Reagan Scandal Case Study

In 1980, Casey reemerged in politics and became Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign manager. Reagan's campaign lost the Iowa caucuses to the competing George Bush, and was seriously in trouble. Casey was never interested in political strategy; nevertheless, he managed a successful campaign by maintaining overall responsibility while delegating the tasks among his assistances and providing them with significant latitude on making decisions. Furthermore, Casey conducted a secretive intelligence operation monitoring any possible effort by Jimmy Carter’s administration to negotiate with Iranian officials to free U.S. embassy hostages held in Tehran. Interestingly, after Reagan won the election and a few minutes after his inaugural address, Iran’s

In addition to the arms sales being against the law, the diversion of the profits to the contras was found in violation of Boland amendment, therefore on 11 December 1986, Casey was asked to testify in Congress, but his testimony was labeled unconvincing. The detail of Casey’s involvement in the scandal remains unclear. Some believe that he have had a role independent of the agency, however it is unclear what exactly the role was. The next day after his testimony in Congress, Casey suffered multiple seizures while in his office in Langley. Thus, he was transferred to Georgetown University Hospital in DC. Three days later, the day before he was to testify to Congress, he underwent emergency brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from the left side of his brain. Later, a journalist claimed that Casey's bedside comments indicated that his role in the scandal was much larger than what he testified to Congress. Casey never recovered from the surgery. He resigned from the CIA on 29 January 1987 and Reagan accepted his resignation on 2 February. On 6 May 1987, less than a day after the first witness in Congressional hearings testified on his involvement in arming the contras after Congress forbade the act, Casey died of pneumonia in Glen Cove Community Hospital on Long Island at the age of 74 years old without ever testifying again.

During his five years of service as DCI, Casey revived the CIA, before the scandal damages the face of the agency again. In the mind of many CIA career officers, Casey was the best and the worst, DCI they worked for. It was unfortunate that he died during the worst scandal of his time and was not able to see the results of his work, specially his greatest victory, which was defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Casey was survived by his wife, Sophia, and his daughter,