The Iran-Contra Affair

In the years leading up to 1971, America saw the rise of a new president, Richard Nixon elected in 1968, who would ultimately become one of the most infamous men in American history. This was coupled with the rising resistance against the Vietnam War, resistances like the Kent State shooting in 1970 and the 1967 march to the pentagon. Overall, this was a pivotal time in wartime America to keep moral high among citizen in order for the government to have the support to finish out the war in Vietnam. However, Nixon was soon faced with a leak inside the government that captivated the nation. In 1971, the Pentagon Papers were published in the New York Times. The Pentagon Papers were a classified study by the United States Government officially

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.

Because of this red scare, Americans have historically grown to become weary of communism. Under the Truman Doctrine in 1947, American forces were granted permission to intervene in any foreign relations so long as they focused on the breakdown of communist forces. Americans have had a long history of being involved with communist affairs around the world long before their support of the Nicaraguan Contras existed. But because of this fascination and fear of communism, it pushed American officials to become further emerged in the battle despite its lack of American interests.

To fully understand Iran-Contra, you must know the history behind it. Draper explains to us that the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 brought the

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

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.

In the documentary, High Crimes and Misdemeanor (1990) produced by frontline, details the side effects from the Iran-Contra affair proposed by the Reagan Administration and the consequences of the Reagan administration for not complying with its constitutional authority on notifying the United States Congress on the covert operation, which is the main organ responsible for the appropriations of funds and its allocation. The Covert Operation facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was under a strict arms embargo during the hostage situation in 1979.

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

General Somoza is assassinated in 1956 and is succeeded by his eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle. In 1967 Luis died and the last Somoza son, Anastasio, took over. Anastasio Somoza was the last member of the dynasty which ruled Nicaragua as a dictatorship from 1934 until he was overthrown in 1979 and assassinated in Paraguay. Nicaragua's current president, Daniel Ortega, took office for the first time in 1984. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro defeated Ortega in the 1990 election, and installed a reconciliation government. In 2006 Ortega returns to presidency for his 2nd term. During his term in 2009 he announces a plan to change the constitution of Nicaragua so he will be qualified to run another 5-year term. (BBC News) As of today, the government is a democratic republic and Daniel Ortega is the current President with Moises Omar

The Iran-contra affair was a secret arrangement to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits generated from selling weapons to Iran. It was meant to have a twofold effect, the main one was 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.

Certainly, the Republic of Panama paid a heavy price for the excesses of entrenched military regime in power for over two decades and which was the culminating stage narco-dictatorship of Noriega. The secret services of the United States, for which Noriega had worked, were undoubtedly the most responsible for the situation created in Panama. But we must not forget that Carter legitimized the dictatorial and unconstitutional regime subscribing Torrijos in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. Moreover, Washington sponsored the electoral fraud of 1984 and up to a certain extent the moral corruption and mismanagement, but that was not all. Once the troops invaded Panama and the Defense Force was disintegrated, Americans assumed police functions implementing the order or avoiding the chaos that was produced. The aid pledged for reconstruction was cut by the U.S. Congress to assist Nicaragua. Our country is not even able to recover intact the 375 million that were being held in respect of payments for the Canal and taxes of U.S. companies. United States arranged for a part of it served to pay off part of servicing the external debt had not been paid in recent years.

In addition to the contra operation, when the Iranian operation began, North was put in charge of both operations. This allowed North to secretly divert profits from the Iranian arms sale to fund the contras. Even when it looked doubtful that all the hostages would ever be released, North believed that the prospect of generating funds for the contras was “an attractive incentive” for continuing the arms

Generally, the US foreign policy concerning Latin America was of course for the US' own benefit. If the person in power was trying to nationalize their country's economy, the US accused them of communism and proceeded to push them out, unofficially, under the pretext of national security.

A solution to the Nicaraguan problem seemed more difficult to solve, Reagan wanted desperately to help the “contras” but was mandated by congress to stay out of the affair. His advisors secretly proposed a way to kill two birds with one stone, a decision that came to be referred to as Ronald Reagan’s black mark on his almost spotless record on foreign policy. The U.S would sale weapons to Iran in return for hostages taken by Muslim Jihadist in Lebanon, and with the money Iran paid those weapons with the U.S would direct that money to the contras fighting the Sandinistas. While the reasons for the trade were honorable and the president was following the American policy of communist containment at the time, it was still nonetheless illegal and badly battered Reagan’s reputation.

The USSR had recently funded a communications site on Nicaraguan soil to help them communicate with other socialist nations. With a rising fear of the USSR and other socialist nations, the US immediately accused it of being a spy base. Not shortly afterwards the US began to take action against Nicaragua by issuing an economic blockade. Because the Nicaraguan economy relied so heavily on imports, this had a profound effect and contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy. “It was impossible to spend even a day in Nicaragua without becoming aware of the huge and unrelenting pressure being exerted on the country by the giant standing on the northern front” (p.24).