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Iran-Contra Presentation
One of the last major events of the Cold War in the Americas was the so-called Iran-Contra affair, which occurred under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. My approach to the Iran-Contra affair is to examine the American domestic ideology and strategy which underlay this late, and complicated, episode in the Cold War.
The basic starting point, however, is to look at the investigation of Iran-Contra from the U.S. Senate. When Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North finally did testify in the Senate hearings in 1987, there was a crucial phrase that was used both by North and by the lawmakers who interrogated him. That phrase was "plausible deniability." And indeed "plausible deniability" is my basic subject here.
What is "plausible deniability"? In short, it is the concept that an American President would be able to order some specific action -- possibly military --...
The obvious example would be the assassination of a foreign leader.
In reality, "plausible deniability" was a concept that had been invented by the CIA at the height of the Cold War, in the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, when John F. Kennedy was President, the CIA would make detailed plans -- which ultimately did not succeed -- to assassinate Fidel Castro, which shows the centrality of "plausible deniability" to the operation of the Cold War in the Americas.
The difficulty, of course, is that while the CIA was pursuing this strategy, the American public did not know about it. In fact, the phrase "plausible deniability" only became public knowledge in the middle of the 1970s, when Senator Frank Church led an investigation into possibly illegal CIA activities at the height of the Cold…
But it is also worth noting that the 1970s was a critical period overall in the Cold War. This decade is what is usually referred to as "detente" -- the moment in time when Presidents both Republican and Democrat (Nixon, Ford and Carter) softened their hard-line stance against the Soviet Union, and instead tried to find a policy of peaceful coexistence. Detente led to several arms treaties, normalization of relations with China.
However, Ronald Reagan had always been opposed to detente. And when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, this made Reagan's hard-line stance more plausible. Reagan took office and reversed the ideological course of the Cold War. As a result, Reagan became personally obsessed with the possible "domino theory" effects of a democratically-elected Communist regime in Nicaragua. Reagan urged support for the insurgent forces in Nicaragua, known as the Contras, despite their rather horrifying record of torturing, raping and murdering civilians. A domestic standoff ensued where Congress refused to offer funding and military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras, and as a result senior Reagan officials -- including Colonel North -- conspired to raise the funding through secret weapons sales to Iran. When this plot was discovered, the chief question was whether Reagan himself knew of the plot. As a result, ten years after the terminology was first revealed to the public, "plausible deniability" became a subject of public conversation in America again.
The primary sources for my investigation are mostly public documents. I examined statements made in the hearings of the Church Committee in the 1970s when "plausible
Iran-Contra Affair think everyone knew we were walking a very thin line."(Owen) Not many Americans know the truth that lies behind the Iran-Contra scandals. Most would be surprised to know about the deception of our leaders. Still today, some truth of Iran-Contra lies hidden in the conscience of the people who organized, aided, and completed the operations. The entire affair is an example of the difficult task of balancing political
Iran-Contra Affair Historical Background of the Iran-Contra Affair Events Surrounding the Decision. Nicaraguan context. In the 1970s, dissatisfaction with a manipulative and corrupt government was escalating. All socio-economic classes were impacted and by 1978 the situation deteriorated into a short-lived civil war. Through violent opposition, the Marxist Sandinista guerillas achieved power in 1979. By September of 1980, the Sandinistas had suspended elections and taken control of the media. Leftist rebels in El Salvador
Whereas Poindexter defended the President staunchly, North did not. North genuinely believed that his orders were issued by the President, via Poindexter and McFarlane before him ("United States v. Oliver L. North"). Poindexter testified that he "deliberately withheld the information from President Reagan because 'I wanted the President to have some deniability so that he would be protected,'" ("United States v. John M. Poindexter"). According to the National Security Archives, Poindexter's
In the years following the Iran-Contra scandal, it seems there were many lessons learned. One, the government, when caught, is adept at covering itself and its own. Authors Lynch and Bogan note, "In the years since then, this conclusion was underlined by the fact that no one was impeached, few criminal convictions occurred, and no significant government reforms were enacted." In fact, high ranking officials, such as the president and his
Libya and the Iran-Contra Affair: Recent events of American intervention in Libyan affairs have sparked a debate upon whether or not support should include arms. Support for this measure can be found on both sides of the isle in Washington. The white house seems to be ignoring the issue for the present; however, it has come to light the CIA is on the ground, and some arms are coming from Egypt.
Iran Contra Affair is the name commonly given to a secret arrangement that sold arms to Iran in exchange for funds that were given to Contra rebels in Nicaragua under U.S. President Reagan in the 1980s. The Iran Contra Affair had its roots in the President's commitment to help the contra rebels, who Reagan saw as "the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers" (cited in Wolf). Unfortunately for Regan, Congress,