Word: contras
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Television made Ollie North a celebrity. Journalists had cast him as a heavy in the Iran-contra scandal, but his bravura performance as a witness -- emotional, defiant, patriotic -- led to a national outburst of Olliemania. McCarthy, Agnew and North were quite dissimilar in deeds and in character, but of each it could be said that journalists covering him believed that with time and further acquaintance people would think less of him. That also seems to be the conviction of most journalists who cover Gary Hart...
January 1987. The Reagan Administration is in the throes of the Iran-contra scandal. National attention is focused on former National Security Council Aide Oliver North as a central figure in the political melodrama. But North isn't talking. The White House is on edge; no one knows what secrets North holds or whom he may implicate in the scandal. In this atmosphere of high anxiety, North's attorney, Brendan Sullivan, meets with Reagan's special counselor on Iranscam, David Abshire. Sullivan's objective: a presidential pardon for his client...
...IRAN-CONTRA HEARINGS For one summer week, TV viewers were transfixed by Ollie North, an earnest, gap-toothed Marine who zealously believed in what he did. And for nightly summaries, PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour was tops...
...details certainly sounded impressive. According to contra leaders, more than 4,000 U.S.-backed rebels crept for days through dense jungle to launch a fierce surprise attack on three mining towns in northeastern Nicaragua. In the hamlet of Siuna, the invaders routed 750 defenders, blew up an airfield and seized enough Soviet-made weapons to supply 1,000 troops. Their biggest coup was the destruction of a Soviet GCI radar unit that formed the heart of Sandinista air defenses for the region. Jubilant rebel leaders called the two- day assault the most successful offensive of the six-year civil...
...attack came as the two warring sides began a second round of peace talks in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo. The negotiations broke down within hours; the contras insisted on talking directly with the Sandinistas, and Managua said it would bargain only through advisers. "We are at an impasse," said Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Nicaragua, who serves as a mediator between the belligerent parties. The two sides agreed to a two-day Christmas truce, but Sandinistas accused the contras of numerous violations. The rebels denied the charges. In Managua, Nicaraguan President Daniel...