Word: contras
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...potential casualty of the revelations last week is the goal that the bizarre scheme was intended to further: keeping alive the contra struggle, which after five years of stop-and-go funding has yet to seriously threaten the existence of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. The President's fervent support for the contra cause is the most visible manifestation of what has been called the Reagan Doctrine, America's attempt to counter the spread of Communism by fostering insurgencies to undermine Moscow-backed regimes. After a long struggle, Reagan squeezed out a narrow victory this May by persuading Congress...
...renewed when the new Congress meets in January. Now Capitol Hill resounds with predictions that angry legislators will cut off aid again as a kind of punishment to North and those in the Administration who failed to monitor his activities. Says Minnesota Senator David Durenberger, a Republican and reluctant contra supporter: "It's going to be a cold day in Washington before any more money goes to Nicaragua. Ollie may have killed off his Nicaraguan program." Such a reaction has little logic. There are valid arguments for and against helping the anti-Sandinista guerrillas, but the issue should be debated...
...sickening feeling of "here we go again," a dread of another orgy of public self-flagellation, of deepening public suspicion that might undermine all governmental authority. Nor was that foreboding confined to the Administration's allies. Journalists could sense among those Congressmen most determined to investigate the Iran-contra scandal an unspoken fear of where the investigations might lead, a kind of silent prayer that it would not once again be straight into the Oval Office...
Washington is in its full Watergate crouch. This time it took about two minutes following the Iran-contra money-deal revelation...
...pack. But the pack is coming on hard. As in Watergate 14 years ago, the Times will surely bring in the reserves for the journalistic war that is now declared and may in the end prove as important as the political inquest about to start over the Iranian-contra episode...