it was one of America's most notorious
presidential scandals that must cost
Ronald Reagan his presidency the
iran-contra affair
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in the early 1980s the US was still in a
cold war with Russia an anti-communist
sentiment was strong various
presidential campaign Reagan promised to
assist anti-communist insurgencies
around the world for a brief time under
Reagan the CIA trained and assisted
groups fighting communist leaders abroad
Reagan was particularly interested in a
group called the Contras and their
battle in Nicaragua the Contras rora
group battling the Cuban back
Sandinistas communist group who had
seized power in 1979 Reagan called the
Contras the moral equivalent of our
founding fathers but much of the Contras
funding came from the cocaine trade
because of this Congress passed the
Boland Amendment specifically aimed at
keeping American money from funding the
group that happened in 1982 shortly
after Reagan took office the amendment
restricted the CIA and Department of
Defense from using funds to provide
military assistance to groups that were
trying to overthrow nicaragua's
government groups like the Contras
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this didn't stop Reagan president told
his national security adviser Robert
McFarlane to help the Contras anyway
regardless of the cost MacFarlane found
opportunity in Iran in 1985 an Iranian
backed terrorist group held seven
American hostages in Lebanon Reagan
insisted his advisors find a way to
bring the hostages home saying I want
you to do whatever you have to do to
help these people keep body and soul
together so with permission from Reagan
MacFarlane made a deal the US would give
Iran weapons in Iran would broker the
release of the hostages this happened
even though Reagan publicly insisted he
would not negotiate with terrorists and
despite the fact that there was a trade
embargo with Iran but that was just the
tip of the iceberg the deal with Iran
didn't just secretly secure the release
of the hostages in exchange for weapons
and there was money involved while
thirty million dollars had been
allocated for the weapons the CIA
funneled a portion of that money to the
Contras in Nicaragua the group Reagan
supported in their guerrilla fight
against the Sandinista government in
1986 the Lebanese newspaper al-shara
reported the arms deal and everything
began to unravel that prompted an
investigation by the US Attorney General
who discovered that only 12 million of
the 30 million dollars actually went
toward weapons for Iran the rest of the
money was sent to the Contras in
Nicaragua
the revelations were explosive Reagan
denied the allegations that he had
negotiated with terrorists but
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North came
forward and acknowledged that he
diverted funds to the Contras north also
said Reagan knew about it
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North's testimony would inspire the
press and Congress to launch
investigations against Reagan for the
rest of his presidency Texas Senator
John tower led the investigation into
the scandal the tower Commission
determined it was Reagan's lack of
oversight that allowed iran-contra to
happen but did not implicate Reagan
directly
it wasn't until another congressional
investigation in 1987 that Reagan
finally testified on May 5th 1987 joint
hearings were televised investigating
the covert arms deal with Iran and the
assistance to Nicaragua the hearings
would go on for 41 days Reagan was never
charged but McFarlane Oliver North for
CIA officers five government contractors
and Reagan's national security adviser
John Poindexter were all found guilty
yet speculation about Reagan's
involvement lingered on press
investigations would go on for years to
follow while Reagan's image suffered a
bit he still left office with one of the
highest approval ratings of any
president in US history
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