The Iran-Contra Affair: An Example Of A Political Scandal

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

Watergate Scandal has been considered as one of the darkest chapters in American history. The event not only refers to unethical use of power by the public representatives but also levied great deal of attention on the mechanism of surveillance over the activities of public servants. Watergate scandal provides ethical directions not only to public servants but also provides ethical guidelines to the lawyers and media representatives as well. This incident reveals how ethical lines were crossed time and again by the politicians, legal attorneys and media for their own purposes. Ignoring the righteousness of the outcomes, events like these cause severe damage to the public's trust vested in these authorities which takes a long time to restore.

The Iran Contra affair is historically defined as the “Reagan administration scandal that involved the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for its efforts to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon and the redirection of the proceeds of those sales to the Nicaraguan Contras.” As the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, known as the Contras, began their efforts to retaliate against the Socialist Sandinista Regime, American government forces stepped in to support the Contra cause in a hope to support the world-wide elimination of Communism. To understand the entire history of the scandal, many individuals, groups, policies, and deals must be researched and put together to tell the complete history of the Iran Contra affair.

Watergate, the greatest scandal of the 20th century, remains a shrouded mystery. Early on the morning of June 17, 1972, there was a break-in and several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate Office complex building located in Washington, D.C. Thus began a series of events that would shake the public’s confidence in its most visible symbol of American authority and prestige: the presidency of Richard Nixon. A seemingly random robbery at a Washington, D.C. building leads to the first presidential resignation in American history. We will discuss the following events surrounding the Watergate break-in: when did the break-in occur, how was Nixon connected to the break-in. We will also discuss the events surrounding the discovery of the tapes, the issues involved in trying to get the tapes from President Nixon and what is the "18 1/2 minutes of silence". Finally, throughout this paper we will also include Archibald Cox the first Watergate special prosecutor.

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

A brief background before the iran contra affair is set in reagan's presidency who supported a group an anti communist group in nicaragua and gave weapons to iranian terrorists but things were already brewing before this that led up to this point during reagan's presidency he was all for the people and believed in lower taxes and tried to make the economy better so that way we could get out of debt but the iran contra affair was us secret arms deal that traded missiles to free americans that were held hostage by terrorists in lebanon which was a political scandals but also had economic and social issues

The Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 is a federal law that requires United States government agencies to report covert actions to Congress within a reasonable time frame and to make a formal written statement as to how each covert action was important to national security (lran-Contra Affail legal definition of Iran-Contra Affair, 2016). The Iran-Contra Affair was a political scandal that took place during the second term of the Reagan Administration. In late 1986, it was discovered that the United States had participated in illegal activities involving the sale of military equipment to Iran and in diverting a portion of the proceeds from those arms sales to assist the military activities of the Contra rebel forces in Nicaragua. As a result of the exposure of these operations, lawmakers and the public were left with many questions concerning policy violations, propriety, and violations of law. Some of the most important and sometimes most difficult questions were; whether or not the Rule of law was violated, what was the role of President Reagan as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief, which legislations prohibited the activities referred to above and

This administration was marred with controversy in its own right. Although President Reagan faced many problems during his presidency the Iran-Contra affair is probably the most infamous. In 1986, a scandal shook the administration stemming from the use of profits from covert arms sales to the Iranian government to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been specifically outlawed by an act of Congress. Iran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. “The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. The first was a commitment to aid the contras who were conducting a guerrilla war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The second was to placate ‘moderates' within the Iranian government in order to secure the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon and to influence Iranian foreign policy in a pro-Western direction.” The Iran–Contra affair became the largest political scandal in the United States during the 1980s. The International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction to decide the case was disputed by the United States, ruled that the United States had violated international law and breached treaties in Nicaragua in various ways. President Reagan said that he was ignorant of the

The Iran-Contra affair can be described as the type of event expected to give rise to a demonstration of public support for the president. However, this incident had the opposite effect. The public’s response to the Iran-Contra affair led to a sharp decrease in the support of President Reagan. Due to President Reagan’s role in the political scandal of aiding armed conflict in Nicaragua, the United States Congress used its constitutional power to investigate and check the role of the executive branch. The impact of this congressional oversight highlights the checks and balances the Founder’s instilled in our political government during our nation’s conception.

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

In 1992, George H.W. Bush ran for President for a second time, this time though, something was different. More information linking Bush to the Iran Contra Affair of the Reagan Administration had become public, and the news media was beginning to make the connections. In one of the first articles released regarding his involvement in 1992, the author, Walter Pincus, began to openly criticize Bush for his deception. Pincus, who wrote a lot about Bush and his involvement, explains that “In the almost six years since the scandal surfaced, records and testimony from congressional and legal proceedings reveal that Bush, while vice president, watched Iran-Contra unfold from a front-row seat in the White House.” (Pincus, Walter, 1). Pincus is

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

The political disaster of Watergate in the early 1970s marked the first time a president resigned. Essentially, it began when a former Marine, Daniel Ellsberg, who no longer supported war in Vietnam, leaked an analysis of American involvement there to The New York Times, starting in 1971. President Richard Nixon, a very private man, demanded that these Pentagon Papers be kept secret in order to prevent the public from finding out exactly what was going on. The scandal that followed ruined Nixon and led Americans to be more critical of the politicians they put in power and to question their leadership.

The Iran-Contra affair was directly made possible by Reagan’s arms sales to the Iranians. His brawn over brain approach was a major distraction during his tenure as

The Iran-Contra affair is one of the largest examples of what occurs when government communication breaks down. Within this communication breakdown, simple negligence over details or issues can create scandals that otherwise would not happen. This rocked the nation in the 1980s and is undoubtedly one of the largest scandals in American history. The Iran-Contra affair consists of two different situations that are linked simply by money.