On 39 years ago today, December 30, 1986 (November 29, 1986), Reagan admitted his mistakes in Iran policy. On December 30, 1986, Reagan, the U.S. president defended the secret policy he had begun in Iran, but admitted that he had "made mistakes" in implementing the policy. In his radio address this week, the president switched from confrontation to apology, reflecting the view of his political advisers that the president's apology was necessary to curb the debate sweeping the White House. However, when the Democratic Party asked him to admit that selling weapons to Iran was a wrong request, the president paused for a moment and continued to insist that he did not know that the money from the arms sales was used to support the Nicaragua rebels. The arms sales to Iran themselves are beginning to come under investigation, with Lawrence E. Walls, former chairman of the American Bar Association, elected as the specialized supervisor of the investigation into arms sales. Several congressional committees heard about Democrats 'plans to establish a special committee in January. Two former White House national security aides, Vice Admiral John Pendexter and Lieutenant Colonel Olivier North, refused to testify to the committee. They cited the spirit of the Fifth Amendment and believed that they could refuse to confess to the case in order to protect themselves from being implicated in criminal cases. At the same time, polls showed that public support for the president dropped sharply, from 67% to 46%.