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... ... middle of paper ... ...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).
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.
The Iran-Contra affair survives as one of the most dramatic political scandals in American history. Approximately a decade after Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal both shocked and captivated the public. The affair began in Beirut, 1984, when Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group sympathetic to the Iranian government, kidnapped three American citizens. Four more hostages were taken in 1985. The conservative Reagan administration hurriedly sought freedom for the Americans. Despite a 1979 trade embargo prohibiting the sale of weapons between the U.S. and Iran, members of Ronald Reagan’s staff arranged an arms-for-hostages deal with Iran in an attempt to free the American hostages in Lebanon. Meanwhile, back in the Americas, Reagan was pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in response to the Cold War. The Reagan administration was doing its best to curb Communist influence in Central and Latin America. In Nicaragua, Reagan wanted to support the democratic rebel Contras against the Marxist Sandinista regime, despite legislation passed in the early 1980s, the Boland Amendment, that made federal aid to the Contras illegal. In 1985, Oliver North, a staff member in the National Security Council, devised the scheme to divert surplus funds from weapons sales with Iran to the Contra cause in Nicaragua, violating the Boland Amendment. Following public exposure of the scandal, Oliver North and many other members of Reagan’s staff were put on trial; however not a single one of them was appropriately punished. Each person involved was either pardoned, granted immunity or had convictions overturned. The Iran-Contra scandal and its aftermath exposed both the executive branch’s lack of accountability to the American people and the other branches of g...
His extreme effectiveness feeds from decision-making ability that turned the country away from the negative and instable foreign policy of Carter and back to support winning the Cold War and promoting the strength of the US. In the 1970s, because Carter allowed Communism to gain military and territorial advantages, and failed to impose American hegemon and his own power as President. Reagan took office in 1981, “he was determined to rebuild that power, regain for the United States the capability to wage war successfully against the Soviets, to act with impunity against Soviet Third World clients, and to regain its status as the world’s dominant military force.” Reagan handled the Iran hostage Crisis within the hour of assuming the Presidency. Simultaneously, doing what was necessary to free Americans, and to use his power as President to go outside the constitution and congress and secure funding for the Contras to overthrown the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and restore the nation to a pro-American government. Unlike Carter Reagan wanted to make it clear he only cared about protecting American security, and that human rights could be an after
Throughout the Cold War the United States considered the installation in Latin America of radical regimes-socialist, Marxist-Leninist, or “leftist” in any way- to be utterly intolerable. Any such development would represent an advance for the communist cause and a vital loss for the West. Acceptance of this outcome could weaken the credibility of the United States as the leader of the west and as a rival for the USSR. In the eyes of Cold Warriors, the consolidation of any left-wing regime in the Western Hemisphere would have dire and perilous implications for U.S. national security and for the global distribution of power. It was therefore crucial to resist this possibility by any means necessary in countries such as Grenada, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
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 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
The iran-contra affair was a huge scandal it is also called a Irangate, Contragate or in other words what people would call it would be the Iran Contra scandal. The affair or scandal pedal faster on the second term of Ronald Reagan is the president of the United States of that time. Administration of the CIA of the senior office of the White House had secretly made the sale of weapons to Iran, it was otherwise known as an arms embargo. what an embargo means is to break the band or trade or other commercial activity with another country but that is what officials were trying to successfully do by re securing the release of U.S hostages and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
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
When the world’s nations began to change and conflicts starts popping up and begins to rise, that one important decision can, for better or for worse, benefit or hinder a governor, such as Nixon’s Watergate Scandal and Vietnam War. Every small, sharp, and obscure detail done either publicly, privately, or both counts towards the moral, reputation, and trust from the governed. But nobody, and by all means did nobody ever told President Ronald Reagan when he traded weapons to fund a rebel group. Boy how that really, really had not as much impact as it should have been. But the Iran Contra Affair did had an good sized affect socially, politically, and economically
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
"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)
?Espionage.? 2000-2004. The War to End All Wars. Michael Duffy. Original Material. Primary Documents Online.
The "Iran-Contra Affair. " The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: Political, Social, and Military History. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker, b. 1875.
Many people around know a lot about political scandals but some may not know about the Iran-Contra scandal. Many people did not even find out about the scandal until 1986. It was a scandal that did not come to light until Americans glued themselves to their televisions or read in newspapers that the president that they believed was a good guy had been sadly been sending weapons of mass destruction to Iran.