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley, who is believed to have been murdered by his captors.

The memorandum notes that it was prepared by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, later fired from the National Security Council staff by Reagan, and notes that Vice President George Bush, Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan and Don Fortier, Poindexter’s deputy who died several months later, were present when it was initialed.

Poindexter resigned Nov. 25 when it was learned that he had been aware of diverting profits from the arms sales to help the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels.

The memo paints Israel, interested in gaining “a heretofore unobtainable penetration of the Iranian governing hierarchy,” as the instigator and prime facilitator of the arms sales.