1 / 23

Iran-Contra

Iran-Contra . November 1986 Confirmed reports the United States secretly sold arms to Iran Portion of the proceeds from the arms sale had been diverted to finance the Contras. Who were the Contras?.

jaeger
Download Presentation

Iran-Contra

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Iran-Contra

  2. November 1986 • Confirmed reports the United States secretly sold arms to Iran • Portion of the proceeds from the arms sale had been diverted to finance the Contras

  3. Who were the Contras? • “freedom fighters” who were working to overthrow the democratically elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua

  4. Congress had explicitly prohibited aid to the Contras • Secret diversion of the secret arms profits was illegal and unconstitutional

  5. 1985- group of Israelis had approached National Security Advisor Robert MacFarlane with a scheme in which Iran would use its influence to free the U.S. hostages in Lebanon in exchange for arms

  6. Secretary of State George Schultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger objected to the plan but (MacFarlane testified) Reagan agree to it

  7. July 1985- U.S. would send 508 American made TOW anti-tank missiles from Israel to Iran for the safe exchange of a hostage- Reverend Benjamin Weir

  8. After that successful transfer- Israelis offered to ship 500 HAWK surface to air missiles to Iran in Nov 1985, in exchange for the release of all remaining American hostages being held in Lebanon

  9. Eventually the arms were sold with proceeds going to the Contras, and the hostages were released

  10. February 1986- 1000 TOW missiles were shipped to Iran. From May to Nov there were more shipments of various weapons and parts

  11. Hezbollah terrorists who had kidnapped the original hostages planned to kidnap more hostages following the release of the previous ones- which made any further dealings with Iran meaningless

  12. Oliver (Ollie) North (U.S. Marine Lt. Col) proposed the plan to funnel arms money to the Contras

  13. 1986- word got out about secret transactions • Lebanese magazine published a series of articles that exposed the weapons for hostages deal

  14. November 18, 1987- Congress issued a report on the affair that stated the president bore “ultimate responsibility.”

  15. Hearings about the scandal were televised from May to August 1987 • Found that National Security Advisor Poindexter had personally authorized the diversion of money to the Contra rebels

  16. Poindexter was withholding information from President Reagan • CIA’s William J. Casey played a part in conspiracy, but he died during hearings

  17. North had been a military aide to the National Security Council- he had been the main negotiator • During his hearings he repeatedly explained he was “under orders from his superiors”

  18. In the end- President was not charged with any offense • North was convicted on 3 of 12 criminal counts, but convictions were set aside on appeal

  19. Convicted of obstructing Congress, unlawfully destroying government documents • Conviction was expunged on grounds he had acted strictly out of patriotism

  20. Poindexter convicted in April 1990 on five counts of deceiving Congress and sentenced to six months in prison • Weinberger convicted of five counts of deceiving Congress • Convictions overturned

  21. All were pardoned by George H. W. Bush- Christmas Eve 1992

More Related