The Iran-Contra Affair By The Reagan Administration

The deception and secrecy of the Iran-Contra affair by the Reagan Administration illustrated the hypocrisy in U.S. Foreign policy. Beginning in the early 1980’s, the Reagan Administration orchestrated an elaborate plan to illegally fund a right-wing militant group in Nicaragua. Also during this period, the U.S. was entangled in a hostage crisis in Lebanon. As a result, of these two issues, Reagan and his administration would set up secret relations with Iran. Iran was publicly seen as one of America’s biggest enemies, but privately Iran would become a key trading partner. The Iran-Contra affair was one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century, the illicit deals made with the Iranians and various others involving arms, money, and

The affair originated from the U.S.’s aim to overthrow a Socialist Government in Nicaragua. The U.S. planned to support a rebel group called the Contras who opposed the government. The Reagan Administration encountered a major problem in helping the Contras. Congress had made it nearly impossible for the United States to fund the Contras either militarily or financially due to the Boland Amendment. The Boland Amendment according to The New York Times stated, “No funds available to the CIA, the Department of Defense or any other agency of the U.S. involved in intelligence activities may be obligated for the purpose of supporting, directly or indirectly, military or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua by any nation, group, organization, movement, or individual” (New York Times, 1987). As a result of this amendment, the Reagan Administration needed to find other ways to support the

needed a way to transfer the arms to Iran. So as a result, a plan was developed to send the arms via Israel to Iran. Israel and Iran have been bitter rivals since the birth of the Israeli state in 1948. Ultimately their rivalry was not a deal breaker and Israel went along as a middleman between the United States and Iran. According to The Secret War with Iran by Ronen Bergman, “Israel helped the United States by selling Iran $75 Million worth of Israeli military equipment including anti-tank guns, tank parts and aircraft parts” (Bergman, 2008). During a meeting on December 7th, 1985 a closed group of Presidential officials and cabinet members met with President Reagan to discuss the shipment of arms to Iran. Caspar Weinberger witnessed this as he wrote multiple notes that would be released to the National Security Archive. In these notes, Weinberger writes that “President Reagan would like to free the hostages and thinks the arms would help the moderate Iranian Army and could possibly overthrow the theocracy in Iran” ( Handwritten notes of meeting in White House Family Quarters, December 7, 1985). In the discussion, The President, George Shultz, Weinberger, and other top aides discussed the legality of selling arms to Iran via Israel. Schultz and Weinberger were against the operation of trading hostages for arms and saw it as illegal since the United States declared Iran as a sponsor of terrorism. As mentioned in the