Word: contras
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...position anger the Soviets but it may be impossible to sell to America's European allies. Other foreign policy problems are crowding in, and will be exacerbated by the fallout from the Tower commission report. The most immediate and, for Reagan, disastrous effect may be the collapse of the contra campaign. The contras are central to the so-called Reagan doctrine of helping rebels wage guerrilla war against Marxist governments in widely scattered areas of the globe: Afghanistan, Angola, Kampuchea. But the contras cannot carry on their rebellion without continued U.S. assistance. The Tower report shows the extent to which...
...State Department, officials are privately predicting that Elliott Abrams, the intensely committed Assistant Secretary of State who has served as the point man in the contra crusade, will be gone by summer. The report shows that his involvement in Ollie North's private contra-supply network was far greater than he had previously testified. Says one source close to Abrams: "There is no way Elliott can survive this." The contra-aid program will have similar problems surviving, even though it makes little sense to tie its fate to the Iranian scandal...
Despite the illogic of cutting off the contras as a reaction to the excesses of their Administration backers, State Department officials see no way that, in light of the Tower findings, Reagan can win the additional $105 million he is requesting for the cause. Some have already begun referring to the anti-Sandinista rebels in the past tense. Says one official long involved in the contra war: "We had been devising a strategy to somehow save this thing, but after this report, it's all over. We need to start thinking about evacuating the contras, figuring out what...
McFarlane's successor as National Security Adviser "failed grievously" to consider the gravity of the diversion of money to the contras. Poindexter did not show an awareness of the operation's scope or importance, focusing instead on narrow details like who should be on the list of people who would have access to information. On occasion he misled top Administration officials about details of the arms sales and the contra diversion. Poindexter "apparently failed to appreciate or ignored the serious legal and political risks presented" by the contra-support operation, said the commission. It added that, on the evidence available...
Squabbles between two presidential advisers are common, but they rarely reach melodramatic heights. In recent months, however, a battle between Ronald Reagan's two closest counselors has been airing regularly, like a soap-opera accompaniment to news of the Iran-contra scandal. As the sniping between First Lady Nancy Reagan and White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan escalated, it only added to the image of a presidency adrift. "What is happening at the White House?" asked New Mexico Democrat William Richardson on the House floor last week. "Who is in charge? A constituent of mine asked...