Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84 - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : He left behind a kosher chocolate cake iced with a key, which was to have symbolized a new opening between Iran and the United States.
55% : Mr. McFarlane's dream of renewing relations with Iran for Reagan, and thus matching Kissinger's triumph in China for Nixon, had failed.
54% : As he wrote in his 1994 memoir, "Special Trust," Mr. McFarlane quickly grew "disillusioned with the Iran initiative after the first Israeli shipment of ... missiles to Tehran.
51% : Meanwhile, Iranian guards shook down the 707 and seized the Hawk missile parts the Iranians had demanded as Mr. McFarlane's admission ticket to Tehran.
48% : The effort was also intended to help restore U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran, which had been broken after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
46% : After officially leaving the administration, Mr. McFarlane remained an unofficial White House emissary in efforts to release the American hostages held by Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based proxy of Iran, and arrange a secret meeting with what he hoped were "moderate" Iranian officials ready to discuss steps toward normalization.
45% : In May 1986, the new national security adviser, John Poindexter, asked Mr. McFarlane to lead a secret mission to Tehran.
41% : Mr. McFarlane's later efforts in Iran were often perceived as a misguided effort to emulate Kissinger's groundbreaking inroads at restoring relations with communist China.
30% : But nearly all he did was overshadowed by the Iran-Contra scandal, the illegal sale of arms to Iran in exchange for that country's help to free American hostages held in Lebanon.

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