Word: nicaraguan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
...latest Sandinista stumble began last weekend, after Managua learned that the U.S. press would carry the damning charges of a recent Nicaraguan defector, Major Roger Miranda Bengoechea, who had occupied a top post in the Defense Ministry. Hoping to pre-empt Miranda's charges of a planned military buildup, Humberto Ortega delivered a powerful speech reaffirming Sandinista plans to arm up to 600,000 Nicaraguans and obtain Soviet MiG-21 jet fighters by 1995. Unflinchingly defiant toward the U.S., Humberto thundered, "We do not need to hide our relations with the socialist camp in defense matters...
...Defense Minister Ortega, brother of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, has close to $1.5 million in diverted Defense Ministry funds in a Swiss bank account...
Adolfo Calero, one of the six directors of the Contra umbrella organization known as Nicaraguan Resistance, announced the 36-hour cease-fire in Miaimi, and said the rebels would fight back only if attacked...
Reagan is in no such happy position. Since Reykjavik the President has suffered one disaster after another: loss of the Senate to the Democrats; the Iran-contra debacle; increasingly bold and successful congressional opposition on everything from taxes to funding of SDI and the Nicaraguan rebels. But as the end of his presidency approaches, Reagan seems to regard the INF treaty as his legacy to history and a vindication of his whole approach to foreign policy. Says an aide: "This treaty shows the wisdom of Reagan's tough way of dealing with the Soviets...