Leave Beirut, Reagan Warns U.S. Citizens : ‘There’s a Limit’ to What Your Government Can Do for You, President Tells Americans

President Reagan, again condemning the seizure of foreigners as hostages in Beirut, on Monday warned Americans there that “there’s a limit to what our government can do” for them and urged them to leave war-torn Lebanon.

Speaking on background, one Administration official was even more blunt: “If these damn fools insist on staying there, there should be a limit on what one can be expected to do.”

This official noted that two of the three Americans seized over the weekend had been personally warned by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut about the danger of living there. The latest abductions brought to at least 24 the number of foreigners--eight of them Americans--missing and believed kidnaped in Lebanon.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes, who read the President’s written statement advising Americans to leave Beirut, told reporters that the individual warnings were issued last spring after a series of terrorist incidents.

Situation ‘Extremely Dangerous’

As recently as last Tuesday, Reagan’s statement said, the government had described the situation there as “extremely dangerous.”

“Americans who ignored this warning clearly did so at their own risk and on their own responsibility,” Reagan added. “This weekend, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon again was in contact with remaining Americans and advised them to leave.”

Speakes said that Reagan and his advisers, including Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan and national security adviser Frank C. Carlucci, have made “certain decisions” to deal with the latest seizures. But he refused to say what those decisions are or whether they might involve military action or economic sanctions.

“Certainly, I think everyone worldwide, terrorists included, is aware of the potential that the United States has at its disposal,” Speakes said. “But we won’t speculate on what steps we might take or what might lead us to utilize these options.”

The refusal of Americans to leave Beirut drew expressions of concern and frustration on Capitol Hill as well.

“A government wants to do what it can, but your tools are limited,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.) said in an interview.

Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), echoing sentiments expressed over the weekend by Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), urged closing the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.

Calling the embassy’s Marine guards “bait for kidnaping,” Byrd said all Americans “should have been out long before this. They are playing Russian roulette with their lives.”

Embassy to Stay Open

Speakes said there are no plans to close the embassy in Lebanon, which he described as “a very pivotal country in the Middle East.”

“We think it is important that an American presence remain there,” he said, adding that there is “a certain element of people in Lebanon who are continuing to strive for a peaceful resolution of the problems, and they’re looking to the American presence there to be of assistance in this.”

Nonetheless, one Administration source described Reagan as “frustrated” by the refusal of private citizens to heed government warnings to leave Beirut.

The State Department has refused to say how many Americans remain in Beirut for fear of tipping terrorists to their existence.

The official said part of the problem is a paralyzing “national attitude” that U.S. hostages must be released at almost any cost.

Changed in Carter Era

“Until the Jimmy Carter Iran hostage phenomenon (in which 52 Americans were held for 14 months), we’d had hostages taken all over the world” without sparking a national crisis, the official said. Now, he said, “we’re supposed to devote all the resources of this country to getting them out.”

Reagan said in his statement Monday that the government “remains unrelenting and alert” in seeking out opportunities for freeing the hostages. He decried the kidnapings as “a declaration of war on civilized society” and pledged that “our government will not make concessions to terrorist groups despite their threats.”

However, some in Congress say that Reagan has set a dangerous precedent of doing exactly that by approving secret U.S. arms deals with Iran during the last year.