Speakes: ‘I’m Rebuilding Credibility’

Oozing native Mississippi charm, Larry Speakes was once again explaining, admitting guilt, smiling and apologizing.

Making up a quote for President Reagan at the Geneva summit “wasn’t a mistake, it was wrong, “ Speakes said emphatically.

Was it dishonest?

“Well,” he added, “it was clearly misleading. ‘Wrong’ is sort of all-encompassing. There’s no doubt about it.”

For those who used to watch daily as the former White House spokesman sniped, fumed and dismissed members of the press--especially those who occasionally questioned his honesty--the genteel humility of book-tour etiquette is quite a switch.

This is the Speakes mea culpa, on the road. Going out of his way to warmly greet several reporters after a recent interview, Speakes is embarking on an 11-city book tour, hoping to restore his reputation and promote his book, “Speaking Out.” The book’s revelation about the made-up quotes prompted a media storm that forced Speakes recently to resign his six-figure job at Merrill Lynch.

With his financial future in limbo, his only immediate career plans are to make some paid speeches to business groups and colleges, and to crisscross the country promoting the book, which already has made best-seller lists in its first week of publication. The book brought Speakes, 48, a “low six-figure” advance, and he says he doesn’t remember what his royalty arrangement is.

Speakes feels that if people go beyond the recent headlines to read the entire book, they will see that the made-up quote was just one small mistake, and not even the most interesting revelation in the book.

“I think a lot of people are beginning to read the book and say, ‘What is all this hullabaloo about?’ ” Speakes said.

“I recognize that my credibility has been called into question and my one goal in life is to rebuild that credibility. I put great store in my reputation for telling the truth, and I told the truth in the book, yet that’s what I’m being criticized for. To me, that is a bit puzzling.

“The book is its own best defense. Australian television, Dutch television, the American University radio station, everybody has responded,” he added.

“This is certainly a major incident in my life. For me, honestly, I really have taken it in stride. I deal with what life deals me. Certainly I recognize the impact of it, but on the other hand, I recognize it as something I can deal with. Out of everything that comes your way, some good will come.”

Between engagements, Speakes and his wife, Laura, ride newly purchased bicycles, or Speakes works on the yard of his suburban Virginia home, hoping to turn up a job at some later date.

‘Good Income From Speeches’

“Several friends who are in the communications business have talked to me,” he said, “but my plan really is to travel for the book and make some speeches. There’s been a good income from those speeches.”

To be hired at a full-time job, Speakes has to deal with two serious problems: correcting the impression that he was dishonest as a spokesman, and soothing the hurt feelings of various influential poo-bahs from the Reagans on down who were quite colorfully criticized in the book.

“I don’t think it’s fatal,” said Ron Walker, managing director of the Washington office of Korn Ferry International, an executive search firm. Walker worked in the Nixon White House and knows Speakes.

“I think the candor is perhaps healthy,” Walker said. “I think it is going to obviously cause any executive concern, by virtue of just the publicity that has surrounded this whole situation. The fact of the matter is, it (making up quotes) has been done since I entered government in 1969, perhaps not to that extent. Larry is a very talented individual with . . . a lot of experience.”

The furor that cost him his job Speakes blames in part on what he terms unbalanced coverage by the press, many of whom were unflatteringly portrayed in the book.

No Accusations

When the few paragraphs devoted to the made-up quote became a national news story, veteran United Press International reporter Helen Thomas, one of the few not criticized, commented, “The chickens have come home to roost.”

“You know,” Speakes said, “I don’t want to make any accusations, but I did note that a lot of people who were criticized in the book were those in the forefront of being interviewed and outraged on television, criticizing me personally. I would rather have gotten a fairer treatment.”

Chuckling at times, never taking offense at questions, Speakes’ soft, drawling replies sound almost preacher-like as he says, “I’m puzzled as to whether it’s the sin or the confession of sin that’s caused the problem. Probably both. Really, am I a whistle-blower on the Washington institution of manufacturing quotes? I don’t know.”

It has long been believed that press secretaries around town occasionally author quotes for reporters on deadline when the politician and press secretary feel they have the kind of rapport that makes it permissible.

“Well, some people have ventured out here in the last few days to say that,” Speakes said. “I know this one guy said that when his congressman was 30,000 feet in the air and somebody said, ‘I need a quote,’ he gave it. I can’t make any accusations but many are saying that.”

Speakes said he didn’t fully realize the wrong he had done in making up the quote until he wrote about it.

The ‘Heat of the Moment’

“It was on my mind but it really was driven home when I wrote the book,” he said. “You do it in the heat of the moment, you do it out of loyalty, certainly not disloyalty; you do it because you think you know the President well, you know his thoughts. That’s what you strive for as a press secretary, to develop that relationship where you know how he would respond in a given situation if you haven’t asked him.”

And the situation, as he explained it, was that Reagan had been turning away all questions at the summit and had said almost nothing of interest while Mikhail Gorbachev was wowing the press with eloquent ad-lib responses and mini-speeches. So Speakes and press aide Mark Weinberg drafted the remark that Reagan was supposed to have made.

Said Speakes, “We had instilled in the President so strongly, ‘Stop making comments in the photo ops (opportunities).’ And Gorbachev actually was hitting some home runs, issuing some brilliant statements.

“I had to go out there twice a day in the briefing room and speak for the President, not putting quotes in his words but certainly stating his policies and views and his thinking.”

And there’s a fine line between that and making up a verbatim quote?

“There is,” Speakes replied, “and I crossed over the line by saying, ‘The President said this.’ ”

Speakes now says he told Reagan at Geneva that he had made up the quote and got no significant response. According to White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, Reagan doesn’t remember being told about the quote, doesn’t remember ever seeing the quote and is now angry about it and the book in general.

“Basically Reagan said it was the first he’d heard of it and I can understand that he would not remember it in the rush of things going on in Geneva,” Speakes said. “I can understand, too, why he wouldn’t have seen the quote. A lot of people have used that to criticize Reagan. But the morning papers would come in the news summary at 2 p.m. Geneva time. At that very hour, he’s probably meeting with Gorbachev. Many days I wouldn’t get the summary read until midnight when I went to bed.”

Asked if he’d fabricated any other statements, Speakes said he never made up any other quotes, not for Reagan or for any of the other politicians he had worked for previously. But Times reporter Rudy Abramson clearly recalled that Speakes once told him he had made up a quote for his boss, Sen. James Eastland, and that Eastland later told Speakes never to do it again.

Speakes said he did not recall the Eastland story, “not specifically, no,” Speakes said. “I mean, generally, with a senator the pace is not quite what it was in Geneva. You had time to show him (Eastland) those things (statements).”

Despite the fact that the book lost Speakes his job and cast a shadow over his financial future, he said he does not regret writing it.

“I’m very comfortable in what I’ve done in the book. I’m very comfortable in what I’ve done since the book came out,” Speakes said.

Nor would he leave out the confession if he had it to do over, he claimed.

“It’s hard to judge, it’s sort of a ‘what if’ question. I guess, no, I wouldn’t leave it out because even knowing what I know now, I’d really be pulling a punch if I did that,” said Speakes. “It would really be bordering on dishonesty to say, ‘I’m going to color what I did and criticize others and not criticize myself.’ ”

Speakes has not tried to contact Reagan yet. “I will do that in time,” he said, “just to see perspective creep into things. I’ll do it at the right time and I’ll do it very privately. I don’t apologize for the truth but in some cases maybe I stepped over the bounds of courtesy and criticized some people whom I respect, the Reagans included, and for that I apologize if indeed I did offend them.”