Iran Arms Sale a Costly Blunder, Vance Testifies

Former Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance said Wednesday that the Reagan Administration’s decision to secretly sell arms to Iran was an expensive blunder that cost the United States the trust of its allies.

“To be blunt, this great nation--if it is to remain worthy of global leadership--cannot again manage its foreign relations as an amateur,” said Vance, the leadoff witness for Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on policies behind the clandestine Iran arms deal and the diversion of some proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels.

Vance and some members of the foreign affairs panel drew sharp distinctions between the negotiations he carried out to release U.S. hostages held by Iran during the Carter Administration and the Reagan Administration’s handling of the current hostage crisis.

Sees Several Mistakes

The former secretary said that including arms in the equation was just one of several crucial mistakes.

“Anything that gets done in Iran gets done through the government and it goes all the way to the top,” he said. “To suggest that there were some moderates who were going to take a position and be in a position to carry it out . . . is nonsense.”

Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), the committee’s chairman, said Iran may have instead been “playing us for suckers,” taking advantage of the Administration’s preoccupation with the hostages to extract weapons that could enhance its position in the war with Iraq.

Vance said the United States should remain open to the possibility of improving relations with Iran.

“It would be foolish to stop our ears and say we are never going to talk,” he said. Even Israel, which has one of the world’s strongest anti-terrorism policies, has participated in discussions for the release of hostages, Vance added.

Calls Administration Naive

But he said it is “foolhardy to talk about providing arms to Iran,” and that the Administration was naive to complete any shipment of arms without insisting on first having all hostages safely back in U.S. hands.

Vance, who resigned from the Carter Administration in 1980 because he disagreed with a decision to use force rather than diplomacy to rescue hostages held in Tehran at the time, said it is impossible for a Cabinet official to remain in office after disagreeing with the President on an issue of principle.

He did not mention by name Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who has said he opposed the idea of using weapons as part of the diplomatic initiative toward Iran.