Iran contra what was it

He retracted the statement a week later, insisting that the sale of weapons had not been an arms-for-hostages deal.

Despite the fact that Reagan defended the actions by virtue of their good intentions, his honesty was doubted. Polls showed that only 14 percent of Americans believed the president when he said he had not traded arms for hostages. Then-unknown Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council explained the discrepancy: he had been diverting funds from the arms sales to the Contras, with the full knowledge of National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter and with the unspoken blessing, he assumed, of President Reagan.

Poindexter resigned, and North was fired, but Iran-Contra was far from over. The press hounded the president: Did he know about these illegal activities, and if not, how could something of this magnitude occur without his knowledge? In an investigation by the Reagan-appointed Tower Commission, it was determined that, as president, Reagan's disengagement from the management of his White House had created conditions which made possible the diversion of funds to the Contras.

But there was no evidence linking Reagan to the diversion. Speculation about the involvement of Reagan, Vice President George Bush and the administration at large ran rampant. Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh investigated the affair for the next eight years. Fourteen people were charged with either operational or "cover-up" crimes. In the end, North's conviction was overturned on a technicality, and President Bush issued six pardons, including one to McFarlane, who had already been convicted, and one to Weinberger before he stood trial.

Although laws had been broken, and Reagan's image suffered as a result of Iran-Contra, his popularity rebounded. In he left office with the highest approval rating of any president since Franklin Roosevelt. The Reagan administration also aided the Contras, a counter-revolutionary organization that fought against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Reagan worried that the Sandinistas, a revolutionary group that received support from Cuba and the Soviet Union and seized power in Nicaragua in , threatened to spread communism in Central America. In December , he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency CIA to provide covert training and assistance to Contra forces, who waged guerrilla war against the Sandinista government and its supporters. This U. The secret did not last. Front-page newspaper articles and magazine cover stories exposed the U.

The result was congressional passage in December of an amendment, sponsored by Rep. He made these assertions even though some Contras were involved in drug trafficking to fund their operations and political assassination. MacFarlane assigned the task of sustaining the Contras to Lt.

North relied on assistance from the CIA, including from director William Casey, to construct an organization he called the Enterprise for the secret supply of military equipment to the Contras. Funding at first came from two main sources: contributions the Reagan administration solicited from other nations, primarily Saudi Arabia; and donations North helped secure from private citizens who worried about the spread of communism in Central America.

North added a third source when he used profits from the arms sales to Iran to help support the Contras. The use of these funds connected the two prongs of what became the Iran-Contra scandal.

The secret dealings of the Reagan administration in Central America and the Middle East became public knowledge in late when a plane carrying weapons to the Contras crashed in Nicaragua and a surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, made statements about U.

Shortly afterward, a Lebanese newspaper carried a report about the sales of U. After the disclosure of this shocking news, Reagan fired North, even while lauding him as an American hero, and accepted the resignation of John Poindexter, who had succeeded MacFarlane as national security advisor. Several investigations followed. In a report released in February , the commission blamed the NSC staff and other presidential aides for the scandal.

On March 4, , he delivered a televised address in which he accepted responsibility for the scandal and recanted his previous assertion that his administration had not traded arms for hostages.

Reagan also accepted the resignation of his chief of staff, Donald Regan, and named former Senator Howard Baker to that position. Baker tried to allay public concerns when he announced after his first day on the job that he was certain Reagan was completely engaged and fully in command of his presidency.

Select congressional committees also held televised hearings, and North was the star witness. He appeared in uniform with his service medals and insisted he was no loose cannon but a dedicated public servant who had full authorization from superiors for his actions.

Bush died in , and Iran-Contra faded from public discourse. These things happened before Oliver North, and after, continuing up to today, including weapons sales to Ukraine the last decade, and using Ukraine as a transfer depot for further illegal weapons sales to other parts of the world including Javelin missiles. This sort of thing did not go away after Oliver North. It has expanded. These things happen regardless of politics.

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