The witness was affable. He took the oath, took the stand, winked at the defendant, stated his name, spelled it out, "Ronald R-E-A-G-A-N," and said he used to be in politics and before that in the movies and "prior to that I was a sports announcer in radio."
But in his command performance for the cameras of the court, Ronald Reagan had trouble remembering.Dates. Pictures. Documents. Memos. Aides. Meetings.
He is 79 years old now, and some of the events he was questioned about took place years ago. He has always denied directing them.
"There were so many meetings and so many different places," he said on the witness stand.
"I know it is tough, Mr. President," said lawyer Richard Beckler.
Asked if he had dispatched John Vessey to Central America, Reagan had trouble identifying Vessey, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from June 1982 to September 1985.
Counsel: "Could you explain to the members of the jury who General Vessey was?"
Reagan: "Oh, dear. I could ask for help here. The name I know is very familiar. I am wondering if . . . "
Counsel: "This is in connection with a trip by the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Reagan: "Well, that - I don't - I don't think this was my military aide, but obviously he was in a position to do this if he was the chief of staff."
Questioned in his videotaped deposition last week, to be used in the trial of his former national security adviser, John M. Poindexter, Reagan was treated with deference.
"Mr. President," he was called. At one point, a lawyer went too far - directing the witness, "perhaps you could tell the jurors as much as you can remember about that whole scene right there with Mr. Jacobson" - and Judge Harold Greene interrupted.
"No," said Greene, "No, no, no, no, no. We're not here to inquest the entire Contra affair."
Greene himself is a testament to the democratic system. He was born Heinz Grunhaus in 1923 in Frankfurt an der Oder in what is now East Germany. He presided over one of the most important cases - the breakup of AT&T - in American commercial history.
Now he is presiding over a trial of a former top presidential aide charged with obstructing Congress, conspiracy and making false statements about the sale of arms to Iran and the transfer of the proceeds to the Contras.
Poindexter wants to show he was following Reagan's orders.
Reagan was generally relaxed, genial, occasionally testy. He offered a broad wink to defendant Poindexter. He talked directly into the camera.
It was vintage Reagan: a man of iron conviction on the big picture but fading on the details.
He told anew of Lenin's plot to take over Eastern Europe, then "the hordes of Asia," then Latin America so America would be left alone, "the last bastion of capitalism."
But he was rusty about the role of Col. Oliver North. Asked what he thought North had been doing, he said, "You have to have people that can be available to make contact with the leaders of the Contras and so forth, sometimes closer than just writing a letter. . . . It was my understanding because his name would crop up in memos and so forth that that's what he was doing."
He was asked if he remembered what position Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., took on Contra aid when he ran the House Intelligence Committee.
"I don't recall what position he was taking or where he was. There are 435 of them, remember."
He was asked about a meeting with a European prime minister.
"Since I met with 400 heads of state, heads of government, foreign ministers and so forth in the eight years, no I can't recall what I particularly said to any of them."
He was asked if he remembered reading a memo that bore his initials on the bottom.
He said the papers generated in his White House were numerous. "There are 50 million pieces of paper."
He was asked if he recalled meeting Contra leader Adolfo Calero, who posed with him in a White House picture.
"I hate to keep throwing figures at you," he said, "but I have been told that because of the business of our Hollywood photographers, I have got something over a million photos of people that came in there as visitors."