The Iran–Contra affair,often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal,was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan administration. Between 1981 and 1986,senior administration officials secretly facilitated the illegal sale of arms to Iran,which was subject to an arms embargo at the time. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras,an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment,further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress,but the Reagan administration figured out a loophole by secretively using non-appropriated funds instead.
The Reagan Doctrine was stated by United States President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on February 6,1985:"We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth." It was a strategy implemented by the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in the late Cold War. The doctrine was a centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.
Caspar Willard Weinberger was an American politician and businessman. As a Republican,he served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades,most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 1981 to November 1987. He was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations as part of the Iran–Contra investigation,but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before facing trial.
William Joseph Casey was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Frank Charles Carlucci III was an American politician who served as the United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989 in the administration of President Ronald Reagan. He was the first Italian American to serve in that position.
John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. In 2018,he was a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is a former J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to this appointment,he served as a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs,United States Deputy Secretary of State (2007–2009),and the first ever Director of National Intelligence (2005–2007).
William French Smith II was an American lawyer and the 74th United States Attorney General. After attaining his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942,Smith went on to join the law firm of Gibson,Dunn &Crutcher LLP in 1946. Smith became acquainted with California governor candidate Ronald Reagan in 1966,after which Reagan appointed him to the University of California Board of Regents. Smith was nominated for U.S. Attorney General shortly after Reagan's victory in the 1980 United States presidential election,assuming the title on January 23,1981,and serving until February 25,1985.
Robert Michael Gates is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and was retained by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gates served for twenty-six years in the CIA and at the National Security Council,and was director of central intelligence under President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. After leaving the CIA,Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group,the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton that studied the lessons of the Iraq War.
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20,1981,and ended on January 20,1989. Reagan,a Republican from California,took office following his landslide victory over Democrat incumbent president Jimmy Carter and independent congressman John B. Anderson in the 1980 presidential election. Four years later,in the 1984 presidential election,he defeated former Democratic vice president Walter Mondale,to win re-election in a larger landslide. Reagan was limited to two terms and was succeeded by his vice president,George H. W. Bush,who won the 1988 presidential election. Reagan's 1980 landslide election resulted from a dramatic conservative shift to the right in American politics,including a loss of confidence in liberal,New Deal,and Great Society programs and priorities that had dominated the national agenda since the 1930s.
Robert Michael Kimmitt was United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury under President George W. Bush. He was nominated by President Bush on June 29,2005. The United States Senate unanimously confirmed him on July 29,2005,and he was sworn into office on August 16,2005. Kimmitt served through the end of the Bush administration,leaving office on January 20,2009.
Paul R. Pillar is an academic and 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),serving from 1977 to 2005. He is now a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies,as well as a nonresident senior fellow in the Brookings Institution's Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence. He was a visiting professor at Georgetown University from 2005 to 2012. He is a contributor to The National Interest.
The bibliography of Ronald Reagan includes numerous books and articles about Ronald Reagan. According to J. David Woodard,a political science professor,more than 11,000 books on Reagan have been published.
Stefan A. Halper is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a White House official in the Nixon,Ford,and Reagan administrations,and was reportedly in charge of the spying operation by the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign that became known as "Debategate". Through his decades of work for the CIA,Halper has had extensive ties to the Bush family. Through his work with Sir Richard Billing Dearlove,he had ties to the British Secret Intelligence Service,MI6.
This article deals with the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the federal government of the United States that constitute violations of human rights.
CIA activities in Nicaragua have been ongoing since the 1980s. The increasing influence gained by the Sandinista National Liberation Front,a left-wing and anti-imperialist political party in Nicaragua,led to a sharp decrease in Nicaragua–United States relations,particularly after the Nicaraguan Revolution. In 1981,President Ronald Reagan authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to support the Contras,a right-wing Nicaraguan political group to combat the influence held by the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan government. Various anti-government rebels in Nicaragua were organized into the Nicaraguan Democratic Force,the first Contra group,at the behest of the CIA. The CIA also supplied the Contras with training and equipment,including materials related to torture and assassination. There have also been allegations that the CIA engaged in drug trafficking in Nicaragua.
Richard Lee Armitage is an American former diplomat and government official. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy,Armitage served as a U.S. Navy officer in three combat tours of duty in the Vietnam War as a riverine warfare advisor. After leaving active duty,he served in a number of civil-service roles under Republican administrations. He worked as an aide to Senator Bob Dole before serving in various posts in the Defense Department and State Department.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller,sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky,was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. A member of the Republican Party and the wealthy Rockefeller family,he previously served as the 49th governor of New York from 1959 to 1973. Rockefeller also served as assistant secretary of State for American Republic Affairs for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (1944–1945) as well as under secretary of Health,Education and Welfare (HEW) under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1954. A son of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller as well as a grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller,he was a noted art collector and served as administrator of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan,New York City.
This is a history of drug prohibition in the United States.
Ray Steiner Cline was an official at the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is best known for being the chief CIA analyst during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The following is a timeline of the presidency of George H. W. Bush,from January 1,1991 to December 31,1991.
