The Presidency

By Hugh Sidey

It is still a standoff. The world is out to get Ronald Reagan's goat even in his last months as President. And Reagan is determined not to allow it.

On Sunday he was jangled awake in Camp David's Aspen Lodge at 4:52 a.m., even before the birds began to peep, and told that the Navy cruiser Vincennes may have shot down an Iranian F-14 in the Persian Gulf. By 8:11 a.m. he had a written message on reports that the downed plane may have been a civilian airliner. At 9:52 a.m. there was a call suggesting there was something to the story that an Airbus had been blown out of the sky.

By early afternoon, Reagan was on a conference call flung from Catoctin Mountain through Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia to his top people. The size of the tragedy was known by then. "I want a statement sent to Iran that we deeply regret this incident," he said simply. Later, when there was quibbling whether "regret" was an apology, Reagan ended the argument. "It's an apology as far as I am concerned. We're a moral nation, and we take responsibility for our mistakes."

The next day, Reagan marched on, out of the dreary duties of war and death to the bright star bursts of July 4th. More than 3,000 White House staff members and their families gathered on the White House lawn to watch the - fireworks on the Mall. Reagan, in a tribute on his last Independence Day as President, spoke from the veranda of the White House. "Maybe when we say our prayers, maybe we can pray that other countries will have something to celebrate."

Within another 24 hours he was riding the roller coaster of emotions back down. He boarded the White House elevator to go to the lawn for a helicopter trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit El Salvador's President Jose Napoleon Duarte, gravely ill with cancer. On the elevator he was told that Attorney General Edwin Meese was calling. Reagan ducked into the White House physician's office and took the phone. Meese was in California. "Mr. President," he said, "I talked to you earlier about resigning. Now is the time I should do it."

The last of the hard conservative core was going to leave his side. Reagan had been tipped off by Meese that he would probably not stay until the end of the term. But the President did not know Meese would act just then. Reagan did not protest. "Well, Ed," said Reagan, "if that's your decision . . ." Little else was said.

Then the President headed to the bedside of Duarte, the first and most successful of his Central American "freedom fighters." Reagan offered to fly him back to El Salvador and urged Duarte to come by the White House to see him if he was able. It was a sad parting.

No mood clings long to Reagan. Perhaps that is the secret of his durability in the presidency. By Thursday he was with Candidate George Bush and their respective political teams in a powwow in the White House Family Dining Room. The juices of one of the most successful campaigners of modern times were plainly undiminished by the week's grim tidings.

"The press is not going to give your whole argument," Reagan told the Vice President. "Every time I go out now and later turn on the television to watch, they have me saying 'Hello' and 'Goodbye,' and they have Sam Donaldson delivering my message. You've got to get some money and buy some TV and deliver your own message."