Word: contra
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...they trooped to the Capitol Building for closed-door sessions with House Speaker Jim Wright. First came Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra, toting a proposal for cease-fire talks between his Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed contras. After Ortega left, Secretary of State George Shultz arrived, followed by the contra leaders. Finally, Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, Nicaragua's ranking churchman, disappeared into Wright's office. An exasperated Reagan Administration, its policymaking efforts sidelined by the frenzy of congressional diplomacy, was forced like the rest of Washington to wait and see what might come of Wright's highly unusual...
...really know what's in this Ortega-Wright plan, and we just have to wait and see what they're talking about," said Fitzwater. Privately, officials denounced the scheme. "It sounds a lot like the Sandinistas' old unilateral cease-fire," said a naysayer at State. Although Contra Leader Adolfo Calero shot down Ortega's call for the rebels to disarm, the contras seemed to withhold judgment...
...hard to regard his mysterious behind-the-scenes maneuverings as anything short of mediation. Wright's attempts to edge the Sandinistas and contras closer to talks made the Reagan Administration uneasy, if not downright furious. "We don't think it's desirable for the U.S. to inject itself directly into these talks," said State Department Spokesman Charles Redman. Fitzwater was blunter. "Anytime you start seeing stories of independent plans," he said, "you have to start being a little nervous." Others in Washington charged that Wright's horse trading usurped Reagan's foreign policy authority. Said Republican Senator John McCain...
...until the Iran-Contra story broke, the image of the President was glowing and very positive," said Marvin L. Kalb, director of the Barone Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government...
...Iran-Contra affair will go down in history as the beginning of the end of the Reagan Administration's sway over American politics, Harvard professors said yesterday reacting to the Congressional report released Wednesday...