EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial appeared in the February 19, 1988, issue of National Review.
Duking it out with Dan Rather must have been fun. It was good planning too: you ambushed him (by anticipating his Iran-Contra questions, and demanding that your face-off be live), and all anyone saw was his (failed) attempt to ambush you.
But this Iran-Contra stuff isn’t going away. To prepare for future clashes, you ought to think: about Iran, the Contras, and why they will continue to dog you.
1. The Iran half of the operation is the one the American people dislike most, and the one in which you come off looking worst. Yet, paradoxically, your line of defense here is strongest–or, at least, less subject to surprise
attack.
Iran consistently tops polls of most-hated nations. You, in particular, are in the embarrassing position of having chaired a task force on terrorism which proclaimed that America would never yield an inch, even as the Iranian probe, which you knew about, was going forward.
Your defense? Samuel Johnson’s, when he misdefined the pastern of the horse: “Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.” It was wrong, you were dumb; you made a mistake. This is the line everybody else, from Reagan on down, is taking. It works, because no new revelations can possibly make things seem worse; and because the American people do remember that nobody is perfect.
2. The Contra half of the operation is probably much more popular. (We don’t know, since the Administration never succeeded in sharpening the issue.) Yet here the threats to you are greater.
Your staff and, indirectly, you were connected to the Contras’ suppliers in a dozen ways. Your national-security advisor met several times with an ex-CIA agent who was working on Contra matters in Central America; you met with the ex-agent once yourself; etc., etc. So far, the connections don’t connect anything of significance. The subject under discussion was always El Salvador; or, if it wasn’t, you weren’t there; and so forth, and so on. This is the line you have staked out; hold to it, because
3. The Left is not concerned about Iran, or diversions, or constitutional theory, but Central America. They want us out. If they sideswipe you on the way, fine.
The magazines of the Left–The Village Voice, The Progressive, The Nation–are keeping careful tabs on your Contra connections. What they say is important because liberals read them; what Victor Navasky wonders about in March, Dan Rather will be asking you in June.
Assuming he isn’t afraid to meet you again.