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Lt. Colonel Oliver North
The Iran-Contra Affair
Ten years ago the Iran-Contra affair swept the
headlines as the nation watched an indignant Lt. Col. Oliver North testify before a
congressional committee. Although polls showed that most Americans were
critical of North's actions and ambivalent toward the man himself, media coverage left the
opposite impression, with its broadcasts of "Ollie-for-president" rallies and
stories of congressional aides overwhelmed by a torrent of pro-North mail.
In
this book, public opinion is more than the sum of a pollster's tally; instead, Amy Fried
defines it as a political tool, integral to the political process, where vested interests
compete to legitimize their interpretation of the public voice. Fried explores
the construction, interpretation, and uses of public opinion, raising important questions
about the media and the role of special interest groups in determining policy.
From Kirkus Reviews , April 15, 1997
Walsh, the former independent counsel for Iran/Contra matters, submits an injudicious,
self-serving brief in aid of reversing the probable verdict of history that his extended
and contentious investigation of malfeasance at the highest levels of US government
produced appreciably more heat than light. Drawing on the record he compiled
in the course of a six-year investigation, the author delivers a largely chronological
narrative built around a rehash of serious charges that were never proved in court.
At issue was the question of whether Ronald Reagan exceeded his presidential
authority in sanctioning a hushed-up arms-for-hostages deal with Iran, which also yielded
cash used to equip the Contra forces in Nicaragua. These clandestine
operations came to light in the mid-1980s, and Walsh was called in to unravel the tangled
web at the start of 1987. By the author's account, he had no axes to grind at
the outset of his inquiry. Perhaps not, but his office became vaultingly
ambitious in its selection of targets after failing to put the usual CIA, National
Security Council, or White House suspects, let alone Oliver North and John Poindexter,
behind bars. At various times, Walsh recounts, he and his aides went after
George Bush, Edwin Meese, Donald Regan, George Shultz, and Caspar Weinberger.
The fact that he got nary a one of these men in the dock does not stop the author from
repeating in detail allegations of supposed misdeeds that resulted in but a single
indictment. Attentive readers will learn that feckless subordinates,
ill-informed judges, and national-security hurdles, not Walsh, are to blame for the
paucity of scalps. A spirited if one-sided effort by Walsh to have the last
word on the Iran/Contra affair and to justify his largely unavailing stewardship of the
independent counsel's office. Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights
reserved.
Iran-Contra was a true case of Machiavellian politics because
all of our most sacred principles were run over for the sake of the dictators ideology -
that the end justifies the means.
The
Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History
(The National Security Archive Document)
by Peter Kornbluh, Malcolm Byrne, Theodore Draper
Paperback (1993)
With a few exceptions, all of the 101 facsimile
documents in this collection were released five and six years ago, about when those
scandalized by Ollie's antics and those who defended his zeal watched his televised
congressional testimony. The exceptions -- such as North's notes, CIA debriefs
of its Costa Rica station chief, and Bush's diaries -- that have since come out add little
to the affair's essential lessons (the political cost of pursuing unpopular policies in
secret), but prying loose such evidence, with the crowbar of the Freedom of Information
Act, is a virtual raison d'etre for this book's private sponsor, the National Security
Archive. This Beltway entity thrives on indignation about the affair, this
being its third, and not last, title about it. Whether or not anyone can
seriously agree with the NSA's extravagant belief, summed by introducer T. Draper that
"if ever the constitutional democracy of the U.S. is overthrown, we have a better
idea of how it is likely to be done," one can support the public value of this
collation. Factoring in its chronology, bio sketches, concice editorial
matter, and its guts--the titillation sensation of seeing "eyes only" reports --
it will ecumenically attract all parties to the political schism, those concerned with,
blase about, or even bored with the scandal that keeps on going and going and going . . .
Gilbert Taylor Copyright© 1993, American Library Association. All rights reserved.
In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb
found the Big One -- the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about --
without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional
pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra
rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence
Agency. For several years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements
shuttled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going
toward the funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan
homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive
drug-dealing operation had the implicit approval -- and occasional outright support -- of
the CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought into
the United States. Within the pages of Dark Alliance, Webb produces a massive amount
of evidence that suggests that such a scenario did take place, and more disturbing
evidence that the powers that be that allowed such an alliance are still determined to
ruthlessly guard their secrets.
You may be looking for the famous generals of the US civil
war, the hunt for Osama bin
Laden, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis
or the
holocaust,
Vietnam or the Second World War, weapons through the
ages, US Military
Regulation Dress Swords, Medieval
Swords, costumes and uniforms,
Napoleon Bonaparte, the French
Revolution, Masonic Pope
or
Royal Regalia or GI Joe.
Australian Order of Precedence
Missile Crisis in Cuba - President John F. Kennedy - Bay of Pigs
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