First Lady Says Reagan Thinks He Was Misled

WASHINGTON —  First Lady Nancy Reagan said Wednesday that her husband feels misled by his former aides and frustrated over their refusal to tell what they did in the Iran- contras affair.

“Nobody’s happy and jubilant about being deceived,” she said.

Mrs. Reagan said she and President Reagan both want former White House aides John M. Poindexter and Lt. Col. Oliver L. North to explain their role in the affair. Both have invoked their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination rather than testify to congressional committees.

Urges End to Silence

“If we could just get North and Poindexter to talk,” she said during an interview in the White House Library.

Their testimony, she said, could pull Reagan out of what she called “a valley” of his presidency.

“There’s nothing more that he can do,” she said of her husband. “Now it is up to North and Poindexter.”

The First Lady said she wants the two men to tell what they know “because they are obviously the only ones who know what went on. Nobody else knows.”

“It’s very disturbing to him, obviously very disturbing to him and disappointing to him that he was not told things that he should have been told,” she said. “Nobody’s happy and jubilant about being deceived.”

‘Will Straighten Out’

Referring to North and Poindexter, the First Lady said she was confident the situation “will straighten itself out . . . as soon as we get these two to talk.” North was fired and Poindexter resigned from Reagan’s National Security Council staff after the revelation last month of the arms sales and diversion of funds.

Mrs. Reagan said the public opinion polls showing a sharp drop in public confidence in Reagan’s performance “will come back up. I think there is a deep affection and love for him out there in the country.”

She also attributed the President’s drop in the polls to public “confusion” about the many twists and turns in the Iran affair.

“It is confusing. It tends to be frightening to people,” she said.

Mrs. Reagan acknowledged that she is sensitive to criticism of her husband by members of the Republican Party, including “some that he’s done a lot for.”

Doesn’t Harbor Ill Feelings

The President “doesn’t carry on bitter feelings,” she said, but “he wishes that some of them would come forward” in his own defense.

Mrs. Reagan refused to say whether she believed that the President should fire more of his advisers. Some people on Capitol Hill have urged that CIA Director William J. Casey and White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan be removed.

“That’s up to him,” she said of her husband.

And she denied that she had conspired with old-time Reagan friends and aides to drive Regan from office.

“I read in the paper that there is a California cabal. That is absolutely untrue,” she said.