In the interest of fairness, there is plenty to go around. That doesn't erase the current situation, however.
Presidential Scandals of the 20th Century
"Sometimes you have to go above the written law, I believe"
Fawn Hall
Teapot Dome
From the days of Theodore Roosevelt's administration, much growth had been placed in land conservation, particularly that of building petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California for future use by the Navy, who had switched from coal to oil to fuel their ships at the turn of the century. The Navy had speculated for many years as to the possibility of war with Japan, and wanted large reserves not only on the West Coast, but at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as well.
A problem had been brewing for awhile of the drilling that went on by private companies near and even in the areas of the reserves (kept in their natural "dome" reserves). Our government had leased these areas, even while knowing of the potential problems.
All of this came to a head with the Harding Administration coming into office, and its Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall.
Fall was on the side of the anti-conservationists and the oil companies (not unlike later Interior Secretary James Watt). As a matter of fact, Fall himself owned a massive ranch in New Mexico, some of which was public land that he claimed. In order to make improvements on said land, Fall borrowed heavily, and when he became Secretary in 1921, he was $150,000 in debt, and had not paid taxes in 8 years.
Until 1921, the oil reserves had been kept by the Navy. Immediately upon taking office, Fall convinced Secretary of the Navy Denby to transfer the reserves to his Department. Harding signed the executive order for the transfer, which was written up by Fall.
Previously, the government would take cash royalty payments for leases on the land to private companies. Fall changed it in that now the Navy would accept certificates enabling the Navy to discount petroleum prices, and for said oil companies to build steel tanks where the Navy desired, avoiding congressional appropriations.
Under this new system, in April 1922, Fall leased the Teapot Dome (named due to its shape) Reserve in Wyoming for 20 years to Harry Sinclair (Sinclair Oil). Fall did not seek competitive bidding, citing national security.
Soonafter, Fall leased the Elk Hills Reserve in California to Edward Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum). In return for this and six million gallons of crude, Doheny agreed to build storage tanks, a channel, docks and wharf's at Pearl Harbor.
Fall would have been fine legally in doing this, except one thing...he took money; a "loan" from the two men of $400,000. He claimed the money was not from the leases, but he made his mistake when he was being investigated (after he resigned). He wrote that he never received a penny. After several years of hard investigation by special prosecutor Owen Roberts (during which the leases were invalidated in 1927), Fall was found guilty of bribery (but not of lying!). Doheny never went to jail, nor did Sinclair for doing so, though Sinclair was found guilty of contempt for not cooperating with the investigation.
President Harding learned of what Fall had done in 1923 in a coded message while on a trip in Alaska and the Northwest. It was on this same trip that Harding took ill and died...mysteriously.
It can be only speculation as to whether Harding would have been caught up in the investigation, as he seemed somewhat oblivious to the corruption.
The Nixon Administration
There are so many things to cover here, might I suggest one truly incredible book--Nightmare, by J. Anthony Lukas. The book chronicles such fascinating tidbits as the Milk Fund, the ITT Scandal, Dirty Tricks, the Enemies List, leaving Vietnam through Cambodia, and of course...Watergate.
Watergate
To do justice to Watergate would take a few columns, some of which has already been covered in a previous column, The Resignation of Richard M. Nixon.
Might I also recommend the Watergate and Nixon Exhibit from the National Archives, as well as Malcolm Farnsworth's excellent Watergate site, with chronology and essays.
The Reagan Administration
Let's put it this way, according to the House Subcommittee on Civil Service, more than 225 Reagan aides were guilty of ethical or criminal wrongdoing.
To be fair, not all accused were found guilty, and certainly not all were major in nature. Many were minor items, such as perjury (and lesser items).
Iran-Contra
Appropriate for this age of greed; two scandals in one.
First, you have the sale of military equipment to Iran, whom this country has long denounced as terrorists who are dangerous to this country; and second, you have military aid going to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, clearly banned by Congress. In addition, you have many cases of perjury and obstructing justice. But yet, no Administration official went to jail. Did I wet your appetite for more?
After the release of the 52 hostages in Tehran in 1981, other Americans (and others) were taken hostage by Shiite Muslims in Lebanon, backed (if not sponsored) by Iran. The Reagan Administration denounced Iran as terrorists, and asked all allies of America to join in an arms embargo on Iran (presently at war with Iraq), and to never make concessions to these terrorists.
In 1985, an Israeli agent hooked-up NSC Adviser Robert McFarlane with a Middle East arms dealer. This man had contacts that could help get the release of the American hostages. Soonafter, Colonel Oliver North told co-workers that he learned that Israel for years had been trading arms for hostages (Israel trading with a country bent on their destruction? Politics makes for ....). Ollie wondered, "Gee, they get to, why can't we?" (though I'm sure in different words). McFarlane, CIA head Casey, and others agreed. Secretary of Defense Weinberger, and Secretary of State Shultz opposed the deal, even with a third party facilitating matters, but according to McFarlane, Reagan loved the idea. Of course, there was no written record of that, and of course, Reagan later could not recall such a conversation.
The deal became fact, and soonafter, one hostage was released. In 1986, direct talks with Iran began. At this same time, another factor came into play; the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
In 1979, a group called the Sandinistas took over Nicaragua from the Somoza regime. Upon taking office in 1981, Reagan called the Sandanistas a Soviet-controlled Communist dictatorship, and ordered the CIA to fund the Contras, rebels fighting the Sandinistas. Unfortunately for the Administration, Congress kept waffling on support; once backing it, limiting CIA support in 1983, and with the Boland Amendment in 1984, cutting off all aid to the Contras.
The funding continued however, through covert operations from the CIA, as well as Reagan aides collecting money from allied countries as well as private individuals. Although not certain who came up with the idea of selling arms to raise money for the Contras, North loved the idea (and called it "Operation Democracy"), and with Richard Secord and Albert Hakim, continued to sell arms to Iran, both for money, and hopefully to get hostages released. During this time only three hostages were released. But three more were taken.
Leaflets in Iran discussing McFarlane's and North's visit to Tehran in the spring of 1986 made their way to this country. The White House kept denying the visit. On November 2 another hostage was released. On November 3 a Lebanese newspaper broke the story, given to them by Iranian agents. The story did not get much play until an Islamic militant organization announced that the latest hostage release was because of a deal with the White House. On November 6, the Washington Post and the L.A. Times reported the arms-for -hostages deal that had been going on.
Reagan got on TV and denied it all. A week later he admitted a deal with a third country involved (Israel). Afterwards he said he did not approve the deal, and then said he did not remember.
Reagan never believed they had really done so. He was shown the document he signed approving a shipment to Iran, and he responded "It doesn't say arms are being swapped for hostages."
Several investigations resulted from the revelations. The Tower Commission reported that the President was "Confused and unaware, Reagan had allowed himself to be misled by dishonest aides and staff members." In reaction to the report, Reagan fired Admiral Poindexter (McFarlane's successor who had misled Congress) and North (who Reagan called a "hero". A hero without a job).
The hearings led by Inouye and Hamilton held on television made a media hero out of North, and his paper-shredding secretary, Fawn Hall. Poindexter and North said they knew what the President wanted, and so did not go to him for every detail, with Poindexter purposely keeping the President from getting in a position to break the law (as he testified).
The Committee's report criticized Reagan for allowing such a massive problem to occur, but did not find him in violation of criminal statutes (the Teflon still works).
A third investigation, by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh resulted in indictments to Secord Hakim, North and Poindexter. McFarlane pleaded guilty in exchange for testimony against North. Casey had died as the hearings had started. Weinberger was charged with lying to Congress. North and Poindexter were convicted, but had those convictions overturned because of immunity on their 1987 hearings testimony.
George Bush, Reagan's Vice-President, pardoned McFarlane, Weinberger and others in 1992. Walsh's final report in 1994 found the dealings violated U.S. policy and law, and found both the Reagan and Bush Administrations involved in a cover-up.
Only one person ever went to prison as a result of all this. a former CIA agent, who was sentenced to 16 months for evading taxes on income from the sales. That's it.
The Clinton Administration
As for Whitewater, Travelgate, and other things, we must wait for the reports to be in before we can even begin to make a proper assessment. Please bear that in mind these next few weeks. |
