Iran Contra Affair Essays (Examples)

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 -- in such a way that the President…

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. Specifically, it will discuss what the Iran-Contra Affairs were, how they developed, how they were discovered, the Congressional hearings, and the aftermath of the affairs. The Iran-Contra Affair was really a series of covert operations initiated by the Reagan administration and carried out first by the CIA and then the NSC. These affairs were investigated by Congressional committees after they became public, and were as detrimental to the government as the Watergate affair, because they subverted the Congress and the Constitution.

THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR

In reality, there was more than one Iran-Contra Affair, but the entire turn of events has become known as simply the "Iran-Contra Affair." In fact, the scandal surrounding the arms deal to Iran, and to the Central American contras were many different undercover operations, led by a variety of members of the National Security Staff. The first event to take place in the affairs…

Bibliography

Draper, Theodore. A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs. New York: Hill and Wang, 1991.

Editors. "Iran-Contra Affair." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2000.

Kornbluh, Peter, and Malcolm Byrne. "Iran-Contra: a Postmortem." NACLA Report on the Americas XXVII.3 (1993): 29-34.

Lynch, Michael, and David Bogen. The Spectacle of History: Speech, Text, and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.

Iran-Contra Outline

Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, and "Plausible Deniability."

This paper will attempt to contextualize Oliver North and the Iran-Contra Affair within a larger discussion of Cold War strategy.

The introduction will present the paper as having basic sections. The first will discuss the idea of "plausible deniability" -- invoked by North during his 1987 testimony -- and show how it fit into Cold War strategy in the 1950s. The second section will discuss Reagan's own Cold War strategy, and his reversal of the 1970s policy of detente -- this will also necessarily entail Reagan's interest in supporting the Nicaraguan Contras, and Reagan's first-term standoff with Congress over funding the Contras (leading to the passage of the Boland Amendment for three consecutive years, 1982-1984). The third section will show how North revived the notion of "plausible deniability" after it had been disavowed in the 1970s, and will demonstrate that this…

3B. Congressional opposition. Focuses on Congress' opposition to Reagan's support for the Contras, the passage of the Boland Amendment(s), and the general context whereby Oliver North would implement the "plausible deniability" strategy that enabled Iran-Contra.

PART 3. Oliver North and Iran-Contra. This ties together the previous two sections of the paper, by explaining North's actions in terms of a pre-1969 Cold War mentality and policy that had been revived by Reagan.

3A.

Executive ranch Authority to Conduct Foreign Affairs

Executive Power is vested in the President of the United States by Article II of the Constitution. Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the American Constitution, called the 'Executive Vesting Clause' has been the constant focus of constitutional analysis, even at the time of its ratification. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton famously debated this clause in 1793, on the specific issue of residual authority given to the President above and beyond powers as enumerated in the Constitution. The power and authority of the President affects not only the President himself, and the two arms of the Congress, but also the freedoms and rights of U.S. citizens. The precise delineation of executive power has been the subject of notable Supreme Court cases particularly with respect to foreign affairs and war. In the United States now, due to the 'War on Terror', issues of…

Bibliography

Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution

Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution

Binder, Sarah A. ( Spring 2001).The Senate as a Black Hole: Lessons Learned from the Judicial Appointment Experience. The Booking Review 19.

Bliss, Howard and Johnson, M. Glen. (1975). Beyond the Water's Edge: America's Foreign Policies. (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company).

It was a poor policy at best, and the President's Cabinet approved the plan, even if he did not. In fact, Congress specifically denied the request to send money to the Contras, so it was done in secret, and this violated the law and the trust of the nation. It was dishonest, it was covert, and it cast a dark cloud over the presidency and eagan's own motives.

In comparison, oosevelt has his own legacy of poor judgement, too. oosevelt tried to pack the Supreme Court by proposing to add new justices, and many believe he pointed the country toward socialism.

oosevelt felt the Supreme Court was too conservative when they overthrew many of the social changes he had created in the New Deal. He felt they were not following the Constitution in their decisions, but were following their own feelings. He wanted to bring the number of Supreme Court…

References

Felzenberg, Alvin S. "There You Go Again:" Liberal Historians and the 'New York Times' Deny Ronald Reagan His Due." Policy Review, no. 82 (1997): 51+.

McKenna, Marian C. Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Constitutional War: The Court-Packing Crisis of 1937. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.

Reagan, Ronald. 2008. Inaugural Address. [Online] available from the Internet at  http://www.americanpresidents.org/inaugural/39a.aspaccessed  3 May 2008.

Siracusa, Joseph M., and David G. Coleman. Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.

The second section examines the processes of the Constitutional Convention, the rectification of the weak Articles of Confederation, the ratification of the new Constitution, and the Washington and Jeffersonian Administrations. The first presidents had to try to make sense of the wording of the new document and put the presidency's ideals into practice. The third section examines the evolving role of presidents from Jackson to the present and how they defined the role in relationship to the legislative and judicial branches, public opinion, historical events, and foreign affairs.

McDonald notes that although Democrats today tend to be most critical of so-called imperially styled presidents, it was Republicans who decried the increasingly powerful office of the presidency during the Roosevelt and Johnson administrations, and only later did the two parties flip-flop, after Nixon created what would later be called the imperial presidency by Democrats. This suggests that there is less of…

Zionism is even being identified with Christianity, with evangelicals uniting themselves to Israeli interests. Need we remind ourselves that Zionism is a politico-religious belief that is diametrically opposed to Christian values? The post-war propaganda that followed II even helped obliterate the notion of Jesus Christ as Holocaust and replace it with the Shoah, the Jewish holocaust. At the heart of Zionism is the eradication of Christian culture and the elevation of Zionist policies like the one currently being enacted on the Gaza Strip. Israel is an apartheid state and has been murdering Palestinians for years -- and now it has convinced millions of Christians and evangelicals that they must destroy the Arab before he destroys them. hat kind of value is this? It is a diabolical one.

Refusing to embrace diplomacy also undermines our prosperity. Rather than attacking and occupying countries in the Middle East, we should be working with…

Works Cited

Anders, Chris. "Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens." ACLU.

23 Nov 2011. Web. 13 Feb 2012.

Buchanan, Patrick. "Why Are We Baiting the Bear?" 23 Aug 2011.

Corbett, James. "9/11: A Conspiracy Theory." Corbett Report. 11 Sep 2011. Web. 13

The situation in El Salvador was also a parable of what was happening all over the region. Central America seemed to be covered in revolt in 1981, when the massacre occurred. Along with the revolution in El Salvador, there was an armed conflict going on in Guatemala that was bringing terror and bloodshed to the country, and the Sandinistas had just taken over control in Nicaragua. In the midst of the Cold War, America supported the Central American regimes that fought Communism, no matter how corrupt and dictatorial they became, because Communism was the "real" evil that threatened the world. As such, they supported regimes that committed unspeakable crimes, such as the massacre at El Mozote, while keeping the true nature of their support from the American people. The Nicaraguan situation (Iran-Contra affair) with Oliver North supporting the rebel Contras against the Sandinistas by selling weapons to Iran is probably…

References

Danner, Mark. The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War. New York: Vintage, 1994.

Media in America as the Fourth Estate: From Watergate to the Present

During the 1970's, the role of the media changed from simply reporting the news to revealing serious political scandals (Waisbord, 2001). The media's role during Watergate was viewed as the mirror that reflected the most that journalism could offer to democracy: holding powers accountable for their actions. This became a trend in the American media and journalism had high credibility in the years that followed, and a great increase in journalism school enrollment followed.

However, during the 1980's and 1990's, this trend withered away. Investigative journalism is no longer rampant the firmament of American news. While the tone of the press was self-congratulatory in the post-Watergate years, the state of American journalism is currently viewed in a less positive light.

For the elite, the shift in journalism is welcomed. For example, according to John Dean, an American journalist,…

Bibliography

Altbach, Philip. (1995). International book publishing, and Encyclopedia. Fitzroy Dearborn.

Bagdikian, Ben. (1993). The Media Monopoly. Beacon Press.

Barton, C. Franklin, Jay B. (1994). The First Amendment and the Fourth Estate: the Law of Mass Media,6th ed. Foundation Press.

Coronel, Sheila. (July 31, 2000). Investigative Reporting: The Role of the Media in Uncovering Corruption. Southeast Asian Press Alliance.

A Critique of Democracy: the Latin American Left
Introduction
The Latin American Left was mainly inspired by the idealism of Marx. Marx (1873) believed that “the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind and translated into forms of thought.” For the Left, the main problem has always been rooted in class—as materialism is the basis of their worldview, class and class struggle was the biggest issue, and equality and egalitarian principles enacted and served in society were the goal. Marx wanted the workers to own the means of production and thus end the rule of the bourgeoisie over the laborers. This was his ideal—and the Latin American leaders on the Left made it their priority to nationalize private industry and for the state to take control of the means of production. Whether it was Evo Morales in Bolivia, Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, Castro…

Powell was unanimously approved by the Senate and became the first African-American to hold that position. His service as Secretary of State is a clear example of his reticence, yet readiness, for war. hile Powell is known for "the so-called Powell doctrine -- that U.S. military power only be used in overwhelming strength to achieve well-defined strategic national interests," (answers.com 3) he made a famous speech to the United Nations in which he voiced support for the war in Iraq. Although he clashed with the often "hawkish" members of the Bush hite House such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, "one of Powell's best known moments as secretary of state was his speech last year [2003] to the U.N. Security Council in which he made a case for invading Iraq" (King 3). The initial invasion of Iraq was billed as necessary by the Bush hite House because of the threat…

Works Cited

Academy of Achievement. "Colin Powell Biography." January 11, 2006.  http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/pow0bio-1 

America's Promise. "General Powell's Message to America." 2006.  http://www.americaspromise.org/WhyHere.aspx?id=124 

Answers.com. "Colin Powell." 2006.  http://www.answers.com/topic/colin-powell 

King, John; Koppel, Andrea; Malveaux, Suzanne; Labotte, Elise. "Powell resigns with three other Cabinet secretaries."  http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/powell/

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was founded in1947 out of the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, and its purpose was to act as a civilian foreign intelligence agency that dealt with threats to American interests abroad. hile initially born at the onset of the Cold ar era in which espionage and the threat of nuclear war was high, the CIA has developed over the years to be something more than its initial mandate set out. By participating in various black operations geared towards effecting regime change, the CIA quickly became known as a cloak and dagger agency very much in the tradition of the OSS.

The organizational structure of the CIA is situated in five directorates, all of which help to coordinate intelligence: the Directorate of Digital Innovation, of Analysis, of Operations, of Support, and of Science and Technology. The Director of the CIA oversees all of these directorates and…

Works Cited

Tyler, Patrick. A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East. NY: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2010. Print.

Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. NY: Anchor Books, 2008.

Print.

The historical experiences of Cuba, Chile, Turkey, and even the Iran Contra affair fueled the discussions over a tighter control exercised over the Agency's structure and strategies. However, the Cold War demanded for secret operations especially taking into account the high degree of uncertainty that characterized the political environment at the time. The ideological confrontation between the West and Communist forces was often defused on the territories of third parties and the advantage of information and influence played a crucial role.

The period following the Watergate scandal weighted heavily on the evolution of the CIA. Richard Nixon, along with his Secretary of State, Kissinger was the proponents of an increased power given to the CIA because the presidential control could thus be exercised without any legislative hindrance from the Congress. The 1971 presidential decision to gather the budgets of all national intelligence services under a single unitary one was just…

Bibliography

Alexandrovna, Larisa, Muriel Kane. New documents link Kissinger to two 1970s coups. June 26, 2007, accessed 15 October 2007, available at  http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Intelligence_officers_confirm_Kissinger_role_in_0626.html 

An Intelligence Community Primer. 2007, accessed 15 October 2007, available at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wmd/pdf/appendix_c_fm.pdf

Federation of American Scientists. Aspin-Brown Commission on the Role and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community. The Need to Maintain an Intelligence Capability. 1996, accessed 15 October 2007, available at  http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/int005.html 

Goodman, Melvin a. "CIA: The Need for Reform." Foreign Policy in Focus, February 15, 2001.

He learned quickly, showed political prowess, was not afraid to lead his followers in troubled times (like the Screen Actors' strike), and he could think on his feet, develop his own very moving speeches, and he had very strong beliefs which he was not afraid to voice. All of these are qualities of a leader, and they developed as he made his way thorough life.

eagan, with support of some friends and political leaders, began toying with the notion of running for governor in California. Cannon notes,

eagan, despite never having spent a day in public office, had political assets that his opponents failed to recognize. Foremost among these was that he was widely known and liked [...] He was an effective speaker -- in person, on radio, and on television -- with an intangible quality of identifying with his audiences and reflecting their values (Cannon 38).

In 1966, eagan…

References

Cannon, Lou. Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio: A History Illustrated from the Collection of the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum. New York: Public Affairs, 2001.

Joffe, Josef. "The 'Amazing and Mysterious' Life of Ronald Reagan." The National Interest Fall 2004: 85+.

Siracusa, Joseph M., and David G. Coleman. Depression to Cold War: A History of America from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.

Von Drehle, David. "Reagan Hailed as Leader for 'the Ages'." WashingtonPost.com. 2004. 24 Oct. 2008.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35593-2004Jun11.html

He still occasionally 'bums smokes' and chews nicotine gum to combat cravings (Altman, 2008, p 3). Obama's campaign released records suggesting that he is in excellent health -- only one page long. The only specific data they have revealed is his low cholesterol rating. The question arises -- if Obama is in such good health (and he does work out very frequently) why the reticence about the information (Altman, 2008, p.3).

The Obama campaign has implied that the mere appearance of good health on the part of the candidate should be enough, a statement that they would likely mock if it came from the older McCain. McCain has also cited the longevity of his mother as an example of why people should be unworried about his candidacy but again, this is hardly scientific proof of his fitness (Tasker & Chrissos, 2008, p.1). Of course, one of the reasons that questions…

Works Cited

Altman, Lawrence. "Many holes in disclosure of nominees' health." The New York Times.

20 Oct 2008. 20 Oct 2008.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/politics/20health.html?ref=health 

The health and medical history of John F. Kennedy." Doctor Zebra. 6 April 2006.

20 Oct 2008.  http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g35.htm

ar Powers Act of 1973 was an important piece of legislation during the Vietnam ar. The intention, per the wording of the act itself, was "to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicate by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities in such situations" (ar). The Act required that if armed forces were sent into a nation, Congress had to be informed within 48 hours. Additionally, armed forces could not remain within a nation for more than 60 days without a declaration of war.

Those in support of the law promised the American citizens that the Act would prevent "another Vietnam" and restore…

Works Cited:

Carter, Stephen L. "The Constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution." Virginia Law Review.

1984. Print.

Grimmett, Richard. War Powers Resolution Presidential Compliance. Washington, D.C.:

Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 2008. Print.

Finally, proponents of term limits point out that the aforementioned second-term problems were due to personality, leadership, and policy problems, not clout in Congress alone. In terms of change, the presence of term limits can 'cut' both ways: "On the one hand it is said that not having term limits makes needed change more difficult because of the power that long-time office holders amass. On the other hand, term limits can also be seen as an obstacle to long-term needed political change because it forces a change of leadership at a time when the leader's project might not be ready for such change" (ilpert 2009).

However, the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution suggests that the Founding Fathers envisioned a limited form of government, without a powerful ruling political class, particularly at the executive level. Above all, ashington and his fellow Founding Fathers feared the establishment of…

Works Cited

22: Presidential term limits. (2002, November 27). Post Gazette. Retrieved April 16, 2009 at  http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20021127amendment_22p9.asp 

Wilpert, Gregory. (2009, February 19). An important victory for Venezuela and for socialism.

NACLA. Retrieved April 16, 2009 at  http://nacla.org/node/5526

Ethical issues in business can often be stormy waters to navigate. The reason for this is that the human tendency is towards gaining as much as possible for as little effort as possible. This is so in all areas of life, including weight loss, making money, finding love, and all the major areas in which human beings seek to excel. Because of this fundamental trait in human nature, it is also often the case that those who gain power in a limited amount of time are tempted to maintain or perpetuate this power as much as possible in as little time as possible. In most whistle-blower cases, for example, the wrongdoing is not the result of an original intent to create an ethically difficult situation. For this reason, the first piece of advice I would give to Gail osenberg is to communicate with her immediate superiors. If this fails to…

References

Brown, A.J. And Olsen, J. (n.d.). Whistleblower Mistreatment: Identifying the Risks. Retrieved from:  http://epress.anu.edu.au/anzsog/whistleblowing/mobile_devices/ch06.html 

Needham, N. (2012, Dec. 11). Whistleblowing -- a dangerous choice? Business Management Journal. Retrieved from:  http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj.e7870 

Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs. (n.d.). Retrieved from:  http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/h-on-gallery.php 

Weise, K. (2012). More Financial Whistleblowing is on the Way. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from:  http://www.businessweek.com/finance/more-financial-whistleblowing-is-on-the-way-02162012.html

U.S. intelligence community is always expected to perform its duties according to some specified guidelines. This study examines the three themes found in the Pfeffer and Salancik book, "The External Control of Organizations," as applied to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). The paper reveals how the themes are applicable to the IC and their potential benefits to the IC. It is evident that the identified have proven to be useful to the community, as it has enabled it to adapt to the changing paradigms within the intelligence community.

The themes

First theme: the importance of the environment or the social context of organizations for understanding what decisions were made about issues ranging from whom to hire, the composition of boards of directors, and what alliances and mergers to seek.

From this theme, the leading obstacle in the realization of accountability in the U.S. intelligence community is the prerequisite of secrecy…

References

Banner, D.K., & Gagne?, T.E. (2006). Designing effective organizations: Traditional & transformational views. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publ.

Dobbin, F., & Schoonhoven, C.B. (2010). Organizational studies: The Stanford School 1970-2000. Bingley: Emerald.

Donaldson, L. (2010). American anti-management theories of organization: A critique of paradigm proliferation. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Hatch, M.J. (2011). Organizations: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

limiting free speech ID: 53711

The arguments most often used for limiting freedom of speech include national security, protecting the public from disrupting influences at home, and protecting the public against such things as pornography.

Of the three most often given reasons for limiting freedom of speech, national security may well be the most used. President after president, regardless of party has used national security as a reason to not answer questions that might be embarrassing personally or would show their administration as behaving in ways that would upset the populace. Although there are many examples of government apply the "national security" label to various situations, perhaps some of the stories that are associated with the Iran-Contra issue best display what government uses limitations on free speech for. In horrific tangle of lies double and triple dealing that resulted in the deaths of many Nicaraguans, the egan administration sought to…

References

Curtis, M.K. (1995). Critics of "Free Speech" and the Uses of the Past. Constitutional Commentary, 12(1), 29-65. Retrieved August 5, 2005, from Questia database,  http://www.questia.com .

Dan, W. (1989). On Freedom of Speech of the Opposition. World Affairs, 152(3), 143-145.

Reflections and Farewell. (2002). Social Work, 47(1), 5+. Retrieved August 5, 2005, from Questia database,

Presidential Speech

The Presidents accused of scandals in the history of American politics have been known to make memorable apology speeches. Even though, the speech that the Presidents made were done by different people and in different times, marked similarities and patterns have been noted. The Lewinsky scandal was basically a political sex scandal that occurred in 1999. This scandal came out because the President was accused of having a sexual relationship with an intern in the White House, Monica Lewinsky. The Watergate scandal occurred in 1970 because five men were caught at the Democratic National Committee and further investigations led to President Nixon being found guilty of committing fraud. Another fraud that highlighted a President as the causative agent was the Iran Arms and Contra Aid Controversy. This scandal occurred when President Reagan was in the administration and the officials in charge were accused of selling arms to Iran…

Clinton's Lewinsky Speech

Presidential scandal speeches should be considered a unique form of discoursed that follow a common pattern and have similar elements. All of these may not be found in every single speech but most certainly will, including ichard Nixon's Second Watergate Speech (1973), onald eagan's Iran-Contra Speech (1987), and Bill Clinton's Monica Lewinsky Speech (1998). All the presidents used strong, direct and active voice when making these speeches, with Clinton seeming to be particularly prone to narcissism and use of the first-person singular. A standard feature of all such speeches is for the president to take responsibility for what went wrong, express regret, and then call on the country to move on so the government can return to dealing with the nation's 'real' business. Both Nixon and Clinton also had a strong tendency to blame their political enemies for their predicament, and with good reason, although in Nixon's…

REFERENCES

Clinton, B. (1998). Monica Lewinsky Speech.

 http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/08/17/speech/transcript.html 

Nixon, R. (1973). Second Watergate Speech.

 http://watergate.info/nixon/73-08-15watergate-speech.shtml

Foreign Policy of President eagan

Before the disastrous Vietnam War, the U.S. held an undisputed dominant position worldwide, recognized locally as well as by other nations. The nation's historic actions towards defending freedom, by restraining the fascist faction during the Second World War, followed by organizing a large free-state coalition for combating communism, were supported by profound and sweeping domestic consensus. This consensus was destroyed by America's decision to wage war on Vietnam. Despite the rationale being the protection of free peoples battling communism, the Vietnam War resulted in caustic doubt and destabilizing discord among Americans. This suspicion and discord incited and guided by people opposed to the war, rather than the enemy's weaponry and zeal, explains America's failure, above every other factor. The U.S. had to battle internal resistance more than resistance from the Vietnamese adversary, and resulted in a self-inflicted defeat (Brenes 2015; LAISON 2013). Extremely serious repercussions…

References

Anderson, Martin. 1990. Revolution: The Reagan Legacy, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Armstrong, Scott and Peter Grier. 1986. Strategic Defense Initiative: Splendid Defense or Pipe Dream, New York: Foreign Policy Association.

Arquilla, John. 2006. The Reagan Imprint: Ideas in American Foreign Policy from the Collapse of Communism to the War on Terror, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.

Baucom, Donald R. 1992. The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983, Lawrence, Kans.: University Press of Kansas.

Abstract
This paper looks at the public policy of R2P and humanitarian intervention abroad, which serves as a major drain on American resources and benefits a foreign country more than it does the U.S. The money spent on these wars waged under the banner of R2P could be better spent on projects at home. The solution to this flawed policy is to address the elephant in the room, which is the Israeli lobby, to end the wars in the Middle East and put that money into healthcare, education or infrastructure back home, and to deny the persons in the State Department who serve under one administration from serving under the next so that they cannot force their continuity of government onto the incoming administration.
Introduction
Much has been made of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine that has become the de facto, go-to reason for intervening in other parts of…

Fundamentally, the insurgents are fighting an enemy with superior weaponry, technology, and resources, so therefore, must seek avenues to mitigate these disadvantages. In other words, insurgent forces out vastly outdone in the traditional aspects of warfare, so they are forced to resort to unconventional modes of attack.

Early in his book, the Army and Vietnam, Krepinevich provides the broad game plan an insurgent force must follow to achieve final victory:

As developed by Mao in China and adapted by Giap in Vietnam, contemporary insurgency is a third world phenomenon comprising three phases: first, insurgent agitation and proselytization among the masses -- the phase of contention; second, overt violence, guerrilla operations, and the establishment of bases -- the equilibrium phase; and third, open warfare between insurgent and government forces designed to topple the existing regime -- the counteroffensive phase."

Primarily, this form of warfare consists of the formation of a political…

Works Cited

Anonymous. 2004. Imperial Hubris. Washington, D.C.: Brassley's, Inc. Page, xxi.

Barringer, Mark. 1999. "The Anti-War Movement in the United States." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. New York: Oxford University Press Available: www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/antiwar.html.

Bush, George W. 2002. "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America." Speeches delivered September 17 and June 1.

Butler, Smedley D. War is a Racket. New York: Feral House, 2003.

Fred I. Greenstein, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Barack Obama, Third Edition. Princeton University Press, 2009.

Fred I. Greenstein's central point The Presidential Difference is that in the modern U.S. political system since the Great Depression and Second World War, the presidents are now they key actors, far more so than the pre-1933 period when Congress was the most important branch of government. Because the role of the executive expanded exponentially in both foreign and domestic affairs, the leadership style of the presidents became a crucial factor in policymaking and policy failures. He analyzes the leadership style of the thirteen presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama, including their communication abilities (or lack thereof), personality and emotional makeup, cognitive/intellectual abilities, and organizational talents. If Roosevelt set the pattern and served as the template for the modern chief executive -- and there seems to be little doubt that…

Conservative American Presidents

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the return to conservatism in the American presidency after the 1980s. It will compare the similarities to earlier periods in the 19th and 20th century, and discuss what relationship there is between this return to conservatism, and the continued struggle for U.S. military dominance and economic globalization.

THE RETURN TO CONSERVATISM IN AMERICAN POLITICS

The country emerged from orld ar II as the dominant world force and with a booming national economy.

It was able to construct a series of political, economic, and military alliances that tied most of the former great powers together against its only rival, the Soviet Union. This unique postwar situation could not last forever, and in the 1960s and 1970s the "American Century" began to unravel (Florig 153).

It was this unraveling that Americans were worried about, and so they turned to…

Works Cited

Anderson, Dennis M. "Ronald Reagan." Popular Images of American Presidents. Ed. William C. Spragens. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. 563-578.

Dansker, Emil. "William Howard Taft." Popular Images of American Presidents. Ed. William C. Spragens. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. 211-234.

Editors. "Warren G. Harding." The American President. 2002. 13 August 2002. http://www.americanpresident.org/kotrain/courses/WH/WH_In_Brief.htm

Editors. "Ronald Reagan: Impact and Legacy." The American President. 2002. 13 August 2002. http://www.americanpresident.org/kotrain/courses/RR/RR_Impact_and_Legacy.htm

As recent events in the Middle East have clearly demonstrated, Facebook is more on the side of the politically disadvantaged and the poor as they have increasingly embraced Facebook and other social media while the governments in the region tried to ban them. Many governments such as that of China do not allow Facebook primarily because they want to avert scenarios they have seen in the Middle East.

Facebook revolutions

It was in the wake of 2008 when Oscar Morales, a young man in Columbia, decided that he had had enough of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a Marxist group which routinely kidnaps people, keeping them as hostages for months or years, while many of the hostages die in captivity. Angry and depressed by the actions of FARC, one night he turned to Facebook which he had been using to connect with his friends and high school classmates. He…

Works Cited

Alexanian, Janet A.. "Eyewitness Accounts and Political Claims: Transnational Responses to the 2009 Postelection Protests in Iran." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 31.2 (2011): 425-442. Project MUSE. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. .

Burns, Alex and Ben Eltham, "Twitter free Iran: an evaluation of twitter's role in public diplomacy and information operations in Iran's 2009 election crisis," in Papandrea, Franco & Armstrong, Mark (Eds.). Record of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2009. Sydney: Network Insight Institute. Web. 26 Nov. 2011 .

China, Walid. "The Facebook Revolution." New African 503 (2011): 24. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.

Eltahawy, Mona. "The Middle East's Generation Facebook." World Policy Journal 25.3 (2008): 69-77. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.

Nicaragua

The Civil War in Nicaragua was one of the defining events from the 1980s, and it also happened to be a defining event in my personal life and that of my family. The argument in question was over the nature of the revolution in Nicaragua, and the political motivations of the Sandinistas. My assertion is that the situation in my home country is not as black-and-white as it has been presented in the American media, and to a lesser degree, the Canadian media. I believe that the situation that gave rise to this argument is rooted in a lack of accurate media coverage. Because I am from a Nicaraguan background, but also have one American parent, I can present a unique perspective that illuminates both sides of the argument to show that neither the Sandinistas nor the Americans had the best interests of Nicaragua at heart.

During this argument,…

References

Chomsky, Noam. "1970-1987: The contra war in Nicaragua." Retrieved online:  https://libcom.org/history/1970-1987-the-contra-war-in-nicaragua 

Klerlein, Ellie. "Environmental Effects of Nicaraguan Armed Conflicts." Nov. 2006. Retrieved online:  http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/nicaragua.htm 

Smith, John. [Conversation]. 2014.

In February of 2001, the government responded to pressures to relieve some of the suffering, the Emir loosened many of the laws. The U.S. considers Bahrain and important non-NATO ally in the ar against Terrorism, often using Bahrain as a staging area fro entry into Iraq. For this reason, the Bush administration continues to support increases in arms transfers to Bahrain. eapons transferred to Bahrain have included large and small weapons from shot guns to M60 tanks.

Indonesia

In 1999 Indonesian armed forces killed citizens in East Timor in response to the formation of anti-independence militias that were being organized. The government forces were equipped with U.S. M-1-6 rifles and other U.S. military equipment. The militia was also equipped with $1 billion in U.S. arms and training. In this case, the U.S. had been supporting the illegal occupation of East Timor since 1975. The U.S. supplied arms to both forces…

Works Cited

Bahrain." Available from  http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/bahrain.htm . Accessed December 6.

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 2006. UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hundred and eighty-third plenary meeting Resolution 217(a)(III) of the United Nations General Assembly, December 10, 1948. Available at  http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78715.htm . Accessed December 6, 2007.

Deen, T.U.S. Ramps Up Arms Supplies to Repressive Regimes. May 26, 2005. Available at  http://www.antiwar.com/ips/deen.php?articleid=6080 . Accessed December 6, 2007.

Disarmament" UN Department of Disarmament Affairs. Conventional Arms Branch. Available at  http://disarmament.un.org/cab/index.html . Accessed December 6, 2007.

United States in decline -- again? The answer if one is looking at the question during the year that this article was published (2007) is yes, the U.S. was in decline in many ways -- and continues to be in decline. In Michael Cox's scholarly article clearly points out that following orld ar II, and the subsequent Cold ar years, the U.S. was considered hands down the strongest nation in the world. Communism was on the decline, which was a point in America's favor after those Cold ar years of outreach by both capitalism and communism to try and impose influence on nations all over the world.

Cox is correct when he says that Ronald Reagan has been "almost completely rehabilitated by a new generation of historians" who, when comparing Reagan to George . Bush, see Reagan in a different light altogether. Maybe it is the fact that "hindsight is…

Works Cited

Cox, Michael. "Is the United States in decline -- again?" Royal Institute of International

Affairs 83, no. 4 (2007): 643-653.

PESIDENT EAGAN'S HUMAN IGHTS ECOD

Was onald eagan a Good President?

President eagan's International Human ights ecord

President eagan's International Human ights ecord

The Cold War and Apartheid

On September 26, 1986, President onald eagan (1986) sent a message to the House of epresentatives that he would not sign into law H.. 4868 because it imposed punitive economic sanctions against South Africa as a whole. His stated rationale was that the people most affected by the sanctions would be the Black workers, not the ruling White elite. eagan agreed that apartheid needed to end, but not at the expense of those already suffering the most under White rule. On the surface this logic seems admirable, even honorable, but others have questioned eagan's motives. Although eagan did not use the exact phrase "constructive engagement," this term would come to represent his policy stance towards apartheid. eagan's message to the House followed…

References

Bruce, D. (2005). Interpreting the body count: South African statistics on lethal police violence. South African Review of Sociology, 36(2), 141-59.

Bush, R. (1985). Reagan and state terrorism in Southern Africa. Crime and Social Justice, 0 (24), i-x.

Reagan, R.W. (1986, Sep. 26). Message to the House of Representatives returning without approval a Bill concerning apartheid in South Africa. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Accessed 6 Feb. 2014 at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/search/speeches/speech_srch.html.

Reagan, R.W. (1987, Jun. 12). Remarks on East-West relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. Accessed 6 Feb. 2014 at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/search/speeches/speech_srch.html.

The second proposal stated that the decision as to whether or when an independent counsel needed to be appointed would be at the absolute discretion of the President (Kavanaugh, 1998).

The third proposal suggested that Congress should ensure that the President and the Attorney General solely define and monitor the jurisdiction of the independent counsel, emphasizing the importance of how the responsibility for these jurisdictions should be on these officials that are publicly accountable, rather than on any court (Kavanaugh, 1998). The implementation of this proposal would greatly expedite investigations by special counsel (Kavanaugh, 1998). Fourth, the statutory reporting requirement should be eliminated by congress so that financial and time resources could be saved (Kavanaugh, 1998).

Kavanaugh's (1998) fifth proposal maintained that it should be established by Congress that the President can only be indicted after a voluntary leave of office or impeachment. Some may argue in favor of the…

References

Kavanaugh, B.M. (1998). The President and the independent counsel. Georgetown Law Journal. Retrieved 2/08/2007 from FindArticles.com  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3805/is_199807/ai_n8807527 .

O'Sullivan, J.R. (1998). Interaction between impeachment and the Independent Counsel Statute. Georgetown Law Journal. Retrieved 2/08/2007 from FindArticles.com  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3805/is_199807/ai_n8801616 .