Reagan did not trade arms for hostages, despite the repetition of the mantra. He gave arms to elements of the Iranian government who were considered moderate, hoping that they would use their influence over Hezbollah to free the hostages.
Not so. Arms were sold (not given) to Iran and the much of the money secretly used to support Contra guerrillas operating against the elected government of Nicaragua. Congress had cut off funding for the Contras.
After much obstruction and 'I can't remember', indictments were handed down and some convictions secured. The main players were pardoned by Bush senior after he had lost his bid for reelection, and just before he was called as witness at the trial of Casper Weinberger.
Independent Counsel, appointed by Ed Meese, Reagan's atty general, concluded that
"the sales of arms to Iran contravened United States Government policy and may have violated the Arms Export Control Act
the provision and coordination of support to the contras violated the Boland Amendment ban on aid to military activities in Nicaragua;
the policies behind both the Iran and contra operations were fully reviewed and developed at the highest levels of the Reagan Administration;
although there was little evidence of National Security Council level knowledge of most of the actual contra-support operations, there was no evidence that any NSC member dissented from the underlying policykeeping the contras alive despite congressional limitations on contra support;
the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of, among others, President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey, and national security advisers Robert C. McFarlane and John M. Poindexter; of these officials, only Weinberger and Shultz dissented from the policy decision, and Weinberger eventually acquiesced by ordering the Department of Defense to provide the necessary arms; and
large volumes of highly relevant, contemporaneously created documents were systematically and willfully withheld from investigators by several Reagan Administration officials.
following the revelation of these operations in October and November 1986, Reagan Administration officials deliberately deceived the Congress and the public about the level and extent of official knowledge of and support for these operations.
In addition, Independent Counsel concluded that the off-the-books nature of the Iran and contra operations gave line-level personnel the opportunity to commit money crimes." |
