Introduction On October 5, 1986 an American cargo plane was shot down in southern Nicaragua. Halfway across the globe, in Iran, Oliver North was in negotiations with Iranian Government officials. North was participating in a National Security Counsel covert operation negotiating arms for hostages. Most Americans were under the impression that these two events had nothing to do with each other, but that outlook would change over the next few months as more information was released.
Newspapers quickly grabbed hold of the situation in Nicaragua. When Eugene Hasenfus, the crash's sole survivor, was put in front of a camera by his captors he told the American people that he had been participating in a CIA funded operation to supply the rebel forces in Nicaragua with weapons. Congress was in the process of voting on a bill that would give one-hundred million dollars to the Democratic rebels (Contras) in Nicaragua, but any attempt to aid the Contras before this was passed would violate U.S.
Official Portrait of President Ronald Reagan
Goin' to Iran
President Ronald Reagan with Caspar Weinberger, Ge...laws banning aid to the Contras.
One month later, the press came into another shocking story, a Lebanese weekly news magazine uncovered the top-secret, arms for hostages trades going on between the NSC and Iranian officials. This report would send the White House into political crisis once again. If the Lebanese report was true, that the U.S. government was selling arms in order to obtain the release of hostages, then what would that say about President Reagan's highly publicized stance that said, "Americans will never make concessions to terrorists." On November 25th, President Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese held a shocking press conference. In an attempt to keep the conspiracy away from the President and his cabinet, they reported that the President had not been "fully informed" of some of the activities that took place in...