High Crimesdemeanor Summary

Iran Contra started happening in 1981 when Reagan signed a bill authorizing the CIA to support the Contras (“Iran-Contra Guide”). What happened during Iran Contra was America was barred from selling arms to Iran. General Oliver North thought it was a good idea to violate

This made it almost inevitable that something would go wrong, and it did. The arms deal was soon found out and it was made the center of media attention. Ignoring this warning, McFarlene and North traveled to Teheran personally to deliver missiles and talk to Iranian officials. North even brought Iranians into the White House secretly at night to discuss the situation. ("Iran-Contra")

Which followed through to Ford’s Administration and the Carter Administration. As well as the illegal bombing of Cambodia. Carter gets harassed about his evidence of his failed foreign policy because of the Iranian Hostage crisis, which was not handled well, and the credit for the solution belonged to Reagan.

in 1985 that the U.S. might sell arms to Iran through Israel with the goal of releasing American hostages held in Lebanon by Iranian groups (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). The arms would be used to aid Iran in their ongoing war against Iraq (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Robert McFarlane, a national security advisor who brought the suggestion to President Reagan, believed that the deal would improve U.S.-Iran relations, in addition to Lebanese relations, thus giving the U.S. needed influence in the Middle East (Wolf PBS.org). However, several advisors to Reagan questioned the legality of such an act, as both U.S. policy, prohibiting straight arms-for-hostage swaps, and the embargo on arms to Iran, the Arms Export Control Act, condemned that course of action. (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Though his advisors Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Defense) and George Shultz (Secretary of State) opposed the sales, President Reagan listened to McFarlane (National Security Advisor) and William Casey (CIA director) and went through with the plan, but Reagan never actually signed the plan or reported it to Congress, as required by law (“The Iran-Contra Report” Presidency.UCSB.edu). Thus, Reagan could later claim that he had no knowledge of the arms sales, as it was never formalized. Control of this operation was given to the National Security Council, which was also conducting aid operations to the contras (“The Iran-Contra

"Iran" and "Contra" came to be spoken in the same breath was the outcome of complex covert activities, all carried out, in the name of democracy. When Iraq and Iran were at war in 1985, Iran requested to buy secret

After tensions with the Soviet Union group Reagan's inauguration became a symbol of a rightward shift in American politics due to the apprehension towards communism. Early in Reagans presidency, he openly endorsing right-wing Rebel groups in Nicaragua called Contras. The Contras would allow the U.S. Open Access to Nicaragua which will serve as a launching pad for the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. However due to a news articles on the U.S intervention in Nicaragua, representative Edward Boland decided to propose an amendment that restricted the money flow to Nicaragua. After several revisions of the amendment, money was completely cut off to the Nicaraguan Contras and it was made impossible for the U.S. to legally intervene. The Boland Amendment was one of many steps made to separate the United States from world affairs until trouble began in the Middle East during the Lebanese Civil War. After the kidnapping of 52 hostages the U.S.'s relationship with Iran was severely severed. Most of the kidnappings were by Hezbollah Terrorist who hope to gain political Leverage after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. These terrorists decided to strategically let go of several hostages they had in order to gain favor from Reagan. Unfortunately, Ronald Reagan refused to negotiate with them even after they offered up the American hostages they were holding. Ronald Reagan then launched Operation Staunch. This operation became an enforced arms embargo on Iran in 1983 that was encouraged worldwide. Reagan was hoping that this embargo would stop the conflict between Iraq and Iran and would also help decrease the amount of Hostage situations despite the numerous efforts to relieve countries from U.S.

President Reagan 's denial to terminate the anti-missile defense program which was required by the Soviets impassable a probable arrangement with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev for subduing nuclear weapons when the two leaders met in Rejkavik, Iceland in October 1986. The President 's second term was tangled with the Iran Contra scandal when officials illegally unfocused finances to help counter forces in Nicaragua. A well thought of Defense Initiative Letter was given to Majority Leader Robert Dole on October 1, 1985. During that time, tensions within the Soviet bloc became more apparent.

They published a series of articles outlining, in detail, the deals that occurred and the specifics of the exchanges. When word of this reached the United States, its people were outraged and demanded an explanation. At first, Reagan gave a national speech pointedly denying that any such weapons transactions took place, but afterwards Attorney General Edwin Meese was assigned to revealing the truth about this so called arms-for-hostages deal. He discovered that not only did the United States aid the Iranians in their war with Iraq, part of the documented 30 million dollars was missing from the US coffers. Upon receiving this news, Congress “stated the president bore ‘ultimate responsibility’” (B). Reagan then gave another speech, contradicting his first one, saying that a deal did take place, but it was not to sell weapons for the exchange of

This was astounding to most Americans. The same day the president is inaugurated the hostages are freed. What had the new president done that the old president had not? Some rational people will tell you that it was Carter that freed the hostages, not Reagan. There are others however that believe that the Iranians only freed them because Reagan was elected instead of Carter and had Carter been re-elected that the crisis would have gone on longer. This theory would claim that outside powers can use attacks and threats to influence elections and put in power whomever they want. Whatever the theoretical conclusions may have been what happened is that the hostages were freed and Ronald Reagan was

Question: Did President Ronald Reagan know about the decision by White House aide Oliver North and National Security Advisor John Poindexter to divert profits from sales to Iran to buy weapons for rebels? Why did President Ronald Reagan change his opinions about his knowledge of his role in the Iran Contra Scandal?

Those funds were then redirected to Nicaragua to provide support for the Contras. The Iranian portion of the scandal provided the information that exposed the criminal acts being committed by the Reagan Administration. Arms sales to Iran were committed as a trade between the United States and Lebanon through Israel to free seven American hostages. A Lebanese magazine reported on the deal and forced then President Reagan to publicly admit to unauthorized dealing with a foreign government. The context of this report is very important as at the time this was revealed the United States instituted an arms embargo against Iran and Reagan emphatically proclaimed the he would never negotiate with terrorists (History.com, 2017) According to the Reagan Administration, dealing weapons to Iran would create an ally for the negotiation of hostages in Lebanon as Iran had vast influence in Lebanon. In just over a week after the Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa revealed the arms sale, Reagan’s Senior Aide to the National Security Council Oliver North had to testify before Congress. His testimony revealed his superior attempted to destroy evidence of the arms sale which prompted President Reagan to fire Oliver North and his superior Admiral Poindexter being forced to resign (Glass, Farrell, Cottee, Storrs, and Pollack,

The Reagan Doctrine introduced the formulation of the doctrine in response to some detailed events, which encompassed the insubordination of the rebels in nations like Afghanistan and Nicaragua against the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Reagan’s foreign policy intention was to eliminate the efforts of the Soviet Union to prolong its domination and from this time, he opted for the formulation of his doctrine to aid the rebels who in various countries of the world who were attempting to overthrown the Soviet regimes (Carpenter, 1986). Relative to this point, it must be mentioned that in distinction to the earlier Cold War doctrine of “inclosing”, Reagan’s Doctrine projected “American moral and material backing for rebellious actions trying to oust Soviet-backed regimes in various Third World nations” (Carpenter, 1986). Additionally, it must be stated that the Reagan Doctrine came into being as the outcome of the thwarting of the U.S. administration over the Soviet progresses in Africa, Central America, and Central Asia. “Just as the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Chinese leader Mao reinforced armed revolutions against

The Iran-Contra scandal was the secret (at one time) trading of missiles to Iran in efforts to return American hostages. This was a bad move by Reagan due to the fact that it went against public policy of the government refusing to negotiate with terrorists or aid countries that openly support international terrorism, countries like Iran. To make matters worse, the press found out that a part of the $48 million dollars from the sales was secretly used to buy weapons and supplies for the Contra that were in Nicaragua, which violated a constitution passed in 1984. Reagan denied knowledge of the Contra situation and claimed innocence. These incidents caused a blow to Reagan’s career that he never fully recovered from.

A global American ‘responsibility’ for maintaining order and justice, coupled with an idea of American superiority of it’s own values and personnel. President Reagan, like Kennedy was opposed to using the U.S. military to oust Nicaraguan leader Batista, on the President’s behest, the C.I.A began conducting operations in the country to usurp him. They favored one rebel group known as the ‘Contras’. They paid rebel leaders upwards of $7000 a month. However, also known to the C.I.A was that Contra rebels main proceeds came from cocaine trafficking, the majority of which ended up on U.S shores (particularly Florida), and has notorious cases of human rights abuses, such as the torture and rape of several villages in 1981. SO notorious, that U.S. congress specifically banned direct U.S government support of the rebels. The C.I.A countered this, using the proceeds of weapons trading with Iran (also prohibited by Congress), to supply them with arms and material. Not only did the C.I.A again engage in a war by proxy, but their ignoring of the Contras human rights record, trading with Iran and disobeying Congress demonstrated how highly it regarded it’s aforementioned global responsibility. It ignored the very fabric of justice and order (Congress) in the name of protecting those very values, and in

Reagan continued to press for money in support of the Contras, while Democrats in the House of Representatives contemplated complete termination of Contra support. Eventually there was a concession on both parties, creating a limit of twenty-four million dollars of Contra aid for the 1984 Fiscal year. This amount, while generous, is significantly less than the Administration’s aims, hence the opportunity for future additional funding from Congress.