American Notes WASHINGTON

In a decision that could throw a President's records into the courtroom for the first time since Watergate, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene ruled last week that Ronald Reagan must turn over portions of his private diaries to his onetime National Security Adviser John Poindexter. In Greene's view, 29 of the handwritten entries could "contain information of significance" to Poindexter's defense in the Iran-contra trial. Greene, who has viewed transcripts of the journals, says they hold no bombshells that will refute the former Commander in Chief's claims that he neither "knew of nor authorized" a diversion of Iranian arms-sale profits to help Nicaraguan contra rebels. However, the judge allowed that at least one entry is "ambiguous."

Reagan's lawyers are likely to resist turning over the diaries by citing the doctrine of "Executive privilege," which protects the Chief Executive's private communications. Curiosity abounds in the capital as to precisely what the former President recorded each day. Said a former Administration official: "I recall occasions when I was in the White House when people seemed to be insinuating that 'diary' was an overstatement of what we were really talking about."