Iran Contra Affair Essay

In 1979, an Iranian government supported terrorist pigeonholing overtook the US embassy. They captured 52 people. In an order to obtain the release of the American hostages being held in Le vetoon, The Reagan presidentship undercoverly began to sell weapons to Iran. This went against an American ban on arms sales to Iran, which had been in affect since the embassy had been seized. (Corrigan 40-41) These deals were coherent through Robert McFarlane, who was the head of the National Security Council.One of McFarlanes main staff members was Marine de marky sheriff Colonel Oliver northerly. McFarlane gave North the responsibility of handling the details of the deal and told him not to send anything to Iran until the hostages had been released. North wanted to reserve the deal going so he allowed Israel to ship the weapons before any hostages had been released. McFarlane criticized North, but North unploughed his job. McFarlane was replaced with Rear Admiral John M. Poindexter. No rth tried to convince Poindexter to continue the arms-for-hostage deal with Iran.North complete that there was a massive amount of money being do in this trade. He utilise some of this money made could be used to support an anti-communist organization in Central America. This organization, that was sprightly in Nicaragua, was known as the Contras. The Contras were also highly supported by Reagan and his administration, seeing as we were in the Cold War against Communism. (Lawson 41-60) In the early 1980s, Congress passed a series of amendments known as the Boland Amendments.The Boland Amendments made it il reasoned for the U. S. military to further aid the Contras. (Cohen) The National Security Council was formed in 1947 to acquire secret information about the military plans of Russia throughout the Cold War. (Lawson 49) In 1985, North and McFarlane gave several letters to Congress, in which he be about the questions that they had been asked about their matter in supporting the Contras in Nicaragua. North be again in a face-to-face meeting with Congress in 1986.North told the House comprehension Committee he was involved neither in fundraising for, nor in providing military advice to, the Contras. In 1987 he was confronted with these accusations to which he admitted to misleading Congress with the answers he gave them. When the president subsequent asked Attorney General to gather the relevant facts, North and Poindexter shredded and altered official documents on November 21, 1986.The destruction of these documents was a major loss to Congress, because they were now ineffectual o use those destroyed documents against North in court. (http//icah. infobaselearning. com/pdocument. aspx? ID=129729&search=iran+contra+north) Further complicating the situation, Congress granted underground to North and Poindexter so that they could eliminate the need for the testimony of President Reagan and Vice President Bush. Oliver North and Poindexter, period accused a nd under intense investigation were ultimately convicted. (http//icah. infobaselearning. com/pdocument. aspx? ID=110538&search=iran+contra+north) Lt.Colonel Oliver North was criminally charged, prosecuted and convicted but later the convictions were overturned upon appeal due to the fact that he was granted immunity.North should have been convicted of his crimes and faced his sentence in jail for what he did. North burned legal documents containing crucial usher for his trail, he lied to Congress about using the money from the Iran weapons sales to help the Contras, and by helping the Contra, he go against the Boland Amendments. On November 21, 1986, Oliver North shredded documents that were to be used in court as evidence.These documents were important legal information concerning his involvement in helping the Contras. His destruction of these documents led to Congress losing very valuable selective information to prove whether he was a scapegoat or a criminal. The fact that he destroyed the evidence made it clear that he wasnt being honest and that led Congress to believe his new(prenominal) criminal charges. Oliver North violated many laws. The two most flagrant legal violations were the Boland Amendments and the American ban on arms sales to Iran.North continued to sell the weapons to Iran without any argument even though he knew it was against the law that was put in place by Congress. He went against the banned sales of guns with Iran, which was put in place to keep Iran from gaining powerful weaponry and putting American citizens lives in danger. His involvement and encouragement of continuing the illegal trade to aid the policies that he believed in should lead to his punishment. Also, the fact that he was also using federal money and weapons for the Contra agenda is a misappropriation of funds and of his position of power.