Introduction
The Iran-Contra Scandal occurred on the (insert specific dates) in the midst of the cold war. Oliver North, a member of the National Security Council of the United States, was accused of diverting money from weapon sales in Iran to support the Contras in Central America. Provide context of central America, how this was exposed, what happened to north, specific trial stuff, talk about the cold war/tensions… state thesis at end of sentence, state arguments, conclude.
Main Argument 1
The intent of the Boland Amendment was to prohibit the use of United States funds to support the Contra-revolutionaries in Nicaragua. The precise wording of the Boland Amendment is:
During the fiscal year 1985, no funds available to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, or any other agency or entity of the United States involved in intelligence activities may be obligated or expended for the purpose or which would have the effect of supporting, directly or indirectly, military or paramilitary operations in Nicaragua by any nation, group, organization, movement or individual.
This wording is ambiguous and does not explicitly state that the National Security Council (NSC) cannot fund the Contras. The Amendment also does not define or identify all agencies involved in intelligence activities and does not identify the National Security Council as an intelligence agency. Therefore, the amendment applies only to agencies of the United States involved in intelligence activities. Thus, the main purpose of the Boland Amendment was to prevent direct CIA interference with the situation in Nicaragua and not the interference of the NSC. Because Oliver North was a member of the NSC, the Boland Amendment never applied to him...
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The 1980s saw great political and military action throughout the world. However, one particular event that took place began in the early 1980s which was the Iran-Contra Affair. The Iran-Contra scandal is said to be the result of President Ronald Reagan’s attempt to accomplish two things. The first being his desire to see that the Americans which were being held as hostages by Iran, to be freed and the second was that he wanted to provide assistance to the contras in Nicaragua by going around congress. As obvious and as famous as the previously mentioned appears to be, the key states or countries involved are a matter of investigation. The heavy hitters in the Iran-Contra scandal aside from the United States, were Nicaragua, Iran, and Israel, which possess the question; how did several countries from various places around the world become so entangled in one of the world’s most memorable, multinational, scandals of all time?
The Iran-Contra affair survives as one of the most dramatic political scandals in American history. Approximately a decade after Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal both shocked and captivated the public. The affair began in Beirut, 1984, when Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group sympathetic to the Iranian government, kidnapped three American citizens. Four more hostages were taken in 1985. The conservative Reagan administration hurriedly sought freedom for the Americans. Despite a 1979 trade embargo prohibiting the sale of weapons between the U.S. and Iran, members of Ronald Reagan’s staff arranged an arms-for-hostages deal with Iran in an attempt to free the American hostages in Lebanon. Meanwhile, back in the Americas, Reagan was pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in response to the Cold War. The Reagan administration was doing its best to curb Communist influence in Central and Latin America. In Nicaragua, Reagan wanted to support the democratic rebel Contras against the Marxist Sandinista regime, despite legislation passed in the early 1980s, the Boland Amendment, that made federal aid to the Contras illegal. In 1985, Oliver North, a staff member in the National Security Council, devised the scheme to divert surplus funds from weapons sales with Iran to the Contra cause in Nicaragua, violating the Boland Amendment. Following public exposure of the scandal, Oliver North and many other members of Reagan’s staff were put on trial; however not a single one of them was appropriately punished. Each person involved was either pardoned, granted immunity or had convictions overturned. The Iran-Contra scandal and its aftermath exposed both the executive branch’s lack of accountability to the American people and the other branches of g...
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The Nicaraguan revolution of 1979 is an event that many American citizens may not know about. What is likely less understood is the United States’ role in the cause of this revolution. The US actually played a very important role in causing the Nicaraguan revolution. The US did three major things that strongly influenced the revolutionaries to revolt against the government. The US helped create the National Guard of Nicaragua, a group that abused citizens and blatantly disregarded for human rights. The US was also complicit in the assassination of Augusto Cesar Sandino, a citizen who fought against US Marine occupation in the 1930’s. Finally, the US supported the Somoza family, a series of three dictators who held Nicaragua from 1939 until 1979 when the revolution occurred. The United States involvement is not limited to these three occurrences, but these three examples are important causes of the revolution. To provide a better understanding of the revolution and the United States’ involvement in Nicaragua, the historic setting is necessary.
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...rican interests abroad. Taft would use “dollar diplomacy”, and the Roosevelt Corollary in Nicaragua and other Latin American countries to further protect American business investments.
Watson, Stephanie. "Iranian Hostage Crisis." Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 158-60. U.S. History in Context. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Talbot, David. "The Assassination: Was It a Conspiracy?: Yes." Time. 169 (7/2/2007): n. page. Print.
This amendment was fairly easy to add to the constitution, because most of the state constitutions had already install the amendment to their own (Wood). It was one of the short addressed problem other than the rights of protecting private property and quarters for soldiers during a war situation. The only argument against was by Anti-Federalist who wanted the ban of quartering completely. This argument was never acted on once the Bill of Rights was agreed on by the delegates (Morriss).
Cuban mistrust and nationalism, was resulting to secret agreements allowing the Soviet Union to build a missile base on the island. The U.S. found out those plans setting off a fourteen-day standoff. U.S. shi...