Do Not Skirt Law, Reagan Tells Revamped NSC Staff

President Reagan told the revamped National Security Council staff Tuesday not to skirt the laws of the nation or take shortcuts past other government agencies in developing foreign policy options for him.

In a rare visit with the staff of the beleaguered agency, Reagan endorsed the recommendations last week of the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) on reining in the staff’s ambitious foreign policy activities, according to White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater.

In a daylong overture to his speech tonight on the Iran- contra scandal, Reagan also paid a hastily announced visit to the White House briefing room to promote an arms control effort disclosed a day earlier by an Administration official. It was Reagan’s first appearance in the press room since Nov. 25, the day that details of the Iran-contra connection were first brought to light.

Reagan’s activities behind the scenes and in front of television cameras--in addition to his appointment of former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. (R-Tenn.) as his new chief of staff--appear to have been carefully orchestrated to counter the image offered by the Tower panel of a hands-off President who failed to adequately preside over his own White House.

Moreover, they set the scene for the nationally broadcast address --Reagan’s first lengthy discussion of the Iran affair and the issues it has raised since his most recent news conference more than three months ago.

White House officials indicated that Reagan would use the speech to address concerns about the depth of his involvement in White House operations in general and national security issues in particular.

“With everything on the line, he’ll do everything he needs to do. He will explain his reasoning for trying to do what he did and at least seek understanding, and express his views, including his anger, on some of the things going on around him,” said a Republican source close to officials preparing the speech.

The release last Thursday of the report by the Tower Commission--a three-member panel appointed by Reagan to investigate the work of the National Security Council staff in light of the Iran debacle--has marked an apparent turn in White House operations. The commission’s criticism was much harsher than presidential assistants had expected, confronting them with a strong, immediate challenge to show that the Administration will be able to take charge of the issues in its final 23 months.

Wound Not Cauterized

A member of the commission said before the report was issued that the White House apparently underestimated the seriousness of the Iran-contra affair because officials there hoped to embrace the report and use it to “cauterize” the wound the Administration had suffered.

Rather, the stinging critique--cataloguing serious mismanagement of the National Security Council staff and portraying Reagan as oblivious to the details of his foreign policy--may have aggravated the damage and made recovery more difficult.

Tuesday, in a briefing on one of several developments that showed Reagan taking action, Fitzwater said that the President told about 50 NSC staff members gathered in the Old Executive Office Building that the Tower Commission had “described a model of how the NSC system should work. It is a model that I fully endorse and expect you to follow.”

The commission said that “the NSC staff should not engage in the implementation of policy or the conduct of operations.”

Senior Officials Criticized

Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, a fired NSC staff member, and Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, the President’s former national security adviser, were found to be at the center of the Iran-contra operation, having skirted the State Department, the Pentagon and sometimes the CIA. In addition, senior officials were criticized for not presenting Reagan with a full range of policy choices, for not keeping thorough records and for paying insufficient attention to laws governing covert operations.

According to Fitzwater, Reagan, who spoke from note cards as well as extemporaneously, told the staff:

“Views must be fully aired. Agency participation should not be short-cut. I want the range of options developed for my consideration. Legal issues must be addressed head-on and the rule of law respected. And, of course, the recommendations and decisions must be properly documented.”

The President said also that “sound management of the NSC process ultimately depends upon the skills and integrity of each of you here. Under my national security adviser (Frank C. Carlucci), as stewards of this important process, each of you must help assure its success . . . .”

May Visit CIA Also

With many NSC staff members having been replaced since November, “the President felt it was important to personally deliver these comments to the new staff,” Fitzwater said. He said that the President may make similar visits to the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA.

Since the Iran-contra affair first was disclosed, Reagan has rarely appeared in public, although his recuperation from prostate surgery in early January has contributed to that inactivity. Indeed, even reports by his staff on presidential activities have been extremely limited.

In addition to Tuesday’s efforts, Reagan in his speech today may use language carefully designed to underscore the impression that he is assuming a new hands-on role, a Republican source said. The speech could include such code words as offering “personal assurance” that the problems of the past will not return, the source said.

Raising Exposure

Originally, in seeking to raise Reagan’s exposure, Baker had hoped to bring the President to the press room Monday to announce a new nominee to head the CIA. When no nominee was lined up by mid-day Tuesday, Reagan made an appearance before the press instead to support the arms control announcement.

Later in the day, the White House announced that FBI Director William H. Webster would be nominated to the post.

But Reagan, who has avoided the give-and-take of a news conference since Nov. 19, refused to answer reporters’ questions after reading his statement.

Meanwhile, as Baker moved to revamp the White House staff, he named T. Kenneth Cribb Jr., an aide to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, as a member of his transition team. Cribb, who was a member of the White House staff when Meese was the President’s counselor during the first Reagan term, is a conservative who was seen as a link to other conservatives displeased by the appointment of Baker to the top White House staff job.