Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane dies at 84

WASHINGTON — Former White Home nationwide safety adviser Robert C. McFarlane, a prime aide to President Ronald Reagan who pleaded responsible to fees for his function in an unlawful arms-for-hostages deal referred to as the Iran-Contra affair, has died. He was 84.

McFarlane, who lived in Washington, died Thursday from problems of a earlier sickness at a hospital in Michigan, the place he was visiting household, based on a household assertion.

“As his household we want to share our deep disappointment on the lack of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, and notice his profound impression on our lives,” the household stated within the assertion. “Although acknowledged as a strategic political thinker, we keep in mind him for his heat, his knowledge, his deep perception in God, and his dedication to serving others.”

McFarlane, a former Marine lieutenant colonel and Vietnam fight veteran, resigned his White Home publish in December 1985. He was later pressed into service by the administration as a part of secret — and unlawful — plan to promote arms to Iran in alternate for the liberty of Western hostages within the Center East and cross alongside proceeds to the contra rebels in Nicaragua for his or her combat in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista authorities.

He performed a significant function within the affair, main the key delegation to Tehran, then as now a U.S. adversary, to open contact with so-called reasonable Iranians who had been thought to carry affect with kidnappers of American hostages. He introduced with him a cake and a Bible signed by Reagan.

The scheme started to unfold after a cargo airplane carrying a CIA-arranged cargo of arms was shot down in October 1986 by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, setting off what finally turned one of many largest trendy political scandals.

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

He pleaded responsible in March 1988 to 4 misdemeanor counts of withholding info from Congress. His lawyer stated he was unfairly singled out as a result of he, not like different key figures, testified willingly earlier than investigative panels. He additionally admitted his function.

″I did certainly withhold info from the Congress,” he advised reporters on the time. “I consider strongly that, all through, my actions had been motivated by what I believed to be within the international coverage curiosity of the US.″

He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush, together with 5 different figures from the scandal.

McFarlane, a profession Marine referred to as “Bud” to his buddies, had risen to lieutenant colonel and to positions within the Nixon and Ford administrations. He served as nationwide safety particular assistant to Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford throughout their presidencies.

Throughout the Carter administration, he was on the Republican workers of the Senate Armed Providers Committee. He returned to the manager department with Reagan’s election, serving as a State Division counselor till shifting to the White Home as nationwide safety adviser William Clark’s deputy in January 1982. He was appointed to the highest nationwide safety publish 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’s survived by his spouse of 63 years, two daughters and a son.

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Related Press information researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.