The Iran-Contra Affair

The United States has involved itself in several covert operations throughout the nation’s short history. Operations, like the Iran-Contra Affair, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) role in Afghanistan are just two examples of these types of secret government missions, which have become divulged to the American public. Both of these operations occurred under President Regan, who listed strict executive goals to fight the Soviet social influence, Communism, from spreading across the world. Moreover, other similarities are observed between the two covert missions, like providing armaments and training to foreign rebel forces (National Security Archive 2006, Johnson 2011). Moreover, different agencies were used in the missions for distinct

The secret operation known as the Iran-Contra Affair had many working pieces within the operation, and could be considered many separate missions wrapped into one secret multinational operation. President Regan’s agenda focused on freeing American hostages from the terrorist organization Hezbollah. To do this, Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council (NSC) headed operations when outdated military guns and equipment would be routed through Israel and into the hands of the Iranians. At the time, the Iranians were in conflict with Iraq and welcomed the sales of weapons from the United States, even though the entities had not been on good terms. In return, Iran would use its radical right wing connections to Hezbollah and ask for the release of the American hostages. Further, the United States used the money gained from the illegal weapons sales and transferred the funds through members of President Regan’s personal staff and into Nicaragua, to support rebel forces (National Security Archive 2006). Again, another item on President Regan’s agenda was to prevent the influence of Communism from spreading. The operations helped support the President’s goals because the Nicaraguan region was experiencing the influence of Communism. Moreover, rebel forces, or Contras, were viewed as a solution to the

First, President Regan’s policy, which stated the United States would not negotiate with terrorist, was disregarded by the ranking officials in command of the operation. During the operation in 1985, Iran was currently under an arms embargo, severely restricting the nation’s access to weapons. Further, the United States used the seedy connection in Iran to work with terrorist entities to barter the release of the American hostages. Secondly, the operation violated the Boland Agreement passed by Congress, prohibiting federal agencies to provide assistance to rebel forces in Nicaragua. President Regan’s staff assisted with providing money, equipment, and weapons to the Contras, as a way of circumventing the Boland Agreement (Johnson 2011). Moreover, during the operation, the President claimed he had no knowledge of what was occurring and therefore did not have to report the operation to members of Congress, which the Hughes-Ryan Act