President Reagan's Iran-Contra Affair

There have been many different themes with many different topics for National History Day. The theme for this year’s National History Day is Leadership and Legacy in History. My topic is Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

For almost 200 years the American public viewed their government and its chief executive with virtual reverence. Presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were the embodiment of every principle and value set forth in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The events that occurred in Vietnam coupled with the Watergate scandal shocked the nation and irreparably damaged the publics’ view of politics and government activities. The release of the Pentagon papers

Leading up to the election of 1980, the United States was facing many difficult situations in the nation and abroad. These potentially catastrophic situations consisted of a cold war with the Soviet Union, communism and socialism spreading throughout the world, and the United States economy heading towards another Great Depression. The combination of these three crisis’s caused a national panic in the homes of all citizens. A growing distrust in the government erupted throughout the country and the nation was truly split. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 it became his goal to extinguish these catastrophes and to return America back to normalcy. Reagan believed a strong bond of trust between civilian

The public questioned the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term as President of the United States for his lack of integrity and lack of transparency. In early 1986, Reagan wanted to help a group of Nicaraguan rebels overthrow the Sandinista National Liberation Front that had taken over the Central American country (Shipler, 1986, para. 2). At the same time, seven Americans were being held hostage by Iranian revolutionists in Lebanon, and an operation to get them freed was being discussed within Reagan’s Cabinet (Gwertzman, 1986, para. 5). In an attempt to free the hostages, the United States Government sold arms to a Middle Eastern country

Policy violations, propriety, and violations of the law…While President Reagan and his administration may have had good intentions, the actions undertaken by certain individuals while carrying out the operations mentioned above, did in fact, violate laws and executive orders, and as a result, put the offenders in direct conflict with the rule of law.

Jimmy Carter served as the United States’ 39th president from 1977 to 1981. He came into presidency not long after the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal. In this time of US history, American citizens were mistrusting of the executive branch of government do to these events. Throughout his campaign, Carter warranted for an improvement in the honesty of our government, and repeatedly stated, “I will never tell a lie”. At the core of his presidency, Carter  worked extremely hard to better America by promoting a respect for human rights.

What does Congress do? The members of Congress are elected by the people to represent the public in the process of making and passing bills and laws for the government to run properly. It shares power with the executive and judicial branches. Article one of the Constitution states that congress has the power to make laws, declare war, raise and provide public money, impeach and try federal officers, approve presidential appointments, and approve treaties. In this paper, the following will be discussed. How Congress uses the Government Accountability Office to conduct audits on the budgets and appropriations. The executive branch of government role in creating foreign and military policies. And the effectiveness of Congress’s role in strategic

The topic which I have been assigned to research for my application to lateral move into the 0211 Counter Intelligence MOS is the Iran Contra Affair. The Iran Contra Affair was essentially labeled as an, “arms for hostages deal,” which was politically charged and lead by different officials in the United States, including the President at the time, Ronald Reagan. The facts surrounding the entire incident still remain somewhat unknown and many accused the President of having much more involvement than he let on. Ultimately Reagan’s support from the people rebounded during this era and

President Reagan arranged a deal with Iran, secretly selling weapons to the Iranians for their ongoing war being fought against the nation of Iraq, in exchange for the American hostages who were being held by the Iranians (“The Iran-Contra Affair”). The United States’ relations with Iran were

It lead the politicians in the direction of false identify and to not trust people but to present elements of great authority but to only have the qualities of non-authority. Which means to just give the nation false hope and lies; enough to indulge their minds in whoever is presiding direction. To hide behind false images and to not fully deliberate in your position. In this day of social media and smartphones; this scandal would have been nipped in the bud many months prior to the announcement that the president was completely responsible. The invention of technology is very much helpful in delivering the information more accurately and faster.

The United States sold weapons of mass destruction to Iran through Israel to raise money for the Contras in Nicaragua and to get prisoners out of Iran, also known as negotiating with terrorists -- something the Reagan administration was heavily against. After the affair and trial, fourteen people were charged with criminal charges. Four of them were felonies, seven of them pleaded to charges of felonies and misdemeanor, one case was dismissed for a lack of evidence, and two were granted pardons by President H. W. Bush. While there were many negatives from the United States getting involved in the Nicaraguan Revolution, one of the most profound negatives was the tarnishment of the United States government’s image. Another result in more recent times was in 2007 when Daniel Ortega, the Communist leader from the 80s, was re-elected to be the leader of Nicaragua. The only positive that came out of this act for the United States is that is helped with the downfall of the threat of

The debate on whether or not President Carter took the appropriate action when handling the Iran hostage crisis has strong points for each side. Some debate the President did not do enough to ensure the safety of the hostage, during the situation. But at the same time, if he made even one wrong move the lives of those people could have been taken. With that though, his attempt to rescue the hostages was an obvious fail. However, it did show the he was making an effort. Where the debate lays, is if he could have done more, tried harder. Personally, I think there were more thing he could have tried. If our military showed them that we were willing to take drastic action it could have push them, out of fear, to free the hostages. Considering they

A politician’s career is like a roller coaster. They face ups and downs with achievements and disappointments. Through the eyes of the media, politicians are watched by the public and need to make good choices for their constituents and the region they represent. The President of the United States is put under enormous pressure, and is counted on to make the best decisions for the country. Throughout Ronald Reagan’s two terms as president, he was both praised and criticized by American citizens. Many policies and choices he made benefited society, while some others hurt his image. Based on the information from Chris Matthews’ book Hardball, Ronald Reagan went through peaks and valleys during his presidential terms, both gaining and losing public support.

Everyday citizens often live unaware of their government’s inner workings. The knowing of political espionage is often too heavy of a subject to be inducted in conversation. True, prima facie, modest twists and turns of information may not be considered substantial, but this inconsideration leaves much to be uncontrolled. It is easy for political leaders to become power crazed, to not realize the massive implications that come of their actions. Only after all is said and done do the people actually realize their government is an opaque mask of deception. The Watergate Scandal substantially impacted Americans’ trust in their government.

I have also learned about the Iran-Contra scandal. Individuals in Reagan’s administration illegally aided the Nicaraguan contras. Marine Colonel Oliver North testified before Congress, along with another National Security Council official and CIA official. They admitted to covering their actions, which included shredded documents and the destruction of evidence. The investigation found that Reagan had approved arms sales. However, Reagan had not known about the diversion of money to the Nicaraguan contras. Even though he had insisted that he did nothing wrong, this scandal corrupted his second office