President Regrets Iran Deal, Calls for Bipartisanship

President Reagan, bidding for bipartisan support as he struggles to escape the quicksands of the Iran- contra scandal, told Congress in his State of the Union address Tuesday that the nation and the world are watching to see “if we go forward together in the national interest, or if we let partisanship weaken us.”

“Much is at stake,” Reagan declared, portraying the Administration’s secret dealings with Iran as a calculated gamble to advance U.S. interests in a strategic area of the world and to free American hostages from “barbaric captivity.”

Making his first major public appearance and speaking out on the Iran-contra controversy for the first time since undergoing prostate surgery Jan. 5, Reagan discussed the matter only briefly in a 35-minute speech that included sharp criticism of Congress for slashing his foreign aid and defense requests.

The President, in his sixth State of the Union speech since winning the White House in 1980, again rejected the counsel of advisers who have urged him to admit that the Iranian affair was a mistake. Instead, without mentioning that he had sanctioned arms sales to the regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini or that funds had been diverted to the rebels in Nicaragua, Reagan said that he had a “major regret . . . with regard to our action in Iran. It did not work, and for that I assume full responsibility.”

Grim-faced as he commented on the Iran affair before the traditional joint session of Congress, Reagan drew applause from Republicans but only silence from most Democrats. At one point, Vice President George Bush stood to applaud a line about the economy and House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), seated beside Bush directly behind Reagan, did not.

Out of Public Eye

“Now, ladies and gentlemen of the Congress,” Reagan declared, turning his attention to other issues and drawing another burst of applause from Republicans, “why don’t we get to work?” Reagan had counted on his speech--perhaps the most crucial of his presidency--to demonstrate to the public’s satisfaction that he was back--in good health and in control of the government after being out of the public eye for a month following the Christmas holidays and recuperation from his surgery.

Attacking Congress for reducing his request for U.S. security assistance to free nations by 21% this year and cutting his defense requests by a total of $85 billion over the last three years, the President called on legislators to support a defense and foreign affairs budget “that says ‘yes’ to protecting our country.”

And Reagan, who will turn 76 on Feb. 6, warned Congress that he is in a fighting mood when it comes to support for the contras, whose cause he has passionately advocated throughout his presidency. While Congress lifted its ban on direct U.S. military aid to the anti-Sandinista guerrillas late last year, the Iran-contra scandal is believed to have raised new doubts in the House and Senate about the wisdom of Reagan’s position.

“Nicaraguan freedom fighters have never asked us to wage their battle,” he declared, “but I will fight any effort to shut off their lifeblood and consign them to death, defeat or a life without freedom. There must be no Soviet beachhead in Central America.”

Reagan discussed the Iran arms sale amid signs that Republicans, who have been among his severest critics on that subject, are beginning to rally to his side. The Republican National Committee distributed a “Talking Points” pamphlet defending the initiative and both Senate Assistant Minority Leader Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois, who have criticized Reagan, spoke out in his defense Tuesday after meeting with him at the White House.

Still, the controversy, which has spawned investigations by an independent counsel and two congressional committees, has sharply eroded the President’s credibility with the public and threatens to be a political issue throughout most of this year and perhaps the remainder of Reagan’s presidency.

In declaring the goals of the Iran initiative worthy, Reagan said: “I do not believe it was wrong to try to establish contacts with a country of strategic importance or to try to save lives. And certainly it was not wrong to try to secure freedom for our citizens held in barbaric captivity. But we did not achieve what we wished and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so.”

Pledges ‘Whatever Action’

Reagan reiterated a pledge to “get to the bottom of this” and declared: “I will take whatever action is called for.”

“But in debating the past,” said the President, who throughout his speech emphasized looking ahead and not dwelling on the past, “we must not deny ourselves the successes of the future. Let it never be said of this generation of Americans that we became so obsessed with failure that we refused to take risks that could further the cause of peace and freedom in the world.”

In his address, Reagan again raised domestic issues that have been the subjects of previous State of the Union addresses: budget reform, welfare reform, catastrophic health care costs and agricultural policy. But he did little to advance the Administration’s position on these issues.

On the budget, Reagan insisted that the federal deficit, which has reached record heights during his Administration, is “outrageous”--a comment that drew derisive applause from Democrats. He again called on Congress to adopt a constitutional amendment calling for a balanced budget and to give him authority to veto individual line items in spending bills without vetoing the entire bills.

Welfare Strategy

He pledged to propose “a new national welfare strategy” to replace what he decried as “a welfare monster,” an “outmoded social dinosaur” and a “poverty trap.” In a separate message to Congress, Reagan also spoke of helping poor families help themselves out of poverty, but he gave few details.

Likewise, he promised federal assistance for families struck by catastrophic health care costs. But a recent report on the subject by Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen is embroiled in controversy within the Administration and Reagan did not offer a detailed program.

Agriculture reform was all but dismissed in the phrase “agriculture and other subjects” at the end of Reagan’s enumeration of his domestic agenda. But a White House fact sheet said that “the President remains committed to addressing the problems of American agriculture and will propose separate reforms in a separate message to Congress.”

Prayer Amendment

In a bow to the New Right, Reagan repeated his call for a constitutional amendment to overturn Supreme Court rulings and permit prayer in the public schools.

“Our nation could not have been conceived without divine help,” he said. “Why is it that we can build a nation with our prayers but we can’t use a schoolroom for voluntary prayer? The 100th Congress of the United States should be remembered as the one that ended the expulsion of God from America’s classrooms.”

In the arena of international relations, Reagan also sounded familiar themes. He castigated the Soviet Union for spending $500 billion more than the United States on defense since 1970, even though “nearly one in three Soviet families is without running hot water and the average family spends two hours a day shopping for the basic necessities of life.”

The Soviets, he noted, have 120,000 military personnel and 15,000 advisers stationed in Asia, Africa and Latin America. “Can anyone,” he asked, “still doubt their single-minded determination to expand their power?”

Accordingly, he called on Congress to stop slicing his defense budgets. For fiscal 1988, which begins on Oct. 1, he is seeking about 7% in defense spending increases, or about 3% after inflation.

At the same time, the President declared that “we always remain open to more constructive relations with the Soviet Union.” In particular, he expressed hope for nuclear arms reduction, although he was unyielding in his determination to press ahead with his “Star Wars” program of space-based defense in the face of unconditional Soviet opposition.

Opposes Concessions

Reagan, who has insisted that he opposes any concessions to terrorists, despite the Iran arms sales, declared that there should be “no mistake about American policy: We will not sit idly by if our interests or our friends in the Middle East are threatened, nor will we yield to terrorist blackmail.”

For weeks before the speech, some Reagan aides and Republican leaders said that the address offered Reagan an opportunity to limit political damage from the Iran affair if he would admit that the arms sale was a mistake and accept full responsibility for it.

Before the speech, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas said it was one of the “few opportunities left” to the President to “regain control of his presidency” and put to rest “a lot of stories, a lot of rumors that are out there.”

Contradictory Testimony

Since the Iran arms affair was first exposed in a Beirut magazine almost three months ago, there have been numerous disclosures involving multiple shipments of weapons to Tehran, the diversion of millions of dollars from the sales to the contras, the raising of millions of additional funds for the contras from foreign governments and contradictory testimony by some present and former Administration officials.

Moreover, numerous other reports have raised questions about Reagan’s explanation of his role in the affair. His statement that he did not approve a shipment of arms by Israel to Iran in 1985 has been disputed in sworn testimony by former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane.

Republican leaders who have seen the President in recent weeks have described him as distressed by public opinion polls that consistently have shown that most Americans believe he lied when he said he did not know of the diversion of funds from the Iran arms sales to help the contras. Fifty-two percent of the adults polled Jan. 18-21 in a CBS-New York Times poll said that they believed he had not told the truth about that issue.

Related stories, text of speech, Pages 14, 15, 16.