A fitting accord on Reagan diary

An amicable agreement has been worked out between the WhiteHouse and congressional investigators of Irangate on access toPresident Reagan's personal diary. The agreement represents aconciliatory move by the president, in that he was under no legalobligation to make any compromise.

The subject arose because the Tower Commission report alluded toa diary in which Mr. Reagan "chronicles, in longhand, key events thatoccurred during the day." The Senate and House committees on Irangatequickly sought access to the diary to help determine the extent ofpresidential knowledge of once-secret events.

The agreement provides for the White House counsel to review alldiary entries from the beginning of 1984 to near the end of lastyear, then prepare typewritten excerpts of all notations on mattersand persons under investigation. The committees' ranking Democraticand Republican members and their staff lawyers will be permitted tosee the excerpts but not make photocopies.

The unsophisticated will wonder why the diary is not beingsubjected to the same prosecutorial zeal that forced release of theWhite House tapes during Watergate.

The difference is enormous. Former President Nixon's tapes werejudicially recognized as prime-source evidence in criminal trialsthat were under way, and individual tapes were identified by datesand hours in court-issued subpoenas as part of the criminal justiceprocess. There are no similar proceedings at this stage in theIran/contra inquiry; if there were, it is unlikely there could be asimilar legal claim on Mr. Reagan's written musings.

The situation was well expressed by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye(D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate panel on Irangate. Mr. Inouyesaid, "The President of the United States is not compelled, nor he isrequired, to share the contents of his diaries. They are personaland private."

The compromise will not satisfy partisan critics of Mr. Reagan,but the key is whether Sen. Inouye is satisfied with the arrangement."I am pleased with the president's action," the senator said. "He hasbeen very generous."