Reagan Assails Woodward’s Book on Casey as an ‘Awful Lot of Fiction’

President Reagan on Wednesday denounced an investigative book about the late CIA Director William J. Casey as “an awful lot of fiction.”

Reagan, in an exchange with reporters, said the terminally ill Casey “was unable to communicate at all” when author Bob Woodward claims to have talked to him, but he “is now being quoted as if he were doing nothing but talk his head off.”

The President also said he did not and would not authorize any assassination attempts such as one described by Woodward. He also said he does not believe Casey undertook any covert operations without his knowledge.

Woodward, an assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, has said that his hospital meeting with Casey, in which he described Casey as indicating he had known about the diversion of Iranian arms sale profits to Nicaraguan rebels, was “not 100% conclusive.”

Woodward’s four-minute hospital interview with Casey, disclosed in his new book, “VEIL: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987,” has brought denials from Casey’s widow, Sophia.

Casey resigned as CIA director on Feb. 2. He died May 6 after a 4 1/2-month battle with brain cancer.

Reagan was asked about Woodward’s allegations after a ceremony Wednesday at the White House.

Woodward reports in the book that Casey circumvented normal CIA channels and personally arranged for three covert operations, including an assassination attempt that went awry and resulted in the death of 80 people when a car bomb exploded in a Beirut suburb on March 8, 1985.

Reagan, asked if he had signed a directive that led to the deaths in Beirut, said: “Never would I sign anything that would authorize an assassination. I never have, and I never will, and I didn’t.”