The Iran Contra Affair Involving Ronald Reagan

President Ronald Reagan was an amazing President, but he didn’t always come out smelling like roses. Even the best Presidents don’t always make wise decision for their country, for instance, the Iran- Contra scandal. The Iran-Contra scandal, all started in 1985 when Iran and Iraq were at war, and the United States supplied weapons to Iran, a sworn enemy. President Ronald Reagan’s administration did this in hoping that they would then release the American hostages that were being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah terrorist. Robert McFarlane, a National Security Advisory, said that “the sale of arms would not only improve U.S. relations with Iran, but might in turn lead to improved relations with Lebanon, increasing U.S. influence in the troubled Middle East” (Julie Wolf,

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.

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 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 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

On November 5, 1968 Richard M. Nixon was elected the 37th president of the United States. In 1972 Nixon was reelected in a landslide victory. However, His undoing was already in the works. A few months prior to Nixon’s reelection a group of men linked to the Nixon administration were arrested in the Democratic party headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex and what followed was one of the biggest scandals in presidential history. The Watergate scandal was revealed as a cover-up by the Nixon administration to hide involvement in illegal activities against their opponents and ultimately lead to Nixon’s resignation from his presidency on August 9, 1974. Nixon was granted a full pardon from the Ford administration a month later. A few years later Nixon was paid $600,000 by British TV personality David Frost for a string of in depth television interviews. The last decades of Nixon’s life were spent rebuilding his reputation. He will always be remembered as the face of the embarrassing Watergate scandal. Due to these events no president will ever be trusted.

During the historic years of 1981 to 1989, Ronald W. Reagan, actor and politician, was elected and ran as President of the United States of America. All was well with his presidency, until his second term, in the fateful year of 1985, when Iranian terrorists captured seven hostages and held them as collateral against the United States. Unbeknownst to the American people, this situation would set in motion an incredible string of events that would create turmoil within the country in two years time. President Reagan authorized the negotiations with Iran in trading these Americans for thirty million dollars and 2,000 assorted missiles to aid in the ongoing war with Iraq. With the money received from the Iranians in the exchange of weapons for

According to Biography (2016), “Oliver North was the deputy director of the National Security Council appointed by President Ronald Regan.” He was involved in the Iran Contra Scandal through supplying military firearms to Iran in exchange for the United States Hostages that were being held in captivity, and the secret operations to financial fund the contras. He was indicted on the charges of illegal gratuity and destruction of documents, but he was granted immunity.

I. Foreign Policy Puzzle The Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980's not only caused a disruption in our nation, but also tarnished the name of President Ronald Reagan. The Iran-Contra Affair involved two parties, the Contras, a rebel group in Nicaragua fighting against their communist government, and Iran. The deal in Iran was a trade to help negotiate the retrieval of American hostages located in Lebanon. During this period of time, President Reagan approved the operation that involved the selling of missiles to Iran during an arms embargo (Hunter, 2012). It was also said by President Reagan that as a country we would not be rewarding terrorists by any means.

Richard Nixon was 37th President of United States from 1969 until 1974. He won second term as president in 1972 defeating George McGovern. Also, President Nixon is remembered as the first President to resign from Office after the 70s Watergate Scandal. His achievement includes forging diplomatic ties with China and Soviet Union and also withdrawing troops from war in Vietnam. But his involvement in Watergate ruined his term as President and resigned in 1974 rather than facing impeachment.

President Reagan wanted to remain the adored figure in the public’s eye and deemed to succeed where President Carter failed, even if it meant breaking the law. Throughout the scandal, Reagan’s first priority was free the hostages. Iran stated that they would release the hostages if. there was an exchange for the arms. This exchange benefited the Reagan administration as the money they received were given to aid the Contras. In politics, the job description of a President is well known; The President runs the White House with full authority as commander in chief and everyone knows and respects this role. With this claim, how is it possible that President Reagan was unaware of the activities being conducted in his office, regarding the Iran

In order to accurately depict the Watergate scandal we will need to look into the history if the elements that made this event possible. In November of 1968 President Nixon was elected as president, he server from January 1969 to August 1974. President Nixon was a former Vice President to President Eisenhower from January 1953 to January 1961. In June of 1971 the New York Time began publishing documents that would be known as the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers documented the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. This published the questionable tactics and methods used by the U.S. along with many U.S. secrets to the general public. This was a great blow to the U.S. strategically and was considered to be detrimental to national security, however courts ruled that it would be unconstitutional to stop the publication of the documents. President Nixon needed to find a way to stop such leaks and a special investigative unit was created. This unit was nicknamed the Plumbers after David Young’s (a member of the special investigative unit) grandmother asked what he did in the Whitehouse. Young replied that he was, “…helping the president stop some leaks.” and his grandmother replied, “Oh, you’re a plumber!” The name stuck and henceforth the special investigative unit was known as the Plumbers.

President Reagan was leading the Nation when it all happened. The scandal left many talking, not only the American people, but also other Nations worldwide. People were disappointed, other relieved, and well the sadistic ones thrilled. It might have been years ago, but the scandal is still fresh in some other people’s mind, especially the human activists in the USA who do not forget, but hold onto government scandal waiting for the right time to strike. Iran-Contra affair was one of the biggest American political scandals the country has ever experienced.