ABSTRACT
Ronald Reagan's Presidency may provide the most compelling evidence yet of the need for a return to the systematic, broadly consultative, and well managed decision-making processes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower's years. The policy-making climate that gave rise to the Iran-Contra affair can perhaps best be understood if we review the conflicts over the conduct of foreign policy that appeared in the very first days of the Reagan administration. Ronald Reagan entered the White House determined to avoid the kind of battling between the White House and State Department that had plagued the Nixon and Carter administrations. He proclaimed that his Secretary of State would be "the chief formulator and spokesman for foreign policy in this administration." With Robert McFarlarie as National Security Advisor and George Shultz as Secretary of State, the second term of the Reagan Presidency began on a more harmonious note than had existed during Haig's stormy tenure as Secretary of State.
