THE NORTH VERDICT : Newly Released Data Fill In Lines of Iran-Contra Puzzle

The meeting in the White House Situation Room was almost five years ago, but the minutes are still officially stamped SECRET. It was June 25, 1984, and President Ronald Reagan and his advisers were arguing heatedly over how to get aid to Nicaragua’s Contras.

“Jim Baker (then White House chief of staff) said that if we go out and try to get money from third countries, it is an impeachable offense,” warned Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

“I am entitled to complete the record,” CIA Director William J. Casey shot back. “ . . . Once he learned that the finding (a presidential order on aiding the Contras) does encourage cooperation from third countries, Jim Baker immediately dropped his view that this could be an impeachable offense--and you heard him say that, George.”

Cautions on Reciprocity

“How can anyone object to the United States encouraging third parties to provide help to the anti-Sandinistas?” asked Vice President George Bush. “The only problem that might come up is if the United States were to promise to give these third parties something in return so that some people could interpret this as some kind of an exchange.”

“I certainly hope none of this discussion will be made public in any way,” said National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane.

At that point, President Ronald Reagan spoke up. “If such a story gets out,” he said, “we’ll all be hanging by our thumbs in front of the White House until we find out who did it”--apparently a warning to anyone who might be tempted to leak the information.

But the story is out now--an unexpected byproduct of the trial of former White House aide Oliver L. North.

As part of his defense against charges that he lied to Congress, shredded documents and misused government funds, North’s lawyers forced the government to provide hundreds of pages of once-secret records as evidence--a stack about four inches high.

And despite more than two years of earlier investigations of the Iran-Contra scandal, by both Congress and a White House commission, the newly released documents have added significantly to what already was known about the long and tangled affair.

They disclose that Reagan approved a scheme to send new aid to Honduras as what McFarlane called a “quid pro quo” for that country’s aid to the Contras.

They show that President Bush, who has long insisted that he knew almost nothing about the secret effort to aid the Contras, was aware of that action--and personally encouraged Honduras to continue its support for the rebels.

They have reopened the historical debate over the nature of Reagan’s presidency: was he a detached chief executive, unaware of what his underlings were doing, as the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) concluded in 1987? Or was he the secret mastermind of the Iran-Contra affair, far more active and engaged than most accounts have portrayed him?

Withheld Documents at Issue

Finally, they have raised new questions about whether the White House withheld documents from the congressional committees investigating the scandal, despite Reagan’s promises to cooperate fully. Both Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Iran-Contra Committee, have said that the trial turned up significant documents that their panels never saw, and Congress’ two intelligence committees have launched investigations of the issue.

The most immediate effect of the new disclosures may be to erode Bush’s credibility, one of the President’s greatest assets in his first months in office. Last week, The Times Poll found that 51% of the public believes that Bush has lied about the Iran-Contra events. About 35% said that the trial has made them believe that Bush was more deeply involved in the scandal than they had realized; 16% said that they now think he was less involved.

And 67% of the public believes that North was only following orders and is taking the blame for Iran-Contra to protect both Bush and former President Reagan, the poll found.

Insisted He Knew Little

During the 1987 investigations of the scandal and his 1988 presidential campaign, Bush insisted that he knew little or nothing about the secret effort to fund the Contras during the period when Congress prohibited U.S. aid to the rebels.

But the documents indicate that Bush was well-informed about the Reagan Administration’s efforts to persuade Honduras and other countries to support the rebels. And when Reagan signed a 1985 directive authorizing accelerated economic and military aid for Honduras as “incentives for them to persist in aiding the freedom fighters,” Bush was sent a copy of the order.

Shortly after that directive was signed, Bush visited Honduras and met with the country’s president, Roberto Suazo Cordova. Officials who were present said that Bush discussed Honduras’ aid to the Contras, but he did not describe it as a quid pro quo for U.S. aid.

“There was no quid pro quo (in the meeting with Suazo),” Bush told reporters Thursday. “Everybody that attended the meeting says that there was no quid pro quo .” But he did not address the larger issue of whether he knew about or approved the deal with Honduras.

See Spirit of Law Violated

The documents show that North and others at the National Security Council understood that they were violating the spirit of the law by engineering Contra aid from other countries. “Notwithstanding our own interpretations, it is very clear . . . that the legislative intent was to deny any direct or indirect support for military/paramilitary operations in Nicaragua,” North wrote in a memorandum to McFarlane.

And they show that while President Reagan may have been detached from the details of his policies, he was fully informed of the efforts to aid the Contras--and personally approved actions to carry out the plan.

Reagan signed several directives authorizing aid to Honduras in exchange for that country’s help for the Contras, personally telephoned Honduran President Suazo to ask his help and approved a North plan to airdrop recoilless rifles to the Contras so they could attempt to sink a ship carrying arms to Nicaragua, the documents show.

When the scandal first erupted, Reagan denied knowing anything about the NSC efforts to aid the Contras. He later changed his story and said that seeking foreign aid had been “my idea to begin with.”

Role Unclear on Arms Profits

However, the trial has not shed any new light on whether Reagan knew of North’s action in skimming profits for the Contras from the secret sale of arms to Iran. North testified--as he did before Congress in 1987--that he did not know whether Reagan had authorized that scheme. Reagan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the diversion.

“At each stage of the process in which more information has been made available, President Reagan’s involvement becomes clearer and more deep,” Sen. Mitchell said last week.

Asked whether Congress might reopen the Iran-Contra affair and investigate the actions of Reagan and Bush again, Mitchell said that seemed unlikely.

“History will render the final verdict,” he said.