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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Iran-Contra

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Nicaragua's Contra rebels in 1990. The U.S. backed the Contras in the 1980s, which led to the ouster of the leftist Sandinista leadership. But the U.S. aid violated American law and contributed to the biggest scandal of President Reagan's administration. In the early 1980s the U.S. government provided military aid and financial support for the warring Nicaraguan opponents of the Sandinista regime, the contras, whom Reagan referred to as “the moral equal” of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As American popular support for such efforts withered, at least partly because of fears of entanglement in a Vietnam War-like conflict, the Democratic-led Congress passed legislation in 1984 (the second Boland Amendment) that banned both direct and indirect U.S. military aid to the contras, much to the dissatisfaction of Reagan.
Lieut. Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings in Washington, D.C., 1987. The Iran-Contra committees’ majority report was signed by all of the committees’ Democrats and three Republican senators. It found that the NSC had covertly raised money for the contras, established an organization for supplying them with arms, attempted to ransom hostages, transferred arms to Iran, and diverted to the contras money from the sales of those arms—all without presidential authorization. The report also emphasized that these actions had violated the fundamental constitutional requirement that government actions be funded by monies subject to congressional oversight. Moreover, it found that senior officials within the Reagan administration had knowingly misled Congress
U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan receiving the Tower Commission Report on the Iran-Contra Affair, February 26, 1987. In early 1985 the head of the NSC, Robert C. McFarlane, undertook the sale of anti tank and anti aircraft missiles to Iran in the mistaken belief that such a sale would secure the release of the American hostages. This and several subsequent weapons sales to Iran in 1986 directly contradicted the U.S. government’s publicly stated policy of refusing either to bargain with terrorists or to aid Iran in its war with Iraq, a policy based on the belief that Iran was a sponsor of international terrorism. A portion of the $48 million that Iran had paid for the arms was diverted by the NSC and given to the contras. North and his associates also raised private funds for the contras, and the transfer of arms and other matériel to the counterrevolutionaries was conducted by an organization known as the Enterprise. These activities violated the Boland Amendment
Reagan meets with (left to right) Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz, Attorney General Ed Meese and Chief of Staff Don Regan in the Oval Office After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. The investigation was impeded when large volumes of documents relating to the affair were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On 4 March 1987, Reagan made a further nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for the affair and stating that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages"