Word: contra
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...months before Reagan leaves office, the hostages, the contra question and the scandal that entwines them remain the most divisive and disabling issues of his presidency. Nicaragua, an irritant to Reagan since he arrived in Washington, clattered back to center stage. As in a tragedy, the President's past misjudgments were returning to haunt him. No matter how a jury votes on the charges against Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord and Albert Hakim, the verdict is already in on Reagan's handling of his contra policy...
...President was determined to forge the contras into a weapon against the Marxist Sandinistas, but his shifting rationales for what he was doing undermined his credibility. When opposition from Congress kept him from supporting the contras openly, he tried to do so covertly. The Iran-contra scandal that ensued aggravated widespread public uneasiness over U.S. policy toward Managua and hastened the end of congressional funding for the rebels...
...other elements of the Iran-contra scandal will continue to play out even as the Reagan Administration is eclipsed by the election campaign. Last year public opinion was divided about whether the Iran-contra mess was a political dispute or a serious abuse of power. The charges against North and his associates mean that a jury must decide whether this national hero, as Reagan called him, is simply a criminal. North and Poindexter could be standing trial on Election Day, and the evidence against them -- as well as the suspicion that the President will pardon them -- could play a pivotal...
...Administration and the public alike have done their best to draw attention elsewhere. North and the other characters in the Iran-contra drama dropped from sight after last summer's congressional hearings, and the House- Senate investigation seemed to come to an inconclusive end marked by partisan sniping. The Wall Street Crash and last December's Reagan-Gorbachev summit concentrated the nation's mind on larger matters. If the Iran-contra scandal has been a refrain in Democratic primary campaigns, and a stick that rivals have used to attack Bush, voters have seemed more interested in determining who can best...
...contra crisis swung the spotlight back on a half-forgotten drama, it also shifted public attention back to Ronald Reagan, who had seemed to be fading from view as the primary campaigns accelerated. Like his aides who now stand indicted, the President remained stubbornly defiant as his contra policy came close to collapsing. Although earlier in the week he assiduously lobbied leaders on Capitol Hill to renew the funding for his "Freedom Fighters," Reagan's attitude toward Congress and the contras remained unchanged. Former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, said the President, was guilty only of "not telling Congress everything...