Word: iran-contra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Author Robert Timberg, now deputy Washington bureau chief of the Baltimore Sun, is himself an Annapolis graduate and Marine veteran of Vietnam. Covering the Reagan White House as the Iran-contra affair unfolded during the 1980s, Timberg "kept picking up echoes of Vietnam ... I remember thinking that perhaps Iran-contra was at least in part the bill for Vietnam finally coming due." Timberg had been told that the nightingale cannot perform unless it first hears a few notes from another nightingale. His conceit is that in the '80s, Ronald Reagan sang the nightingale's song of patriotism and military pride...
...later. Poindexter: a brilliant student at the Naval Academy who suffered afterward, in Timberg's rendering, from a blind-side naivete about politics. McFarlane: a saintly self-diminisher, subverted by thoughts of his own unworthiness but cherishing immense ambitions. When McFarlane attempted suicide in 1987 under the strain of Iran-contra, it was by the strangely unmartial means of a Valium overdose...
Neither McCain nor Webb had anything to do with Iran-contra. Webb, another true battlefield hero (Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts), was no hot dog but rather, in many ways, the smartest and best of the bunch. After the typically bitter homecoming from the war, he forged a career as a novelist, writing the best battlefield novel of Vietnam, Fields of Fire. During the Reagan Administration, he had a brief and stormy tenure as Secretary of the Navy...
...hint of one has ever come to light. Working for Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Powell did have a small role in the Iran-contra scandal, facilitating the transfer from Army stocks of one of six missile shipments to Iran. His unrevealing congressional testimony about the affair seemed "completely out of character," says Korb. But even Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-contra special prosecutor who criticized Powell's testimony in an August 1993 report for being "at least misleading," says now that "Powell didn't say anything that was knowingly false . I myself don't think it is a significant matter...
Defeated Virginia GOP Senate nominee and Iran-Contra figure Oliver North last night said he'll run for public office again, but not in 1996 as many had anticipated. (Rampant Washington rumors had North pitted against the state's Republican senator, John Warner, who refused to support North's bid this year.) "It's not a matter of if I run again, it's when. And it's not 1996," North said Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live." He didn't specify what office he might pursue, but did commit to burying the hatchet with Warner.Post your opinion...