Reagan Had to Know of Arms Sale: Goldwater

Barry Goldwater believes President Reagan must have known funds from the sale of weapons to Iran were used to arm the Nicaraguan Contras and says the fiasco cost Reagan a place among the greatest Presidents of the century.

Goldwater, the retired Arizona senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate, wrote in his new book, “Goldwater”: “I believe the President did know of the diversion of Iranian funds to the Contras.

“If he knew about the sale of weapons to a foreign country and various ways in which Americans were aiding the Contras, Reagan knew about the transfer of funds.

“He had to know. The White House explanation makes him out to be either a liar or an incompetent.

“Unfortunately, I believe that the Iran-Contra crisis cost Ronald Reagan the chance to be among the greatest Presidents of this century. History will charge him more harshly because of that unfortunate episode.

“The selling of arms to terrorist Iran unquestionably did the President irreparable harm. He will never regain his former stature. Now I think history will give him a passing grade--in some instances, such as domestic politics, an outstanding mark--but not the credit he deserves overall.”

Goldwater rated Reagan the most inspirational President of the eight during his time in politics, just edging John F. Kennedy, and said he is not certain that Republican unity will prevail after Reagan leaves office in 1989.

The book, which traces Goldwater’s private and political life, is filled with unvarnished opinions of the nation’s leaders, critical in the case of many and highly disdainful of former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon.

Goldwater said of the Presidents who served while he was in the Senate, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the “best all-around chief executive” and Harry Truman was tops in “pure decision-making.”

The threat of future GOP disunity, Goldwater makes clear in the book, comes from the New Right and television evangelists he calls “checkbook clergy . . . too busy collecting money, Rolls-Royces and private jets.”

He said the New Right is leading the Republicans toward a political party splintered “into a wrecking crew of special interests as the Democrats have done.”