The Iran Contra Affair Involving Ronald Reagan - 1059 Words

In class, we discussed the Iran-Contra Affair involving Ronald Reagan. However, we did not go in depth about public opinion, George H.W. Bush’s involvement, or how people feel about it today. This paper will seek to continue this topic. For example, the Iran-Contra polls showed that most Americans did not believe Regan’s cover stories, yet there was never a push for him to pay the political price, which would ultimately have been impeachment. Thus this paper will further attempt to understand the mindset of people that allowed these events to occur with little penalty. The Public Opinion To begin, Congress, by fair vote, decided in the 1980s that the United States should not assist the contras fighting the socialist Sandinista government of Nicaragua (Corn 2006). Yet, the Reagan White House concocted several imaginative ways to pull an end-run around democracy (Corn 2006). Reagan’s decisions such as selling weapons to Iran were made with the knowledge that he would not suffer a decline in presidential approval. Thus, Reagan took various steps that were violations of law that not only involved himself, but members of the CIA. By 1986, two big revelations happened that caused this scandal to abrupt publically. The first was the shoot-down of a cargo plane over Nicaragua and the admission by the sole survivor that the plane had been delivering arms to the Contras against congressional restrictions (Kornbluh 2011). The second, revelation was the news story of Lebanon that statedShow MoreRelatedThe Iran Contra Scandal Was A Shocking And Nefarious Governmental Affai r1246 Words   |  5 PagesThe Iran-Contra Scandal was a shocking and nefarious governmental affair which occurred during the executive administration of President Ronald Reagan. 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