Mr. LIMAN: And indeed, do you recall that in September of 1984, even before Boland Amendment into effect, Colonel North asked your permission to try to raise money to replace the one Contra helicopter that they had that had been shot down?

Mr. McFARLANE: I recall that, and at the time it seemed to me that that was probably not legal, and I wrote that on the paper and sent it back to him disapproved.

Mr. LIMAN: That was exhibit 30B where you said "I don't think this is legal?" [The exhibit appears at p. 461.]

Mr. McFARLANE: That is correct.

Mr. LIMAN: So that to be clear, you understood that you could encourage them to show more military prowess, but that you shouldn’t get involved in "solicitation of funds."

Mr. McFARLANE: That is correct.

Mr. LIMAN: And there is no doubt at all in your mind that those instructions were given to Colonel North?

Mr. McFARLANE: Clearly.

Mr. LIMAN: You were confronted with a problem, weren't you, as 1984 came to an end m terms of the funding of the Contras?

Mr. McFARLANE: Yes, that is correct.

Mr. LIMAN: And you had received from Country Two funding of a million dollars a month to carry you through the end of December; is that so?

Mr. McFARLANE: Yes, it is.

Mr. LIMAN: But you had no funding for 1985?

Mr. McFARLANE: That is correct.

Mr. LIMAN: Country Two hadn't at that point said that it would continue the funding, am I correct?

Mr. McFARLANE: It had not.

Mr. LIMAN: Congress had prohibited the funding?

Mr. McFARLANE: That is correct.

Mr. LIMAN: There were no other countries that were running to give money to the Contras?

Mr. McFARLANE: No, sir.

Mr. LIMAN: And you were aware that private fund-raising efforts were not creating enough money?

Mr. McFARLANE: I didn't know, but I doubted it.

Mr. LIMAN: Now how was money raised in 1985?

Mr. McFARLANE: The events of early 1985 on Central America, including my visit down there. I had been out of the country before that time with the Secretary of State at a meeting with Mr. Gromyko in Geneva. I was not devoting a lot of time to this issue, but I was coincidentally preparing for the visit of King Fahd. I was also preparing for the visit of a number of other people, and I was seeking to make arrangements, as always preceding visits by various countries. In the runup to any of these meetings, you also always Convene with the resident official here in Washington from various countries, and is a process of working out exactly what the itinerary will be- how many meetings, the agenda for the meetings, logistic arrangements and so forth.

And, in the course of a meeting which was coming up with Country Two in this period, I did this kind of routine with the resident official there and in the course of that, did not get into the nitty gritty of this problem that we had, assuming that Country Two's contributions would end or had ended, but it was clear that in the same general terms, we had discussed the President's agenda as we would translate it to his counterpart, Country Two's leader, that one of our problems would remain, as it had been before-the situation in Central America and funding for the Contras.

Again, I don't wish to pretend or be disingenuous. There was some solicitation per se, but I think on the list of concerns of this administration going into this visit coming up, it was apparent that this was one of them. So when the arrangements were made, nothing said by resident officials from Country Two during this time, the meeting occurred, and we had arranged and agreed that there would be two meetings of the President and the head of State of Country Two-the first in the oval office, as is always the case, and the second would take place in the family residence of the White House, which represents a special level of cachet and singling out for special treatment of a foreign visitor.

At the end of that second session on the second day, there was also to be a one-on-one session which is also an added measure of respect and standing and, as that in fact occurred, Country Two's leader and President Reagan had a private session.

Then both came out. The President's habit was to debrief or summarize what had been conducted in that private session to the Secretary of State or to me or to both of us, and he did so. In that debriefing nothing came up on this subject, but within a day or so, I was advised by the resident official of Country Two that whether in that meeting or not, that they, Country Two, had elected to carryon with their contributions they had made, but to be at about double the monthly level it had been in the previous year. Hearing of that, I advised the President within a day or so, I believe, in the same fashion that I had before; that is, in a note card put into the briefing book for him to read each morning, and I recall getting his reaction as being one analogous to the earlier time, of gratitude and satisfaction, not of surprise.