Mr. DEWINE: I think it is very clear that you had and have and deserve to
have good relations with the President of the United States. It is
proper. It has been demonstrated very amply when you had what
you describe as a barking session with the President after this
whole thing started tumbling down, you went to the President,
took the bull by the horns, and got the President and got him
essential fats and you got the facts as well.
So you have that relationship.
You have been a Secretary of State who has served along with
and through the tenure of four National Security Advisers.
You have been a strong Secretary of State. You are well respected
on Capitol Hill as the last 2 days have amply demonstrated, yet
in my opinion, you let Admiral Poindexter cut you out.
You discussed your resignation on three separate occasions, on
one of those occasions having to do with a polygraph, but you did
oat discuss it in regard to what has turned out to be the major foreign
policy disaster of this administration.
You stated you did not want to know the operational details. In
my opinion, you purposefully cut yourself out from the facts.
In fairness to you, there is no doubt you were lied to, you were
misled and you clearly were deceived. But in hindsight, Congress,
those of us who sit up here, are always good with hindsight, no
doubt about that.
In my opinion, you walked off the field when the score was
against you. You took yourself out of the game.
It seems to me, Mr. Secretary, you permitted Admiral Poindexter
to get between you and the President just as he got between the
President and the American people.
As a result, our foreign policy suffered because the two key players,
George Shultz and Ronald Reagan, were out of the game.
Thank you very much.
Secretary SHULTZ: Well, I will just say that is one man's opinion
and I don't share it.