History has a tendency to repeat itself especially when dealing with dirty scoundrels and mountebanks. About 20 years before Bush Jr. and co. took control of the whitehouse, the CIA and Republicans staged another secret effort to gain power. In the fall of 1980, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were neck in neck headed toward the November election. Reagan and ex-CIA head, George Bush made an all-out effort to sabotage Jimmy Carter’s efforts to win the release of the Iranian-held hostages. This became known as the October Surprise and was the beginning of the Iran-Contra Scandal.
Essentially, the Republicans and the CIA wanted to prevent Carter negotiating the release of the American hostages. This could have won him reelection. In fact, there were many parties who had a stake in it. The CIA wanted off their leash and as you know the 80’s were THE decade of CIA trained death squads and covert ops, the Iranians wanted weapons to fight Iraq which they got from the United States through Israel, and Israel wanted the Republicans in power since Carter had been a little too conciliatory towards the Arabs for their tastes. (Remember the peace talks at Camp David?)
Exactly five minutes after Reagan took the oath of office the Iranians agreed to release 52 American hostages. And later, a few days after the inauguration, the arms starting flowing to Iran.
Reagan turned 91 last week. More evidence that only the good die young.
- More on the October Surprise
- The Election Story of the Decade There was a probe into all this in 1991-1992. This has a lot of information.
- Think Reagan was a good president? You’re wrong. Now start reading. (Thanks to George for the link!)