In 1986, Secretary of State George Shultz and his executive assistant, M. Charles Hill, began to prepare for their meeting with the president regarding ideas to get troops back home. It was later uncovered via Hill's notes that President Reagan showed a willingness to break the law to get American troops being held hostage in the Middle East back home to the United States. Hill's notes also detail his and Shultz's grim outlook on the situation noting, "We have assaulted our own MidEast policy ....