Word: contra
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Just a year earlier, when America blazed with celebrations for the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty, Reagan had seemed the most popular President in years. But after a steady flow of congressional hearings on the Iran-contra arms scandal, of war threats in the Persian Gulf, of huge budgetary and trade deficits, of a declining dollar and a crashing stock market, his own stock fell. A CBS/New York Times poll at the end of November reported that 45% of the citizenry approved of the way Reagan was doing his job, down from 52% only six weeks earlier...
Selling weapons to Iran was bad enough. Using the profits to arm the Nicaraguan contras was an outrage to many members of Congress, which had banned such aid. That transgression became the focal point of the summer-long investigation by a joint congressional committee. Once again, Reagan's statements were contradictory. On several occasions, he denied knowing how the contras obtained their illegal aid. Then he startled listeners by saying of private Nicaraguan funding "I've known what's going on there. As a matter of fact, for quite a long time now, a matter of years...
Among the other runners-up for Man of the Year would have to be the figure at the center of the Iran-contra scandal, though there was some uncertainty about who that might be. Rear Admiral John Poindexter, who had been forced to resign as the President's National Security Adviser, testified that he was in ^ charge of the operation and that he had decided, for Reagan's protection, not to tell the President all the details. But there were many in Congress who doubted that the cautious and rules-bound admiral would undertake such a risky venture...
...addition to Lawrence Walsh, a Wall Street lawyer who is handling the Iran-contra probe, two other independent counsel are at work on investigations...
Some things never change. Every year Ronald Reagan petitions a resistant Congress for renewed aid to the contra rebels. And every year, as the vote nears, Nicaragua's Sandinista leaders make a blunder that puts Reagan's request over the top. In 1985 Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega Saavedra jetted off to Moscow four days after a $14 million contra-aid measure had been rejected; chastened by what looked like a deliberate slap in the face, Congress reversed itself and okayed a $27 million package. The next year a Sandinista attack on contra bases inside Honduras persuaded Congress to approve...