‘Short of Memory’ on U.S. Hostage Plan, Reagan Says

President Reagan, saying it is “awfully easy to be a little short of memory,” said Friday that he may have discussed a plan to pay people to rescue American hostages in Lebanon, but he added, “I’ve never thought of that as ransom.”

The once-secret program has been described in congressional testimony as an operation using federal drug agents to pay bribes and a $2-million ransom to win the hostages’ release.

On the Iran- contra affair in general, Reagan said, “I haven’t seen any evidence that I’ve been mortally wounded nor do the people seem to be unhappy about what we’ve been doing here.”

He also asserted that “I’ve known what’s going on” about efforts to support the contra rebels in Nicaragua. But he said he did not know about the reported diversion to the contras of money from the secret sale of U.S. weapons to Iran.

Reagan answered questions in a meeting with out-of-town reporters.

As for the hostages, Robert C. McFarlane, the President’s former national security adviser, testified Thursday that he had conferred with Reagan about a bribe-and-ransom program to win the Americans’ release.

He said that “the legalities and so forth were handled by the attorney general and it was a matter of consensus between the attorney general, the President, myself. And I talked to the President about it.”

McFarlane said Reagan had approved the program “in writing and (it) probably is a matter of record.”

Asked about McFarlane’s comments, Reagan said:

“I’m having some trouble remembering that, but then I want to tell you that there were so many things going on and so many reports, and some of this was during the time that I was laid up in the hospital” for cancer surgery in July, 1985.

“I don’t recall ever anything being suggested in the line of ransom,” he said.

Reagan said the Administration was constantly exploring possible ways to free the hostages, and he added: “It’s possible that what we’re talking about was use of money to pay people and hire individuals who could effect a rescue of our people there.

“And I’ve never thought of that as ransom.

“But, again, I’m having some trouble, just as Bud (McFarlane) had some trouble himself with some of the questions that were asked him,” Reagan said. “There was an awful lot going on, and it’s awfully easy to be a little short of memory.”

Although some polls have shown that a majority of people think Reagan has not been telling the truth about the Iran-contra affair, the President said, “I have been telling the truth.”

He said surveys by his own pollster, Richard Wirthlin, show his overall approval rating holding steady at 53%--the same figure, Reagan said, that Dwight Eisenhower had in the sixth year of his presidency.

Arguing that he did not know about money being diverted to the contras, Reagan said, “I am still waiting to find out the final details of where did that extra money come from, who did it belong to and where did it go.”

However, he said, concerning efforts to help the contras: “There’s no question about my being informed. I’ve known what’s going on there. As a matter of fact, for quite a long time now, a matter of years, I have been publicly speaking of the necessity of the American people to support our program of aid.

“And to suggest that I am just finding out or that things are being exposed that I didn’t know about--no. Yes, I was kept briefed on that.

“As a matter of fact, I was very definitely involved in the decisions about support to the freedom fighters. It was my idea to begin with.”

He asserted anew that he was not directly engaged in soliciting contra contributions from other countries but said that even if he had been, it would not have been prohibited by U.S. laws.

On a related subject, he denied that a $2-million contribution put in a Swiss bank account by Taiwan for the contras was linked in any way to his veto of legislation restricting textile imports.

“Anyone who would tie things like that together--they’re just--it’s totally dishonest,” Reagan said. “No, there has never been any such thing.”

In other Iran-contra developments:

- Fawn Hall, former secretary to National Security Council aide Oliver North, testified at the U.S. Courthouse for more than two hours before a special grand jury investigating the Iran-contra affair. Hall, who has told investigators that she helped North destroy documents last November as Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III began his investigation of White House involvement in the affair, declined to comment on the closed-door proceedings.

- On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Sen. Howell Heflin, a member of the Senate Iran-contra investigative committee, suggested that Hall would testify at hearings later that she had carried documents out of the White House in her underwear. “She had stuffed documents in her brassiere and other clothes as she left,” said Heflin (D-Ala.). “I think that’s been in the papers, hasn’t it?”

Miller Steps Down

- Johnathan S. Miller, formerly director of the White House office of administration, said in an interview that he has done nothing wrong but quit his job Thursday to keep from being a burden on Reagan. Miller was named by witness Robert Owen as a helper in cashing traveler’s checks from North’s office safe for donation to contra leaders.

- Sen. Paul S. Trible Jr. (R-Va.) said Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot provided North with $300,000 in two cash installments to help pay for an operation using U.S. narcotics agents to find American hostages in hope of rescuing them. Trible said in an interview that CIA agents attended some early meetings to discuss the project but that it was essentially run by drug agents acting under North’s direction in 1985 and 1986.

- Retired Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, the key Iran-contra figure who told Congress that his personal finances were precarious, said in an interview that he wants to buy 10,000 acres of timberland in Washington state--but not with his own money. The former Air Force officer, whose testimony left some Iran-contra committee members debating whether he was a profiteer or a patriot, said the only way he would get involved would be “the way all entrepreneurs do, with somebody else’s money.”