Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post




Robert C. “Bud” McFarlane, a former national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan who was the only official in the Reagan White House to voluntarily accept legal blame in the Iran-contra scandal, died May 12 at a hospital in Lansing, Mich. He was 84. The cause was an exacerbation of a previous lung condition, said his son, Scott McFarlane. Mr. McFarlane lived in Washington and was hospitalized while visiting with family in Michigan.

A taciturn retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Mr. McFarlane worked in the 1970s and 1980s at the nexus of the military and political establishment. He was a congressman’s son, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War. In the early 1970s, he was a military assistant to Henry A. Kissinger, who was both secretary of state and national security adviser to President Richard M. Nixon. Mr. McFarlane’s later efforts in Iran were often perceived as a misguided effort to emulate Kissinger’s groundbreaking inroads at restoring relations with communist China.

After his military resignation in 1979, Mr. McFarlane served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee and then became counselor to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. during the early years of the Reagan White House. Mr. McFarlane was Haig’s point man for difficult assignments in the Middle East and with Congress, and he won plaudits for persuading Congress to restore money for the MX missile program and to advance nuclear arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union.

He became deputy national security adviser and, in 1982, he pushed for the deployment of U.S. Marines to Lebanon for a peacekeeping mission. It was a risky move that ended in catastrophe when terrorists bombed the Marine barracks, killing 241 U.S. service members in October 1983 — just two weeks into Mr. McFarlane’s new job as Reagan’s top security adviser.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/05/13/robert-bud-mcfarlane-iran-contra-dead/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[hibbing]

1. Another Republican criminal n/t

[ZonkerHarris]

2. another traitor and criminal gone. buh bye

[burrowowl]

3. Like Raygun, Bush I Followed by BushII), etc.

[Hulk]

4. One less gQp vote this November....

We lost a lot of gQp voters with Covid. Too bad they can't be reasoned with to comprehend just what a gQp Congress and state government do to the people governed. Morons. HRC had it right....deplorables.....President Biden has it right.....Ultra-magats.

[lastlib]

5. I thought he committed suicide back in the 90s...

guess I was wrong. Well, sayonara, dung-heap. No tears shed here. One traitor down, a few million? to go

[BumRushDaShow]

7. That's the other "Bud" (Dwyer), a former State Treasurer here in PA

I was actually home from work that day and was watching TV when that happened (I think it was a noon presser), because it partially went out over the air. The local station that I was watching caught some of it but managed to cut the feed (thanks to whatever "live broadcast" delay they normally used), so the whole thing didn't get shown on that station here in Philly (I think I was watching channel 6 WPVI). I believe it DID get broadcast on one of the other local stations though (I guess someone wasn't fast enough to cut it). There is uncut video of it out there and am not going to post that but here was one of the news stories afterwards -

[ancianita]

10. Wait. He committed suicide during a presser??

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Yes

it was pretty graphic. He was in front of a podium in his office with reporters, calmly grabbed a large brown mailing envelope, motioned for people to "stay calm", and then reached in, pulled out a long-nose revolver, held it close while continuing to motion for people to stay calm, stuck it in his mouth, and then did the deed - on air.



https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2022/01/budd-dwyers-suicide-becomes-media-dilemma-to-show-or-not-to-show-photos-video.html

[ancianita]

14. Holy crap.

[LT Barclay]

6. I'm wondering if he's the one that advised Reagan's CIA to do nothing to help the 4 nuns that were

captured, tortured, and raped in El Salvador (?).
I remember one of them being interviewed on Nightline.

[BHDem53]

8. I don't recall him.

[LenaBaby61]

9. He was an asholish arms-dealer and official chocolate cake hauler for Ronnie RayGun...

Who got away with everything concerning Iran Contra. Hell, all of them got away with Iran Contra. GOP'ers usually do, and thanks to Fred Flintstone look alike and fellow treasonous crook Bill Barr, Iran Contra was swept up under the rug.


Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane dies at 84.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane, a top aide to President Ronald Reagan who pleaded guilty to charges for his role in an illegal arms-for-hostages deal known as the Iran-Contra affair, has died. He was 84.

McFarlane, who lived in Washington, died Thursday from complications of a previous illness at a hospital in Michigan, where he was visiting family, according to a family statement.

“As his family we wish to share our deep sadness at the loss of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, and note his profound impact on our lives,” the family said in the statement. “Though recognized as a strategic political thinker, we remember him for his warmth, his wisdom, his deep belief in God, and his commitment to serving others.”

McFarlane, a former Marine lieutenant colonel and Vietnam combat veteran, resigned his White House post in December 1985. He was later pressed into service by the administration as part of secret — and illegal — plan to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the freedom of Western hostages in the Middle East and pass along proceeds to the contra rebels in Nicaragua for their fight against the Marxist Sandinista government.

He played a major role in the affair, leading the secret delegation to Tehran, then as now a U.S. adversary, to open contact with so-called moderate Iranians who were thought to hold influence with kidnappers of American hostages. He brought with him a cake and a Bible signed by Reagan.

The scheme began to unfold after a cargo plane carrying a CIA-arranged shipment of arms was shot down in October 1986 by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, setting off what eventually became one of the biggest modern political scandals.

McFarlane was rushed to a Washington-area hospital in February 1987 after taking an overdose of Valium the day before he was scheduled to testify before a presidential commission investigating the Iran-Contra scheme.

He pleaded guilty in March 1988 to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. His lawyer said he was unfairly singled out because he, unlike other key figures, testified willingly before investigative panels. He also admitted his role.

?I did indeed withhold information from the Congress,” he told reporters at the time. “I believe strongly that, throughout, my actions were motivated by what I believed to be in the foreign policy interest of the United States.?

He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush, along with five other figures from the scandal.

McFarlane, a career Marine known as “Bud” to his friends, had risen to lieutenant colonel and to positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He served as national security special assistant to Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford during their presidencies.

During the Carter administration, he was on the Republican staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He returned to the executive branch with Reagan’s election, serving as a State Department counselor until moving to the White House as national security adviser William Clark’s deputy in January 1982. He was appointed to the top national security post in 1983.

McFarlane, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was the son of a former Democratic congressman from Texas, William Doddridge McFarlane, who served from 1932 to 1938. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, two daughters and a son.

—-

Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.

https://www.fox5vegas.com/2022/05/13/former-national-security-adviser-robert-mcfarlane-dies-84/

McFarlane says there was a cake.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/01/15/McFarlane-says-there-was-a-cake/6776537685200/

[ancianita]

11. Holy crap! Thanks for the post!

[Marcuse]

12. He took an overdose of Valium back when Republicans had the capacity for shame.

- At the pinnacle of his career as Ronald Reagan's national security advisor, Robert "Bud" McFarlane swallowed at least 30 Valium pills. He survived that 1987 suicide attempt. But at the time, taking his life was a matter of honor for McFarlane. Now, he thinks it may have been the same for Admiral Mike Boorda.

McFarlane, who accepted responsibility for misdeeds during the Iran-contra affair, said he felt he had caused great embarrassment to his country and to his government. &quot I) was filled with a sense of responsibility and the need to atone for that," he said.[link:http://www.cnn.com/US/9605/17/fatal.flaw/|

[myohmy2]

15. gee...

...that's too bad...

...