The Iran Contra Affair The Public

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.

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

“25 years ago, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North did something really, really bad. He sold weapons to Iran in an effort to help fund rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Socialist government. It was a war that was already being funded by the small country’s cocaine trade, a fact that prompted Congress to halt the flow of money from the U.S. to Nicaragua.” (http://time.com/2954148/iran-contra/)

i. Role of Oliver North: national security aid, stationed in the white house. he directed money from the Iranian arms sales to the contras. congress had banned this, do not fund the contras anymore. congress had forbidden this aid. North had circumvented this ban by raising money from wealthy conservatives from other governments, to fund this. (wealthy new right conservatives funded this) all in secret to the congress and to the people. New story broke, televised hearings in 1987, erased computer files right before the fbi arrived. he defended it by saying sometimes you need to go above the law for patriotism. he emphasized, I love my country and I am a patriot. Reagan praised north as a national hero, for undergoing this with American security in mind, but he also fired him. TV Reagan denied knowing anything about the scandal, but

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 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

One issue at hand, was the question of whether or not the existing arms embargo would push Iran to turn to the Soviets for weapons and therefore, encapsulate themselves under Soviet influence. It was then decided that America would then facilitate the sale arms to Iran with the hopes of establishing a relationship, thereby steering Iran away from Soviet influence and placing them back within the American influence (Kornbluh, 1993). A second component was the impending issue of securing the release of the American hostages being held in Lebanon. It was hoped that better relations with Iran could lead to securing the release of the hostages (Kornbluh, 1993). The third and final part of this enterprise was funneling a portion of the profits from the Iranian arms sales to the communist opposed Contra militants in Nicaragua (Wikipedia,

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.

President Ronald Reagan and his administration supplied weaponry to the Iranian Government in hopes of securing the release of the American Hostages held captive by the terrorist group known

In 1908, oil was discovered in massive quantities in Iran. Ever since, Iran has attracted a great deal of attention from other countries. In 1953, the United States felt that Iran was moving ever closer to Russia. To keep Iran out of Russian hands, the CIA overthrew Iran’s prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and placed the Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi, in place as dictator. However, the Shah was greatly disliked by innumerable Iranians because they felt he went against Islam and he let his secret police, the SAVAK, brutally control the people. In 1963, they openly rebelled. The revolutionaries were subdued forcefully and the leader of the rebellion, Ruhollah Khomeini, was exiled and sent to Iraq. This was the start of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The people began to rebel more and more often until, on January 16, 1979, the Shah raced away to Egypt. On January 30, 1979, thousands of Iranians cheered for Ruhollah Khomeini as he came back to Iran after fourteen years as an exile. Then there was a major question: should the United States, the Shah’s former ally, allow him to enter the country? According to Vice President Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter “went around the room, and most of us said, ‘Let him

In another article by Pincus, he digs into Bush’s integrity as well, especially when Bush had seemed to be blatantly lying. Pincus wrote that “during an NBC interview Sept. 6, he replied that ‘this seems to me to be just a late smokescreen out of that dead old saw out there. And I have nothing to explain. . . . And nobody has suggested that I 've done anything wrong.’”(Pincus, Walter, 1). Pincus, although not explicitly attacking Bush in this instance, it taking a subtle dig at Bush. He is calling out Bush on his apparent hypocrisy, and failure to come clean. The true sentiments of the news media though were exemplified in a San Francisco Chronicle article from August of 1992. This article openly attacked Bush, picking apart his claims one by one. This article criticizes him for being ignorant, hippocritical, deceitful, and generally a liar.(Note Contradicts Bush, 1) During this period of resurgent media coverage of the Iran Contra Affair, somewhat surprisingly, the news media never turned its attention toward Reagan. This provides some further insight into the reasoning behind this phenomena. Reagan was a second term president, a widely liked communist fighter, an older trustworthy man whose memory may not have been what it used to be, and when some fresher meat came into the picture, the media pounced. Bush’s involvement presented the opportunity to blame

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.

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

Political scandals are fundamentally impending, regardless of government type. One example would be the Iran-Contra Affair during the Reagan Administration, where the U.S violated the embargo policies against Iran. Another example would be the “stimulus” heist during the Obama Administration, where he basically took trillions of dollars in the name of “stimulus” spending. These types of scandals, however, have been more prevalent these days due to the fact that more people are gaining more extremist views, which is a conflict for many.

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.