A. Plan of Investigation
The investigation assesses the extent of significance of President Reagan’s role in the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980’s. Reagan’s role will be looked at while aiding the Nicaraguan Contras, releasing American hostages, both which led to the Iran-Contra affair, and during the cover up, in America and partly in Iran. An investigation account and American history are mostly used to evaluate Reagan’s role. Two of the sources used in this essay, Firewall: The Iran-Contra conspiracy and cover-up written by Lawrence E. Walsh and The Age of Reagan by Sean Wilentz will then be evaluated for their origins, purposes, values, and limitations.
B. Summary of Evidence
Prior to the Iran-Contra affair, Reagan was in the last days of his first term. In his first term, some things he dealt with were an attempt to his assassination, being against labor unions, and ordering arms to be built for the détente strategy. His second term which dealt mostly with foreign affairs marked a downfall in his reputation. As part of his foreign policy and an effort to stop the spread of communism, Reagan thought it was important to help the Nicaraguan insurgents, the contras, to end their communistic government. Under the Reagan Doctrine, which was constructed to oppose Soviet influence and had a lot of “support for anti- Communist revolutions” , the CIA was ordered to assist the contras with military activities. However, excesses made by CIA resulted in Congress ending the aid as funding money started running out. The Boland Amendment, which was signed earlier in 1984, “denied requests of assistance to Contras and prohibited any help from any nation or group.” However, the Reagan administration decided to continue arming and traini...
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...rule of law from being applied to the perpetrators of criminal activity of constitutional dimension.” With every effort taken, the Americans were finally released.
Works Cited
Alterman, Eric. “Contra Gates.” The American Prospect. (November 8, 2006).
Deaver, Michael K. A Different Drummer. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2001.
“Iran-Contra Figure to Lead Democracy Efforts Abroad.” New Services. (February 3, 2005).
Johnson, Julie. “Reagan Asserts Iran-Contra Defendants Are Not Guilty.” NY times. (May 2006).
Krauthammer, Charles. “Essay: The Reagan Doctrine.” Time Magazine U.S. (April 1, 2000).
Walsh, Lawrence E. Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1997.
Wilentz, Sean. The Age of Reagan. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.
Wolf, Julie. “The Iran-Contra Affair.” PBS. (October 17, 2010).
"I shall show you what happens to people who defy the laws of the land! In the tribunal everybody is equal, here there is no regard for rank or position. The great torture shall be applied to you!" (194)
As we move into the reelection year, the authors accuse Nancy of ensuring that Reagan hasn’t campaigned for eight months, following a “Rose Garden strategy.” But Reagan has no credible opponent for the 1984 nomination, and Walter Mondale, who will be his Democratic opponent in the general election, has not yet been nominated. So there is no need for a strategy, Rose Garden or otherwise. Of course we get the full chapter and verse on Reagan’s poor performance in his first debate with Mondale; at least we also get the report on the second debate. From there the narrative jumps to the Iran-Contra affair. A few high points — like the Berlin Wall speech in 1987 — are indeed included, but without any perspective on Reagan’s strategy, perseverance with the Soviets on arms control, or success in revitalizing the U.S. economy. Nothing is said about Reagan’s four second-term summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Except for a few comments that Reagan deplored Communism, this is a policy-free book, and a book
McCraw, David, and Stephen Gikow. “The End to a Unspoken Bargain? National Security and Leaks in a Post-Pentagon Papers World.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 48.2 (2013): 473-509. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Reagan rose into power after years of turmoil and the American pride was dipping. About a decade before he became president, the war in Viet-Nam was winding down and the troops were returning home to negative demonstrations towards their duty. Then, during the Carter years, America transitioned into a détente policy, which meant that the United States would try to ease the tensions with the Soviet Union by not expanding the military, but not doing anything to acting ease the tension. The idea behind this became known as MAD, mutually assured destruction, (Hannaford) which meant that both the United States and Soviet Union would maintain and even number of nuclear weapons so that if one would fire, the other would be able to fire back equally. Reagan completely disagreed with this philosophy and created a whole new policy when he became president. The foreign policy he established was to create the Reagan Doctrine. According to a speech by Peter Hannaford, the Reagan Doctrine was that America would support democratic movements in any Communist country until that country could enjoy the fruits of freedom (Hannaford). This meant that the United States would help any country who wanted to leave the influence of the Soviet Union and create their own democracy. Also, to counter the Soviet Union and end the Cold War, a race between the United State and Soviet Union to create the best technology and become the world powerhouse, Reagan increased military spending. Ronald Reagan knew that the Soviet Union was unable to keep up the United States in military spending and still having enough funds to fund their own economy to keep it stable. Reagan used this knowledge to convince Congress to increase military budget to build up technology, causing the Soviets decide on what to do. The United States had the funds to continue, but the Soviet Union could not keep up. The breaking point
?Espionage.? 2000-2004. The War to End All Wars. Michael Duffy. Original Material. Primary Documents Online.
In October 1984, Congress voted to cut off all aid to the contras. Administration actions. The Reagan Administration sought ways to continue aiding the contras after the congressional ban. At first, it secretly raised funds from several foreign countries and wealthy Americans to help finance the contra efforts. In 1985, the Administration initiated a secret "arms-for-hostages" operation designed to free seven Americans held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon.
President Ronald Reagan strongly opposed the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in 1979, suggesting its communist nature as the reason for a necessary opposition. While the workings of the Iran-Contra affair were entirely covert, there was a time when Reagan openly supported Nicaraguan rebel factions. The president was understood to strongly oppose the Sandinista regime as evident by the termination of Nicaraguan aid and the support of the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance. At one point, Regan goes on to state his readiness "to accept the idea of overt aid to the anti-Sandinista guerrillas in Nicaragua." Reagan went on to address Congress and compel them to take action in Nicaragua as a function of United States foreign policy. A joint session of Congress however was unconvinced as Reagan’s support of anti-Sandinista groups would not prevail. The Democratic majority of the House of Representatives would succeed in their doubt of anti-Sandinista efforts, actualized by specific legislation. Representative Edward P. Boland introduced the “Boland Ammendment” for the ...
The "Iran-Contra Affair. " The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: Political, Social, and Military History. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker, b. 1875.
The Iran-Contra Affair took place in 1986 during the Reagan Administration. It started with a clash between 2 different belief systems and Countries that refused to work together and with The U.S being a Capitalism Giant, attempted to prohibit the spread of communism. The CIA’s backing of the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan would become its largest covert operation in history, funded by an intricate series of clandestine and illegal activities, known as the Iran-Contra Affair, which involved the complicity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi regime as well. Essentially, the tremendous wealth created in Saudi Arabia through the orchestration of the Oil Crisis, would act as a slush fund to fund the CIA’s covert operations. When Reagan became
At the same time there was prisoners in Lebanon that were Americans held hostage, by a group with Iranian connections to the army of guardians of the Islamic Revolution. most of the plans was to ship Israeli weapons to Iran and then the United States will resupply Israel payment then give it to the Contras fighting their own war in Nicaragua against the corrupted government and the rulers of their country.The Iranian promise to do everything to release the hostages so as long as the weapons come in they will release a couple hostages a day if not couple hostages a month. The person that was in charge of the modifications was a devoted leader Colonel Oliver Oliver North of the National Security Council from the 1980s. The portion proceeds from the selling of weapons was going to the anti sandinista to an anti communist rebels at the Contra group in Nicaragua. It was kind of known that Ronald Reagan president like the idea some of the Contra case, which means he might of authorized the money that was getting to the United States by Iran to go to the Contras. There is a note taker called Caspar Weinberger Thomas wrote that he will suspicious of Reagan and aware of potential hostage transfers and Iran, I also knew that there was hot in tow missiles that can level of the whole country going to
In 1979, George decided he wanted to run as president for the Republican Party, he lost the position to Ronald Reagan. After Reagan won the nominee for the Republican Party he asked GEorge to be his vice president which George gladly accepted. Together George and Ronald was able to pull through and win the election against their Democratic opponents. As Vice President of Ronald Reagan, George was able to gain some experience in dealing with many problems. In 1986, one problem, the Iran-Contra Affair arose that almost ruined his political career forever. The administration was selling arms to Iran to help free hostages which violated United States Policy, They also used the money to buy weapons for the rebels there which was against the law.
In later years, Afghani forces turned on heir former patrons, targeting United States interest around the world. Scholars have questioned the distinctiveness of the Reagan Doctrine. The United States was challenging communist and leftist movement far from the Soviet periphery. Others have continued to criticize the administration for applying the Reagan Doctrine selectively. Recipients of America aid were often lacking in liberal virtues. For instance, hardly any support on democratic grounds was stated. This also led critics to charge Reagan with pandering public opinion, since administration references seemed more reflective of the president’s domestic political needs than of the makeup of those forces receiving American assistance. Indeed, it is far from clear whether the allegedly greatest achievement of the Reagan Doctrine, the fall of communism itself, is attributable to Reagan at all. Historians have argued repeatedly that a host of troubles internal to the Soviet Union from a stagnant economy to a crisis of political legitimacy to the intractable nationalities question were far more consequential to the undoing of the Soviet system than any challenge mounted by Reagan. Nevertheless, other scholars point out that Reagan gave
This type of ordeal occured around nineteen eighty-five,which is well around the president Ronald Reagan’s midterm, when he is beginning to have a very complicated agenda and is having a hard time keeping his political momentum during his presidency. But he instructed his national security advisor on a plan of action . So Robert Mcfarlane, tried all that he can, for better or for worse, to find a way to assist the Contras, a rebel group in Nicaragua who are fighting the communist government there, no matter what the cost would be. They found what they needed to do, by selling their own weapons to Iran for money, because Iran just so happens to be at war with its neighboring country, Iraq, and are in need of weapons in order to fight against them. But a long while ago, prior to Reagan’s presidency, the democrats passed and ratified the Boland Act, which is meant to restrict the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA and Department of Defense or DoD in terms of any foreign conflict. As well as that, the United States also placed an embargo on Iran, due to their experience with the Middle East and the Iran Hostage Crisis, after the country’s revolution and overthrow
His stance was that “ détente's been a one-way street that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims. Their goal must be the promotion of world revolution and a one world communist or socialist state." According to President Reagan, the Soviets considered détente a sign of American weakness and vulnerability ( WeThe People.org). Reagan believe that the United States needed to improve and secure its economic and military power. He felt that by doing so the United States would send the message that it would not sit idly by and accept the oppression of the Soviet Union on other nations. The Soviet Union was attempting to spread Communism as far as possible and Reagan felt that if America stood up to the Soviet Union than Communism could be halted. One of the major points of Reagan’s theory was that the Soviet Union was not as strong as it appeared to be and if America challenged it economically then it could cause the collapse of the Soviet Union. Reagan surmised that the government controlled economy of the Soviet Union would not be able to stand against the free market economy of the U.S. Another tactic that Reagan used was that of the “arms race”. The U.S. began to build up its military and it challenged the Soviet Union to do the same. Reagan’s belief was that the economy of the Soviet Union would not be able to compete with the
The Iran Contra is a scandal that eventually erupted after the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran in high hopes of being able to free American hostages in Lebanon. Since 1981, The United States had sent over a 508 TOW which is an anti-tank to Iran. Shiite had took American victims hostage and the country known as Israel had ultimately