Transcripts For CSPAN3 Iran-Contra Affair 20170708 : vimarsa

The nico rob what nica raguan government. The topic at todays class is the iran contra scandal, sometimes called the irancontra affair. There are various names people attach to it, but it is most commonly known as the irancontra scandal or affair. I give the dates of 1984 to 1987 because the events that the scandal comprised really took off in 1984, even though you can see their roots earlier than the Reagan Administrations Foreign Policy, even earlier than 1984 in Ronald Reagans first term as president. I will explain the developments shortly, but they really took off in 1984. I will explain. They go through until mid 1987. This is a photograph from ingressional hearings about 1987. Anybody know who that colorless . Oliver north. Oliver north. A uniform because he was on active duty in the marine corps, even though many people noted at the time he did go tofore this time work wearing his uniform. He wore a business suit and a type of the most part because even though he was on active duty in the marine corps, he was deputized to the National Security council. A white hat staff job, his work yet been working for several years before he was fired in late 1986. He was the star witness in the congressional hearing in 1987. It was late spring to midsummer, 1987, and you can tell from this photo the kind of spectacle these hearings became. They were televised. People all over the country watch them. A tremendous proportion of tv sets were switched to the hearings when oliver north, specifically, testified. I will get to that later in the story. Gain someneed to sense of what the overall structure of the scandal was. Why did it become a scandal . Part, thehe iran contra part, as to what they are related are, and what made it a scandal . There are several basic things to understand, first, the contra part was a crisis in the Reagan Administration policy towar nicaragua. Congress was growing discontented in the 1980s with the ronald Reagan Administration, which was to arm, fund, equip, and train a rebel army. They were a counterrevolutionary arce and tended to disrupt socialist government that had come to power in late 1970s, which was the United States under Ronald Reagan, and he wanted to destabilize that regime. He was able through the cia to farm and fund the contra with the approval of the united in the earlyss 1980s. As you know from previous discussions, in 1982 and 1983, and it intensified in 1984, congress and the house of inresentatives, ridiculously the house, members of congress were growing increasingly troubled by reports that they were getting of wars in Central America, in iran, nicaragua h. Is. Chair of the House Intelligence Committee said the cia can still fund the contras, but not for the purpose of overthrowing the government. This was with a wink and a nod, do not go too far, yet it did not stop the Reagan Administration from sending arms and money to the contras. So it did not change the First Amendment in 1982. It did not change the u. S. Government policy toward Central America. Nonetheless, periodically in congress, ronald Reagan Administration was worried about tightening the noose around funding to the contras, which is what happened. That was the contra side. In the pursuit of this Foreign Policy, the crisis in relation to Ronald Reagans presidency and the congress over control of Foreign Policy. The Eastern Front on this struggle was in the middle east, a hostage crisis, and we all the about our go argo, movie just winning the best picture oscar, dealing with the crisisd tehran hostage in 1989. They were clear echoes in the minds of many people, echoes of crisishran hostage were there were terrible civil wars in berut and they were westerners, including americans and europeans that were taken hostage for various military factions and beirut. In the early 1980s, this is not a great concern to the Reagan Administration, but it became a more urgent concern. The determination of president reagan personally to do something to get these hostages in beirut breed became the Eastern Front freed became the Eastern Front of this crisis, which became the irancontra scandal. What does it have to do it iran . There was an idea in the minds of many people in the Reagan Administration that iran had influence in beirut. The Reagan Administration could prove relations with iran, this could top get hostages in beirut sprung. You have a hostage crisis in the middle east, but what ties them together . National security. Essential to understand if you want to understand how the iran contra crisis unfolded and what it consisted of. The ncs is what link the contra affair and the hostage affair, which turned into selling arms to iran. . Hat about the nsc it was created in 1947 by the National Security act, and a house,side the white consisted of white house staff members, they did not get appointed in the confirmations, it is supposed to be a staff office in the white house the president ial decisionmaking on National Security matters. Togetherposed to bring information from and leaders of different National Security agencies, department of state, defense, cia, military command, bring them together, facilitate coordinated decision that the president. That is what the nsc was supposed to do. It was not supposed to run its own Foreign Policy or its own foreign operation, and that is what it did. That is what it did. That is why this became scandalous that regarding contra, aid and selling arms in iran to get hostages released in beirut, the nsc was running operation on both of these , southern and eastern france. This was contrary to the law in the 1947 legislation. It was not supposed to be doing this. Why . Why do we had these agencies that can legitimately called National Security operations abroad and why would you have the nsc do it . Because you are trying to get around laws that congress has passed after a big the cia and state department and the Defense Department to do the things that you, as president want to do. Reagan used the nsc to go around congressional oversight and run a shadow Foreign Policy, separate from state nca defense. The other reason to use the nsc was internal to the Reagan Administration and not a runaround congress. It was also a runaround with reagans own defense apartment because the secretaries of state to defense were very cool all of these ideas, particularly iran arms sales, and they had qualms about what was going on in nicaragua. Reagan wanted to circumvent them and use the nsc to do it. The other thing essential to understand is how central Ronald Reagan was. There were a lot of people eventually took refuge in the idea reagan had been asleep at the switch and had some berkmans who run amok had subordinates who ran a buck and he did not know a lot of the operational details going on. The documents that have been declassified make it clear reagan was deeply involved in each of the two pieces of irancontra. Questionthe lingering about whether he was aware of the links between those two and that became a point of controversy. Reagan was deeply involved in each piece of it. After it became known to the public, and this happened in fall of 1986, after irancontra blew open and came into public view, then highest levels of the Reagan Administration became focused on protecting reagan. There was a council appointed to investigate the matter. Lawrence walsh eventually wrote a book and gave the book a about this matter the title firewall, which refer to the political firewall around the president , that his top subordinates tilt in late 1986 after irancontra became public protect the president. To make it clear the president did not know the worst of what was going on, even if that was not true. To make sure he was insulated. Some people say the coverup is worse than the crime. The coverup started early on, while it was going on in 1985, when various members of the nsc staff lied to congress, but starting in late 1986, when it became essential for the president s top man to protect the president is when it started. Story that the lets did not know take these one at that time. First, this map of nicaragua here, you can see in costa rica in this out, to the north, a longer border with ponderous, and most of what honduras, and up here in the upper left of this map, you can see that theres no land border between nicaragua and el main landbut the border in the contra war was the border between honduras and nicaragua and it gives you some sense of nicaraguas relation to the United States. Early as 1983, according to some accounts, it started earlier than this, but members of the Reagan Administration were looking for ways to get money to the contras that did not come from the United States. Saying tord countries them, can do send arms or money . Honduras ors from others which allowed this to be used as the base camp. There was a lot of oil money, pledged 10 million, there were other countries, as well, but it is interesting to note the Reagan Administration was looking for their country support before congress cut off u. S. Funding to the contras. In 1983, the cia was sending money and arms to the contra with congresss blessing. Why were they searching for their country support it congress was letting the cia fund the country . It is because they were planning for future contingencies. There were concerned Congress Might cut off funding and they were already laying the groundwork to that eventuality. Ran the contra aid operation and had the blessing of congress that was legitimate under the ball. Reagan casey at the nsc went to the National Security council and talk to robert mcfarland, who was National Security adviser, and said, i think that your staff needs to get more involved in the contra aid operation, so they did. People at the nsc got more involved in the operational side of things in Central America. Then nsc staffers more than nsc staffers usually did. Permeablevery boundaries between the nsc and the cia. There was a lot of communication. Manager, headign of the cia, talked to robert mcfarland, the security adviser at this time, and said, we want to get you people involved in this operation. Both of them said, why . This is the usually came to work in a is this suit. Why north . A lot of people thought it was impossible someone of his rank would have been given so much responsibility in foreign affairs, running operations, but the set back is that north had risen rapidly within the nsc structure. He was energetic, smart, creative, an early adapter of technology, very adept user email, nt got things done. And he got things done and was given more responsibility. He became the nscs point person for the contra supply operation. The person who kept tabs on what was going on and who could help get unsnarled if they came up in the contra supply operation. Looked tond mcfarland north and they had regular contact with him. In 1984, happened is Congress Passed what became known as the Second Amendment second boland amendment that cut out u. S. Funding to the contras. Funds to the Central Intelligence agency, the department or defense come or any other agency or entity of the United States involved in intelligence activities in the 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. You see how carefully worded and lawyerly this is. Loopholesno outs, here. Theres no way for the Reagan Administration to say, we are giving money to people but we cannot control what they do with it, which is what they had said on many occasions up to this point. Which would have the effect of supporting directly or indirectly military or paramilitary operations by any group or individual. Days is airtight. This is airtight, a true cut off of funding for the war against the corrupt what. This came in 1980 four after revelations that cia contracted employees had mind the harbors and nicaragua to make it seem like ask of war. Casey, the farland and Ronald Reagan had feared. This came to pass. Lets go back to march 1984. I told you as early as 1983 the Reagan Administration at the highest levels, specifically mcfarland werend working on getting thirdparty funding for congress and they were right to think about that. In march 1984, casey and reagan get the ball going on this. Casey, antias this and he does this with reagans tossing, he sends macfarlane send the saudi ambassador to the United States and to ask for some money. Goes, dr. Macfarlane, who to talk to the prince, a dashing figure in washington, decided tea had been recently appointed and macfarlane goes to the prince and says, president reagan really cares about the contra. He has concerned they do not have enough money. He really cares about them and will be grateful to anybody who will help them. That is what he says. The prince says, what do you want me to do . Says we are he going to deposit 1 million in a bank account in switzerland for the contras. They can use it. We do not want to know how, but we will put 1 million every money, in this bank account. Macfarlane says, that is great. What does he do . He tells reagan quickly about it. He writes a note about it and gives it to reagan in his Daily Briefing papers. Reagan scribbles a note on mark farr lanes the filings macfarlanes notes. Reagan knows about this right away. Now, we removed the clock forward. June, 1980 four, there is a key meeting in the white house. This is a meeting of the National Security council but it is of such an elite group that it gets its own name, called the National Security Planning Group, and these are the top planning officials, the people who had the different National Security meetings. Who is there . The secretary of state, the Vice President , caspar weinberger, robert mcfarlane, the head of the cia, william casey, they are all there. Team meeting. What goes on at this meeting . George schultz, in the midst of a general discussion about supporting the contras, the second boland amendment has not happened yet, but they see the horizon in terms of how the congress is viewing contra aid, so they are talking about getting thirdparty funding. I do not know if i will have time to show you but i will tell you. This document is declassified and you can see it online. They say, i think there is a problem with Third Party Funding for the contras. To james baker. Anybody remember who he is . Chief of staff in the white house, who manages to be absent for this meeting. I do not know why, but jim baker was a smart lawyer and maybe it was part of his skill set to know when to be absent. [laughter] he is not there. People respect baker and know he lawyer. Rt he says he spoke with him and it is he is spewed that soliciting third country support for the contras could be an and teachable an Impeachable Offense. This is like dropping a bomb. Be ans this could Impeachable Offense and this is a meeting for the record. Casey says, george, you are wrong. He does not call him a liar but he uses the equivalent, which he says, you are totally wrong about what james baker said. You are misrepresenting what he said. There is a backandforth about what baker really said. Casey says this is not an Impeachable Offense. Persists andz says, i think it is a serious problem because bakersfield as he explained it is congress will only allow money it has appropriated to go to the contra, and their view will be if we try to get the word countries to arm get third countries to arm the contras, that would be like us trying to indirectly fund the contras outside of appropriation. The congress will not allow that to be spent ourselves. Say, no. People i do not think so. The meeting wraps up with no clear resolution. Clearly, with no determination that it would be a bad idea to solicit thirdparty funding. The thing is, the reagan affair and the mcfarlane affair, and neither of them says a word that the 1d already secured million per month from the saudis. They do not say anything else about it. The meeting ends with interesting comments. Vice president bush was silent. He pipes up at the end and says, and he had been the head of the cia, and he says, the only way i think it will be a problem to solicit third country funding to the contras would be if we promised those other governments something in return. What would you call that . Turn ld be a l