Iran Contra Affair Research

has emerged as a lasting world power and beacon for freedom around the world. It is also worth noting that it has experienced its’ share of scandals and internal strife that has brought to question the credibility and the reputation of this great nation. One of the most controversial issues in the history of America during the late 19th century is the Iran Contra Affair1. The affair is also popularly known as the Iran-Contra scandal, Irangate as well as the Contragate. The Iran-Contra affair was merely a political scandal which took place in the U. The Iran-Contra deal not only damaged the United States foreign policy reputation but went on to be a threat to the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Reagan presidency own complicities brought in what some should impeach as there were accusations that the president was aware of the secret arms deal as well the funding of the rebel contras from profits of arms sales yet during his campaigns President Reagan had promised to help the anti-communist insurgencies from the entire globe which were enduring political hurdle7.

The Iran-Contra affair investigations happened because of the political environment which was prevailing in the United States in the early 1980s8. This paper will give a detailed explanation of the events during the Iran-Contra affair on the basis of who was involved in the affair, what happened when the events took place as well as why the affair happened. The Iran Contra Affair exposed the global United States sponsored web of illegal arms sells, drug trafficking, and negotiations with terrorist states and organizations. N. presence in the Middle East. Consequently, the U. S. pulled its troops from Lebanon. and U. N. sanctions imposed against the Iranian government using the funds to support the Contras of Nicaragua. The Contras of Nicaragua were a guerilla force whose goal was to destabilize and over-throw the communist government of Nicaragua, which had the support of the Soviet Union.

The United States, in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union Republics, funded the Contras as they had crucial interest in the slowing the spread of communism in Central and South America including the Nicaraguan country14. However, like any other business, the Iran Contra Connection was supposed to hit a bottom rock one day. Manuel Ghorbanifar was one of the lead arms dealers that were used as a scapegoat by the American authorities who were the real people behind the business deal. The deal went sour when the Israelites made a report to the President of the United States Ronald Reagan one day when he was on a medication spree in a hospital in Israel. 17 However, in what was thought as it would be distraught and sent the president to anger, he was the one who made some reservations and called the high leadership of the army to the White House where a new plan was hatched.

The new idea here was that the president allowed to arms trade to continue taking place now with his full knowledge about the same time taking caution so that the name of the United States was not to be solid with what they had initially signed against18. Here, the proposal was that there was no need to change the way through which the United States was to send the arms directly to the Iranian authorities. The proposal was that there was no need to run the arms deal through Israel but the United States had to be independent and sell it arms directly to the country. This also was to benefit the idea that the Contras of Nicaragua had to be facilitated and hence selling the arms directly to the Iranian authorities was also an act of helping and ensuring that the Contras of Nicaragua were facilitated by the United States government, a position that the United States had denied its involvement before20.

The top government officials were officiating and running this illegal operation. The inclusion of the Israelites in this operation was to hide the Americans from being seen openly in the operation. The directive read as "Dynamic political evolution is taking place inside Iran. Instability caused by the pressures of the Iraq-Iran war, economic deterioration and regime in-fighting create the potential for major changes inside Iran… The U. S should encourage Western allies and friends to help Iran meet its import requirements to reduce the attractiveness of Soviet assistance. This includes the provision of selected military equipment. 23” This directive received a lot of opposition from the Defense Secretary as well as Secretary of State Caspar Weinberger and George Shultz respectively. On 24 November 1985 they supplied 18 anti-aircraft missiles.

The final supply of weapons took place on October 28, 1986, with a supply of 500 more TOWs. Discovery of the Iran-Contra affair The deal proved to be very productive but without the knowledge of the public who would show their concerns about the relationship between the United States and the Iranian government in time. The public only knew of the embargo that the United States had developed on the Iranian government and no more information was divulged to them. The public only believed that the United States was on the move of establishing a cordial relationship with the Iranian side28. The revealing of the secret arms sales to Iran resulted into turmoil with the presidency of Reagan administration and furthered the public doubt the United States government in relation to its foreign policy.

Investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair Following the unraveling of the Iran-Contra affair, in January 1987 the congress started an investigation into the political scandal34. The key aims of staging the investigation were to have control over the out-of-control executive arms as well as safeguard the Republican administration from the excess criticism it was facing from the Democrats. This is because the criticism was threatening the termination of the presidential reign of President Ronald Reagan. Tower Commission President Reagan on November 20, 1986formed a special team of congressional review board whose task was to investigate the alleged political scandal per the president. The report criticized Oliver North, Caspar Weinberger, and even John Poindexter as the key perpetrators of the Iran-Contra Affair. It was also confirmed that the President Reagan lacked knowledge on the extent of the secret arms deals especially the diversion of funds to the Nicaragua Contras.

The report never exempted the president as he was criticized for not having effective control of the country’s National Security Council as well as for not effectively supervising his subordinates. Independent Counsel Walsh The political scandal of the Iran-Contra affair was also investigated by an independent counsel on December 19, 198637. This was after the request of the Attorney General Meese III. On the contrary, the Democrats reaction was in the form of criticism of the President Reagan as well as his entire administration. The people began to lose trust in the United States foreign policy since the United States had exempted themselves from supplying Iran as well as any other country globally that supported terrorism. To the majority of the Americans, the occurrence of the Iran-Contra affair was a sign of incompetence of the president in his administrative duties41.

This is because his apparent confusion that he was not aware of the actions of the CIA, NSC, as well as DOD involvement in the secret arms deal, means people believed he had failed in supervising his subordinates. They also considered the scandal as a deviation from the normal procedure of law. Additionally, they argued that he had failed to honor the country’s was by participating in a banned covert operation as well as negotiating and funding terrorists. Impact of Iran-Contra on Ronald Reagan Presidency Despite Ronald Reagan having being considered as one of the most popular United States Presidents in terms of fighting the cold war as well as reconstituting the military, the exposure of the secret arms deals which involved shipping of American weapons to Iran via Israel so as to have their hostages released as well as use of the funds of arms sales to fund Nicaragua contras highly tarnished the legacy of President Ronald Reagan.

It was a sign of inefficiency in rendering his duties. The president had also demonstrated that he could not honor the country foreign policies. Unlike other previous actions during high reign, his notorious missteps which consequently resulted to the Iran-Contra scandal had negative impact of his legacy43. America's involvement in proxy wars against the spread of communism The United States of America was involved in the war against the spread of communism in the world mainly because it was a threat to their superpower position. Considering that the United States is a capitalist country, there was no way they could allow communist to spread to the western countries an idea of their foes from the Soviet Union. As a result, the United States enacted laws that prevented any military transactions with countries from the Soviet Union, and this is the reason why the administration of Ronald Reagan faced a lot of criticism after the secret arms deals with Iran was surfaced by Lebanese magazine.

The United States mainly fought the spread of the idea of communism through a cold war by use of aggressive policies such as the policies of McCarthyism, containment as well as brinkmanship46. The main reason the United States was against the spread of communism is their desire to retain geopolitical gains from the Second World War. The drug trafficking deals during the Iran-Contra affair was more so linked with the top commanders involved in the Contra affair as per the reports from the National Intelligence Estimate in 1985. Writings about the Iran- Contra affair One of the major books that explain this whole issue was written by Jonathan Marshall, Peter Scott, and John Hunters. These great writers wrote the book describing the whole issue and the effects that it had in the American foreign policy all over the world.

It also explains the many things that the United States of America through its National Intelligence officers. The authors went deep to justify any bad things and inhuman acts that were perpetrated by the United States officers during the war. This book, therefore, highlights in details the many ills that the central Intelligence Agencies played during the said arms embargo against Iran50. This explosive book also highlights the many activities that the CIA engaged in that were wrong and went against the United States foreign policy. These activities include the drug and drug trafficking between the Iranians and the United States, gun running and other arms business that also went against the International Conventions. Many cases of assassinations during this period were also recorded, and the Central Intelligence Agencies were blamed more for this heinous act.

Extrajudicial and careless killings were also experienced during this period as the CIA engaged in many shoddy deals and anybody that went against their demands was often killed by what was predominantly sponsored by the CIA. But the war on terrorism was not the initial contingency plan, but it was instead done after the failure of the original plan to curb and to hide the many issues that the central intelligence services had engaged in that was illegal and unlawful. Conclusion The Iran Contra Affair showed the negative part of the American country and the extent that they can go to deal and achieve their dreams which can be unconstitutional and generally not accepted. Many activities that were done on this time by the Americans were entirely against their common laws.

The extent that the President of the United States went for the release of the seven hostages which formed the basis of the war has been chiefly criticized as a move that was unacceptable. In the quest to seek for the release of the hostages, he jeopardized the whole American country and the sovereign people of the United States, and he lowered their morale and position in the society. Byrne, Malcolm.  Iran-Contra: Reagan's Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power. University Press of Kansas, 2014. Chavira, Devin. "Evidence and Analysis: The Iran-Contra Affair As seen through American, Middle Eastern, and Soviet news sources. Wolf, Julie. "The Iran-Contra Affair. " Retrieved December 15 (2000): 2009. Samuel, Segev. The Iranian Triangle, (London: Free Press, 1988), 106. "Superpower Surrogacy and the Onset and Duration of Civil War: A Direct Empirical Test, 1947-1989.