Iran Contra Scandal

Iran Contra Scandal

The Iran-Contra affair was a controversial political scandal that dealt with senior US figures who had been facilitating the sale of arms to Iran, that was under an arms embargo, to secure the release of the hostages and to fund the Nicaraguan anti communist rebel contras. The secret operation was brought out to the public in 1986 after a Lebanese publication reported about how the US sold arms to the Irans. The information was pulled out of a US pilot that was shot down and shocked many because the Reagan administration had denounced the Iran as a terrorist supporter. Prior to the arms were sold to the Irans the US enacted the Boland Amendment, which limited the assistance of the Us to the Irans. The branches of government

After that they would be a huge threat to the United States. An aim of the Reagan Administration was to drive the communist out of Central America. Reagan opposed the leftist government known as the Sandinistas, and supported a rebel conservative organization known as the Contras in Nicaragua. America wanted to interfere with Central America, but this was not the first time. “In the early 1900s U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to control rebel uprisings and again in late 1920s to "preserve order”.”(Phelps and Lehman, 1) The interference was becoming a habit. Not only did the Central American citizens object to the Reagan administration involvement, but also the U.S. citizens. In addition 50,000 youths had died and billions of dollars had already been spent in the Vietnam war and no one wanted to go through that again in Central

The idea of funding for this affair was thought of by Oliver North. The idea was mostly off the record and to get money from other countries allied with the US to give large amounts of money to contribute to continuing the anti communist movement in Nicaragua and war supplies. “ A portion of the $48 million that Iran paid for the arms was diverted by the NSC and given to the Contras, the U.S.-backed rebels fighting to overthrow the Marxist-oriented Sandinista government of Nicaragua.”(Iran-Contra, 1) North was a Marine Major. At the time his boss was Robert C. McFarlane, Deputy National Security Adviser, He taught North about how to deal and handle the politics of Washington. McFarlane also taught him about dealing with congress. In 1983 McFarlane was named NSC director and watched over NSC matters with the two men under him Oliver North and John M. Poindexter, although he taught and worked very closely with North, he did not know about the arms-for-hostages funds. Another person that played a major role in this scandal Ronald Reagan. At the time he was our president and was hiding this scandal from the public. After the people found out what was going on the made a huge uproar. The people felt like they could no longer trust the government. How could something so serious like this be hid from the