Iran-Contra Affair Essay

The American public was so captivated by the Iran Hostage Crisis because they were blindsided by this radical action and their knowledge of America’s involvement in Iran was limited. The media played a major role in influencing their emotions and they already had trouble trusting the American government. This unknown involvement began in 1943 when President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to discuss how to remove the British and Soviet military forces from Iran because Iran wanted to be its own nation. The United States aided the young Shah, the ruler of Iran, and his government with military weapons and loans. Over time, Prime Minister Mossadegh, of Iran, gained more and more power until he was the true ruler of Iran and the Shah was just a figurehead. The United States, fearing the spread of communism, devised a secret plan for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to over throw Prime Minister Mossadegh.

The Iranian hostage crisis was one of the most dramatic events in a series of problems that took place during President Jimmy Carter’s term. The crisis, beginning in November of 1979, received the most coverage of any major event since World War II. It was one of many problems faced in light of the United State’s complex relationship with Iran. The effects on both the US and Iran were astronomical, especially politically as well as economically and socially. It took a heavy toll on American relations with the Middle East and changed the way we engage in foreign affairs. In light of this crisis, Iran started an international war that we are still fighting thirty-two years later.

The Iran-contra scandal of the 1980’s, first brought to light in November 1986, is a complicated mess of scandal, arms dealings, hostage deals, and illegal acts (“Iran-Contra Affair” Infoplease.com). The original purpose of the arms sales was to improve United States-Iran relations (Sanders SNU.edu). However, when American hostages were taken throughout the 1980’s, members of President Reagan’s staff negotiated implicit deals with Iranian groups, which resulted in the U.S. selling arms in return for the release of hostages (Wolf PBS.org). Later, the deal was modified so that the U.S. sold arms directly to Iran at a high markup, with no guarantee of hostages being released, and the markup funding the contras in Nicaragua (“The

"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

The Iran-Contra Affair took place during the Reagan Administration. It started with The Cold War and the clash between two different belief systems and countries that refused to work together. The U.S. being a capitalism giant, attempted to intervene and prohibit the spread of Communism. This Clash started after World War II when the US disagreed during a Conference held in the Summer of 1945. This conference discussed whether the Soviet Union could take possession of Poland. Due to this disagreement, President Truman suspended the Lend-Lease Act

The arms embargo between the United States and Iran forbid the United States from selling arms to the Iraqis. The goal of the embargo was to stop the Iran-Iraq war. Sending the shipment through Israel, Reagan sold Iran 500 antitank missiles (Gwertzman, 1986, para. 1). Lt. Col. Oliver North diverted a portion of the funds that the United States gathered from the sale to the Contra war effort, supposedly without Reagan’s knowledge and without informing the public. On 11 December 1986, 1Iranian man that Reagan used as a point of reference in Lebanon “asserted that he had personally gone to Lebanon to arrange the release of American hostages (Butterfield, 1986, para. 1).” Reagan knew about the arms embargo to Iran, but still went ahead to sell arms to further the American effort in Nicaragua. In essence he declared involvement in war with supplying a hostile nation with arms, and a party-torn country with money. The controversy is not the actions any leader did, but how the American public was left out of the decisions being made in Washington D.C. For all of time the American government has been seen as a clear pane of glass where both sides can see through. These hidden events tinted the window from the public. The Government did not inform the public and they

One of the most well known scandals and government damaging scandals surfaced in November 1986 when Ronald Reagan admitted that the United States sold weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran in efforts to get them to release 6 U.S. citizens being held hostage in Lebanon. It was also disclosed that some of the money from the arms deal with Iran had been secretly and illegally went to the aid of the right-wing Contras counter-revolutionary groups wanting to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua it became known The Iran-Contra

“The economic strain of the effort to keep up with the United States military brought the Soviets to the bargaining table and led to a de-escalation of their international military adventures” (Thomas Sowell, 2001). Reagan is the only president that may lay claim to the end of the Cold War that plagued America. However, a black mark on his record is the Iran-contra affair which involved the secret provision of funds from selling arms to Iran for Nicaraguan contra rebels (See Woodward and T. Draper, 2012). Despite the scandal of the Iran-contra affair, Reagan is praised for his foreign policies in which he spent a majority of his presidency playing the role of international peace-maker, leading to both a safer and more prosperous home and international front (George Nash,

During the time of the Cold War, many people lived in fear of communism and terrorism. In 1983, several Americans were taken hostage in Lebanon by a terrorist group. This terrorist group was loyal to Iran, so President Ronald Reagan stated he was against Iran. In addition, he told American allies not to sell weapons to Iran which would help them in their war with Iraq. Reagan proved to be against Iran, however, in 1986 President Reagan allowed the selling of weapons to Iran. By the selling of these arms, America would have the seven hostages in Lebanon returned. Then, members of President Reagan’s staff gave some of the money from these sales to Contras in Nicaragua. After several investigations, it was seen that there was a scandal

Carpenter, Ted Galen. ( 1986, June 24).U.S. Aid to Anti-Communist Rebels: The Reagan Doctrine and Its Pitfalls. Retrieved from www.cato.org

The Iran-Contra Affair was an underground operation within the CIA that was interwoven between two foreign policy issues that were unlikely to connect had the players in the ordeal not utilized one to benefit the other.

This was when reagan was our president and he was indirectly selling weapons to Iran. Reagan was hoping by doing that the hostages would be released. The money the us was getting from selling the weapons was going to the contras in Nicaragua. In the year of 1986 the weapons and hostage deal was out in the open on November 18th 1987. An investigation went on. from the actions our president had done it had appeared to the National Security Council had a some part in the illegal deals and had known about the arms sales to Iran. Although it all pointed to reagan there was no direct evidence that he supported the contras, or knew anything about

With no funds continue the Reagan administration decided they would keep a hidden profile from the public, Congress, and the nation. They were able to go around the law by also using the national security council. The NSC (national security council) directed by John Poindexter and Robert McFarlane used private funds to help the contras succeed in their plans. Nonetheless, in 1985 while Iran and Iraq were at each other’s throats, Iran proposed a request to buy weapons from the united states. The general Mcfarlane needed confirmation from Ronald, despite the law prohibiting sales weapons to conflicted nations, such as Iraq and Nicaragua. Mcfarlane believed that establishing a bond with Iran would not only lead to better relations with the U.S but also a greater relations with Lebanon, increasing U.S influence. In august 20,1985 around 100 bgm-71 tow missiles made by the U.S were sent to Iraq as the first arms deal trade. In addition, on September 14, 1985 408 tow missiles were sent to Iraq. These were the first of many arms deals going on behind the country 's back

To start with, the Iran-Contra Affair was a major political scandal during the Reagan Administration in the late 80’s. It started out when Iran secretly asked for the U.S to sell them weapons for the war against

Soon the "Arms for Hostages" divided the Reagan administration, although the plan went into effect as Reagan supported the plan. After the sale of over 1,500 missiles went to the Iranian government, only three hostages were released from Lebanon and soon three more were put into the same place was the previous hostages (PBS). Soon after the Lebanese newspaper released the news of the affair to the public in 1986, fourteen members of the Reagan administration were tried and eleven were arrested(PBS). The aftermath of the affair resulted in the constant news hounding from the press and then Reagan was deemed innocent as no evidence was found that linked him to the affair. As a result, Reagan's image suffered and he lost some public support.