Before we get started, this video is part of another mega collaboration.
This one not only features a bunch of History YouTubers, but a bunch of Edutubers.
I’m not Joshing you.
All of our videos are related to the Cold War, and it’s called Project MAD.
Check out the entire playlist in the description of this video.
I’m Mr. Beat Our story features seven countries.
Who do we ask for help when we don’t know where places are located?
Map, right!
You have to say map!
(smiles and looks over) There he is! (map flies off screen)
I’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map!
Here are the seven countries we are looking at in this video.
The United States, The Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Lebanon, and Israel.
Thanks map! (turning to look at camera) I’m so sorry.
I’ll never do that again.
You may remember that the Cold War is so easy to define that even my brother can do it,
but let’s review, shall we?
The state of political hostility that existed between the United States and their allies
and the Soviet Union and their allies from 1945 to 1991.
That’s lovely.
So this video is about the Iran Contra Imbroglio.
Oh that’s a fun word.
Imbroglio.
Uh, but more commonly known as the Iran Contra Affair.
Once upon a time, a dude named Ronald Reagan was an American President.
When he first took office, he was pretty passionate about fighting Communism, with a capital C.
In particular, the Soviet Union.
Even though the Cold War had been going on for 36 years, tensions were still high between
the two countries.
It’s safe to say that Reagan escalated those tensions during his first years in office.
Specifically, Reagan had two ongoing Cold War problems he had to deal with.
One, the spread of Communism in Latin America.
And two, extremists in the Middle East who kept taking American hostages.
During the first hours of his Presidency, Iran released 52 Americans who had been held
hostage for more than a year.
Militants first kidnapped them after invading the American embassy in Tehran.
In the aftermath of what became known as the Iran Hostage Crisis, relations between the
United States and Iran remained hostile.
Oh, please keep in mind that many Iranians were upset with the United States for decades
before this, ever since the American government played a role in overthrowing their popular,
ELECTED leader Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953.
Anyway, Reagan continued a ban on providing weapons to Iran, just like former President
Jimmy Carter did before him.
Meanwhile, Iran found itself at war with its neighbor to the east, Iraq, after Iraq tried
to take over some of its territory.
Well, guess which side the United States supported?
Yep, Iraq.
It gave them lots of money, weapons, and information to help them.
And then, another hostage crisis.
This time in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.
Beginning in 1982, members of an Islamist militant group known as Hezbollah, kidnapped
104 foreign hostages.
Most of them were Americans.
It’s important to know that Hezbollah had direct ties to Iran.
So what does the Reagan administration do?
Why sell weapons to Iran of course.
Wait what?
Wasn’t there a ban on providing weapons to Iran?
Wasn’t Iran a BIG enemy to the United States?
Ok, so here’s where Nicaragua comes in.
You forgot about Nicaragua, didn’t you?
Remember, Reagan was fighting Communism all around the world, not just in the Middle East.
In Latin America, the fight was just as active at times.
Nicaragua’s government was ruled by Marxists, Socialists, Communists, and whatever other
scary word you want to think of.
Basically, the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
They’re members were called Sandinistas, and they still exist today.
In the early 1980s, they were rather authoritarian, and the Reagan administration thought they
had to go down.
So they supported the Contras, a diverse group of rebels trying to topple the Sandinista
regime.
Here’s the thing, though.
The United States Congress had cut funding of the Contras.
In fact, it passed a law known as the Boland Amendment, which specifically said the United
States couldn’t help the Contras overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
A big reason why was a link between the Contras and the cocaine trade.
More on that later.
But you all know about this because of that episode of American Dad, right?
But the Reagan administration was going to throw the Sandinistas anyway.
That’s right, they would be BREAKING THE LAW.
But how would they get away with it?
Well, remember how I said the Reagan administration would sell weapons to Iran?
Yeah, they would sell weapons to Iran.
Now, the official explanation later on by the Reagan administration was that they sold
the weapons to Iran in order to free the American hostages Hezbollah had in Lebanon.
However, as it turns out, they were selling weapons to Iran BEFORE the Lebanon hostage
crisis.
In addition, and this may sound crazy to some, but Israel helped coordinate the deals.
Israel, a country that was definitely an enemy to Iran and they still are enemies by the
way.
But Israel wanted Iran to continue fighting that war with Iraq.
Ya know, keep them preoccupied so they wouldn’t be a threat to them.
Now, much of the money the Reagan administration got for selling weapons to Iran would then
secretly go to help fund the Contras in Nicaragua.
The Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, helped this money stay off the books.
Eventually, Iran did manage to free at least one American hostage in Lebanon, but again
the Reagan administration was BREAKING THE LAW.
Congress had violated the ban on military aid to
the Contras.
Later on, we found out that the CIA was possibly also buying cocaine from the Contras to help
fund their resistance, and that may have also played an important role in the creation of
the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States.
The CIA denied this, however, and investigations by other parts of the federal government never
found evidence for it, either.
That’s all I will say since the CIA is monitoring this video right now.
Don’t move.
Anyway, enough about the drugs.
There was no doubt the Contras were getting support from the United States.
In November 1986, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Shiraa reported on the arms deal, and the rest of
the media soon began to find out the rest.
Many Americans were outraged.
Immediately all those involved began to destroy the evidence as quickly as possible.
It was too late.
The United States Attorney General, Edwin Meese, led an investigation into it, even
though he may have been in on it.
One dude did come forward and admit wrongdoing.
That was National Security Council staffer Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who admitted
his involvement with getting money illegally to the Contras.
North’s boss, the National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, who had resigned before
news broke of the scandal, attempted suicided before scheduled testimony.
Even though North said Reagan knew all about the deals, Reagan claimed he was innocent
of wrongdoing and didn’t know what his subordinates were actually doing.
But remember, just 15 years prior was the Watergate scandal, so many Americans didn't
believe Reagan when he said that.
Reagan did go on TV in March 1987 and seemed to take responsibility for the imbroglio though.
Congress investigated, and ultimately found that Reagan himself did not actually know
the extent of multiple programs in the Iran Contra Affair.
In other words, he was apparently out of the loop, so they didn’t indict him.
However, Congress indicted several dozen administration officials and eventually convicted eleven,
including four CIA officers.
They even indicted the former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.
Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and McFarlane’s successor John Poindexter were all found guilty
for their involvement.
North got off relatively easy for his cooperation, and the next President, George H.W. Bush actually
pardoned all three of them.
All three are still alive actually, and North even ran for Senate and had a long career
in right wing media.
Oh, and remember, George H.W. Bush was Vice President when all this was originally going
down.
That didn’t mean he knew about it, but he probably was friendly with all involved.
In the final days of his Presidency after losing reelection in 1992, he pardoned the
rest of those indicted or convicted.
The Iran-Contra Affair was probably the most serious scandal of the Reagan presidency,
and hurt his legacy, especially regarding his foreign policy.
To this day, many contend that he knew more than he actually said he did.
Still, Reagan remained a popular President in his final days in office.
And overall, a general mistrust in government, which really took off with the Vietnam War
and Watergate Scandal, had just continued to grow.
But hopefully you trust me.
Well I already know some of you don’t.
The CIA doesn’t.
I gotta go.
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Thanks to Datacamp for sponsoring this video.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Project MAD playlist, which I’ve linked
below.
So what do YOU think?
Did Reagan deserve more blame?
Was George H.W. Bush right in pardoning them all?
Let me know down below.
Also, remember that I cite my sources in the description of every video.
I always encourage you to research this stuff for yourself.
It’s fun to read hundreds of pages of legal documents, I promise!