THE IRAN--CONTRA HEARINGS : His Testimony Is Viewed as Credible : Regan Assuages Capitol Hill Critics

Five months ago, Donald T. Regan was regarded from the lofty perspective of Capitol Hill as the bete noire of the Reagan Administration, a Darth Vadar from Wall Street who usurped alarming authority in Ronald Reagan’s White House.

There were no tears for him when he was unceremoniously fired. There was, in fact, relief in the halls of Congress. Chroniclers of the Iran- contra scandal marked his departure as the beginning of the President’s recovery and lawmakers saw the end of a period of estrangement.

What a difference five months make.

Regan returned to the Capitol Thursday, perhaps mellowed but still cocksure and brimming with his Irish blarney. The former Marine captivated his old nemesis with directness and a scintillating peek at the Iran-contra affair from the inside looking out.

“I am not copping a plea here,” he said at one point in his six-hour exposition, “I’m only explaining.”

Faults NSC Staff

What he explained was his view that the President had been ill-used by a National Security Council staff out of control.

The attempt to sell weapons to Iran, ransom hostages, support the Nicaraguan resistance and enhance America’s geopolitical posture all in one secret swoop was, he insisted, taken out of Ronald Reagan’s hands by underlings.

The story was consistent with others the committees have been told in nearly three months of testimony, but it had a credibility that other witnesses have not brought to the hearings, a credibility that Regan himself did not enjoy when he was last officially seen in Washington.

With no turf to defend and no compelling reason to protect a President who turned him out, Regan was perhaps the most candid witness the investigating committees have heard.

Rattled by Coaching

He described a President being prepared for a press conference unsure of what he could say and rattled by coaching, a national security adviser wishing not to know what Oliver L. North was really doing, bureaucratic squabbling over who would pay for official travels, an inscrutable CIA director who revealed nothing to the President’s lieutenants.

The former chief of Merrill Lynch described the come-on from the Iranians, the promise of help in freeing the hostages as a classic “bait and switch” operation with the United States gullibly being taken in.

It was the first reasonably uninhibited account the committees have heard about the way people talked and the way people acted and felt the sense of desperation that swept the White House as the diversion of the arms money to the contras was discovered.

Regan explained how in Reagan’s preparation for his November, 1986, press conference--now conceded to have been a disaster--the President came to his assertion that the Iranians had received only one planeload of weapons.

“We were discussing just how much had been done,” Regan recalled, “and the President said: ‘Well, we’ve only sent them a small amount.’ Poindexter volunteered the information: ‘Oh hell yes, a very small amount.’ I said: ‘Well, you know . . . bigger than a breadbox?’ I said: ‘John, how big is it? Can you tell me how big it is? I have no idea . . . what a big TOW missile is, let alone how big spare parts for Hawks are.’ He said: ‘They’d fit in a small plane. A couple of pallets.’ So I said: ‘Well, can you find out the answer?’ and (he) came back a little red-faced and said: ‘Well, make it a C-5’.”

Regan was taken in himself, he conceded.

Urges End to Initiative

He opposed going ahead with the plan in December, 1985, contending that the initiative had already been proven fruitless. “We weren’t getting anywhere. Five or six months had passed, it didn’t look like it was going anywhere. Why bother? Cut your losses. Get out of it.”

But in January, 1986, he agreed when it was proposed that former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane secretly go to Tehran to open a second channel of contact.

“Ah, yes,” he said. “I guess I’m a born loser.”

Looking back at it, he saw a faint bit of humor in the fiasco. Like everyone, apparently, except Poindexter, North and CIA Director William J. Casey, Regan said that he was unaware of the complex scheme set up to funnel the cash from the Iranian weapons sales into secret bank accounts for the contras.

“It’s ironic,” he said, “that they would have had all the machinations about foreign finance, and the one guy in the White House who knew a little bit about foreign finance was never consulted.”

Asked to Return

At the outset, the committees had intended to dismiss the former chief of staff after a day in the witness chair. But both Republicans and Democrats were anxious to have him back for more.

The Republicans were happy to have him cement the position that President Reagan knew nothing of the fund diversion and was misled by his staff, the Democrats pleased that they were getting the most lucid account they had heard. He was, therefore, invited to return for more questioning today.

Regan was obviously pleased with himself, hearing praise from a Congress that had made him its favorite target for every misstep and every slight at the White House.

Even the salty Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), the only committee member with the effrontery to criticize North after he had been canonized by quick public opinion polls, offered a bouquet.

“You have been a candid witness,” Brooks said. “Refreshingly so.”

When the lights dimmed, the old Marine colonel was backslapping and handshaking with the boys from both sides of the aisle.