Reagan Says He Waited Months for Regan to Go

President Reagan said in a broadcast interview Monday that he quietly prepared for Donald T. Regan’s departure as White House chief of staff for months before Regan actually left.

Reagan acknowledged in the interview that Regan had been having problems with First Lady Nancy Reagan and that one of his weaknesses as President is that “I know that I have a soft heart.”

The President did not answer directly when asked if he agreed with daughter Maureen’s assertion that it had been a big mistake to move Regan to the White House.

Regan, who had been secretary of the Treasury, and then-White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III told the President that they wanted to switch jobs in early 1985, and he approved the request.

Replaced by Baker

Regan was ousted at the end of February, 1987, at the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, and was replaced by former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. (R-Tenn.). Reagan insisted at the time that he did not fire Regan, saying Regan had indicated at some earlier time that he wanted to return to private business.

In the Monday night interview, however, Reagan said he quietly hoped to be able to use a letter of resignation that Regan had submitted months earlier when the chief of staff indicated that he would not likely serve through Reagan’s second term.

“There was no firing at all,” Reagan said. “I set out at the same time, then, to start quietly, and hoping, leakproof, to have a successor on hand for when he announced the time he was going to go.”

Biggest Mistake

CNN anchorman Bernard Shaw, at one point, asked Reagan if he agreed with Maureen’s interview statement that allowing Regan to become chief of staff had been her father’s biggest mistake.

“I saw that. Happened to be watching television and saw that,” he replied. “ . . . I said, ‘That’s my girl.’ ”

Reagan also said he is bitter about Regan’s book, “For the Record,” in which the former chief of staff harshly criticized Reagan’s executive management style and also maintained that Mrs. Reagan played a heavy hand in White House affairs.

“I was very displeased with that, and, yes, it hurt,” Reagan said. “None of the attack was leveled at me--only at her. And she didn’t deserve it anyway.”