Word: contra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...many code names that Lieut. Colonel Oliver North attracted during the Iran-contra affair ranged from the heroic "Good" to the cryptic "B.G." (for "Blood and Guts") to the macho "Steel Hammer." But the most significant, and bizarre, could turn out to be "Belly Button." That improbable monicker was the name for a Swiss bank account containing $200,000 in Iran-arms profits that were set aside for the former National Security Council aide and his family...
...only conclusion that can be reached from these two events and the whole Iran-contra mess is that when it is used in the putative defense of liberty, deception of the electorate, the younger sibling of extremism, is no vice to Ronald Reagan and his cronies. Thus Ollie North, who seems not only to have deceived his country but also his friends, is "a national hero" in Ronald Reagan's misty eyes. And what really gets the President's goat--"what is driving me up the walls," as he told Time Magazine in a remarkable interview...
...popular recrimination and disengagement from the public sphere can be expected. This would be the worst consequence of the Administration's brazen disregard for law--if Americans walked away from the experience jaded, thinking democracy and politics inherently flawed. But while Americans need to learn something from the Iran-contra scandal, their lesson need not be a harsh...
...less explicit role in the governing of their lives than any of the three branches of government that magnificent document created. It was that obligation Americans neglected after they twice elected Ronald Reagan to the presidency. If any good is to come out of the whole Reagan-Iran-contra mess, it will be if individual Americans rediscover and reclaim that duty to themselves and to each other...
...more and more people have blamed Harvard for failing to train the next generation of leaders, as national scrutiny of ethics increased after the Iran-contra scandals and the Wall Street insider trading cases. "Whatever the ills of the society are, somebody will find a way to relate them to Harvard," says Allison, adding that, in New York and Washington, Harvard is perceived as churning out graduates who are interested only in "getting rich quick...