Replies

O’Neill was a leading opponent of the Reagan administration’s domestic and defense policies. Following the 1980 election, with the U.S. Senate controlled by Republicans, O’Neill became the leader of the congressional opposition. O’Neill even went as far as calling Reagan “the most ignorant man who had ever occupied the White House”.[8] O’Neill also said that Reagan was “Herbert Hoover with a smile” and “a cheerleader for selfishness.” He also said that Reagan’s policies meant that his presidency was “one big Christmas party for the rich.” Privately, O’Neill and Reagan were always on cordial terms, or as Reagan himself put it in his memoirs, they were friends “after 6PM”. O’Neill in that same memoir when questioned by Reagan regarding a personal attack against the President that made the paper, explained that “before 6PM it’s all politics”.[9] Reagan once compared O’Neill to the classic arcade game Pac-Man in a speech, saying that he was “a round thing that gobbles up money”. He also once joked he had received a valentine card from O’Neill: “I knew it was from Tip, because the heart was bleeding.”

O’Neill, however, gave tacit approval to Democratic Congressman Charlie Nesbitt Wilson to implement the Reagan doctrine in the Soviet Afghan war. Wilson’s position on the appropriations committees, and his close relations with CIA officer Gust Avrakotos, allowed him to steer billions of dollars to the Mujahideen through the CIA and Zia ul-Haq’s ISI.[10]