Ronald Reagan

I weighed their views.

All of the shipments of the token amounts of defensive arms and parts that I have authorized or condoned taken in total could be placed aboard a single cargo aircraft.

No, and I believe that I've answered that question, I think, more than once here.

It's a strange situation.

In foreign policy the presence of risks alone cannot be reason enough not to act.

I understand this decision is deeply controversial and that some profoundly disagree with what was done.

We did not condone and do not condone the shipment of arms from other countries.

There was no deception intended by us.

There was a third country involved in our secret project with Iran.

The responsibility for the decision and the operation is mine and mine alone.

Those are the weapons that people in their mind can picture someone pushes a button and lots of places blow up.

Any other shipments by third countries were not authorized by the U.S. Government.

Believe me, that's about as hypothetical a question as anyone could imagine.

I don't see where the Ayatollah could be a logical target for an antiaircraft missile.

I know some persist in saying that we traded Zakharov for Daniloff.

I believe the circumstances warranted.

I was not breaking any law in doing that.

When we give aid to freedom fighters around the world, we give hope to the oppressed, and we say that people, not iron laws, shape history.

This should be a pillar of our new bipartisan consensus: We will not give away in Washington what we're negotiating over in Geneva.

I can never mention aloud—the situation still is—the names of those 10 brave women—because most of them are still in that prison camp, and we know what would happen to them.

We have no choice about the nature of the conflict, only about whether or not we recognize its nature.

We will win, because we're on God's side.

I say no. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

Nations do not have disagreements because they're armed; they are armed because they have disagreements.

The ultimate determinant in the struggle that is now going on in this world will not be bombs and rockets, but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are…