The new President was shot in an attempted assassination. He survived his wounds, so
Vice President Bush did not succeed to the presidency.
May 14, 1982:Bush's position as chief of all covert action and de facto head of U.S. intelligence--in a
sense, the acting President--was formalized in a secret memorandum. The memo
explained that National Security Decision Directive 3, Crisis Management, establishes the Special Situation Group (SSG), chaired by the Vice President. The SSG is charged ... with formulating plans in anticipation of crises. '' It is most astonishing that, in all of the reports, articles and books about the Iran-Contra covert actions, the existence of Bush's SSG has received no significant attention. Yet its importance in the management of those covert actions is obvious and unmistakable, as soon as an investigative light is thrown upon it. The memo in question also announced the birth of another organization, the Standing Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG), which was to work as an intelligence- gathering agency for Bush and his SSG. This new subordinate group, consisting of representatives of Vice President Bush, National Security Council (NSC) staff members, the CIA, the military and the State Department, was to meet periodically in the White
House Situation Room.... '' They were to identify areas of potential crisis and [p]resent ... plans and policy options to the SSG '' under Chairman Bush. And they were to provide to Bush and his assistants, as crises develop, alternative plans, '' action/options '' and coordinated implementation plans '' to resolve the crises. '' Finally, the subordinate group was to give to Chairman Bush and his assistants recommended security, cover,
and media plans that will enhance the likelihood of successful execution. '' It was
announced that the CPPG would meet for the first time on May 20, 1982, and that
agencies were to provide the name of their CPPG representative to Oliver North, NSC staff.... '' The memo was signed for the President '' by Reagan's national security
adviser, William P. Clark. It was declassified during the congressional Iran-Contra
hearings.@s2
Gregg, Rodriguez and North Join the Bush Team
August 1982:Vice President Bush hired Donald P. Gregg as his principal adviser on national security
affairs. Gregg now officially retired from the Central Intelligence Agency.
Donald Gregg brought along into the Vice President's office his old relationship with
mid-level CIA assassinations manager Felix I. Rodriguez. Gregg had been Rodriguez's
boss in Vietnam. Donald Gregg worked under Bush in Washington from 1976--when
Bush was CIA Director--through the later 1970s, when the Bush clique was at war with
President Carter and his CIA Director, Stansfield Turner. Gregg was detailed to work at
the National Security Council between 1979 and 1982. From 1976 right up through that
NSC assignment, CIA officer Gregg saw CIA agent Rodriguez regularly. Both men were
intensely loyal to Bush.@s3 Their continuing collaboration was crucial to Vice President