A01=Alan McPherson
Author_Alan McPherson
Caspar Weinberger
Category=JPSD
Category=NHK
Category=NHTW
Central Intelligence Agency
Cold War
Congress
Contras
democracy
democratic norms
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Fawn Hall
George H. W. Bush
George Shultz
hostages
Iran
Iran-Contra
John Poindexter
Lawrence Walsh
missiles
National Security Council
Nicaragua
obstruction of justice
Oliver North
privatization of war
quid pro quos
Robert McFarlane
Ronald Reagan
rule of law
scandal
separation of powers
truth
United States
William Casey
Product details
- ISBN 9781469686349
- Weight: 553g
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 04 Mar 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A president defying Congress. Disrespect for the law. Attacks on the press. Evasion in the courts. The privatization of war. Quid pro quos with foreign nations. The mounting dangers to American democracy have long been with us. But all these perils first emerged together during the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan-Bush era. This opaque foreign policy mess has receded from history, a minor speedbump at the triumphant end of the Cold War. With American democracy in increasing jeopardy from the inside, however, Iran-Contra must be reassessed as a major step down that dark path.
In this gripping blow-by-blow account of the 1980s efforts to trade arms with Iran illegally, fund rebels in Central America despite a congressional prohibition, and dodge political and legal consequences once the truth emerged, Alan McPherson argues for the salience of six democracy-degrading behaviors throughout the fiasco. At the time, many warned of the broad attack on democratic norms, yet no one paid a real price or learned a lesson. Those failures left the country more divided than ever before, and ill-equipped for more severe assaults to come.
In this gripping blow-by-blow account of the 1980s efforts to trade arms with Iran illegally, fund rebels in Central America despite a congressional prohibition, and dodge political and legal consequences once the truth emerged, Alan McPherson argues for the salience of six democracy-degrading behaviors throughout the fiasco. At the time, many warned of the broad attack on democratic norms, yet no one paid a real price or learned a lesson. Those failures left the country more divided than ever before, and ill-equipped for more severe assaults to come.
Alan McPherson is professor of history at Temple University and author of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle.
