White House Diaries

Tuesday, May 27, 1986

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Well lets start by saying we still dont know whether our hostages will be freed. Bud’s call revealed that 2 of the Iranians who had involved us were on the phony side. However through them Bud was put in touch with a rep. from the P.M.’s office. Outrageous demands were made by the Hisballahs such as Israel must leave the Golan Heights & So. Lebanon. Kuwait must free the convicted murderers they’ve tried & imprisoned etc. Bud said no dice so they got back to the original price—sale of some weaponry—now we’ll know possibly in the next 48 hrs. Next event was arrival of Pres. Azcona of Honduras. We had very satisfactory meetings with him & reps. of his congress & cabinet capped by a luncheon meeting. He’s a solid citizen & totally approving of our aid to the Contras. Then a drop by of a meeting of top heads of all phases Fed. law enforcement.

Then an hour & a half meeting with Chief Justice Burger who is also heading up our commission to plan 1987 observance of the 200th B.D. of the Const. His main mission was to tell me he wanted—well—he didn’t want to but will resign from the Court at the end of this session in July. We’ll keep it very hushed up til closer to the date then try & announce it plus his successor & if it’s a present member of the ct. who his replacement will be.

Then a reception for 175 members of Citizens for the Republic. This is the org. I created with left over campaign money in 1976.

And waiting for us after the reception were Don & John. Another call from Bud in Iran. Again they tried to exact some outrageous terms—delivery of the weapons & spare parts before release of the hostages. Bud told them deal was off. They backed down & said we had a deal—but they’d have to get through to the Hisballah in Beirut. Bud thinks Iran—conscious of the Soviet forces on their border & their own lack of competence want a long term relationship with us & this could be whats behind their negotiations. Now we wait some more. The deal is the plane carrying the material takes off from Tel Aviv. If at the end of 3 hours we have not received the hostages we signal the plane to turn back.