Too Cool Reagan

I feel that once Reagan made the claim that he would NOT negotiate with terrorists, he set himself up for failure. Although making deals with terrorists was probably seen by many as a weak move, publicly shunning the possibility of making a trade for the hostages in Lebanon made Reagan's job more difficult than it needed to be. From this point on Reagan had to be fully invested in making sure his actions supported his words. He also had to make sure his assistants abided by his claim. Reagan did not seem interested in checking up on McFarlane and North, and ultimately relied on his above average approval ratings and past inattentiveness to bail himself out of a sticky situation.