Mr. BELNICK: And did you begin developing the view, particularly
as of November 10—we'll talk about the additional press guidance
that you got on that day—that the President's advisers were
misleading him and not giving him the facts concerning what had
actually transpired in the Iran initiative?
Secretary SHULTZ: I developed a very clear opinion that the
President was not being given accurate information, and I was very
alarmed about it, and it became the preoccupying thing that I was
working on through this period, and I felt that it was tremendously
important for the President to get accurate information so he could
see and make a judgment.
His judgment is excellent when he is given the right information,
and he was not being given the right information, and I felt as this
went on that the people who were giving him the information
were, in a sense-had-I think I even used the word with some of
my advisers, they had a conflict of interest with the President and
they were trying to use his undoubted skills as a communicator to
have him give a speech and give a press conference and say these
things and, in doing so, he would bail them out.
At least that's the way it was-I don't want to try to attribute
motives to other people too much, although I realize I have, but
that's the way it shaped up to me.
So I was in a battle to try to get what I saw as the facts to the
President and get-and see that he understood them.
Now, this was a very traumatic period for me because everybody
was saying I'm disloyal to the President, I'm not speaking up for
the policy, and I'm battling away here, and I could see people were
calling for me to resign if I can't be loyal to the President, even
including some of my friends and people who had held high office
and should know that maybe there's more involved than they're
seeing.
And I frankly felt that I was the one who was loyal to the President,
because ( was the one who was trying to get him the facts so
he could make a decision, and I must say as he absorbed this he
did, he made the decision that we must get all these facts out.
But it was-it was a battle royal.
Mr. BELNICK: Mr. Secretary, in that battle royal to get out the
facts which you waged and which the record reflects that you
waged, who was the other side?
Secretary SHULTZ: Well, I can't say for sure. I feel that Admiral
Poindexter was certainly on the other side of it, I felt that Director
Casey was on the other side of it, and I don't know who all else.
But they were the principals.