Reagan

The Reagan Administration and Nicaragua/ the Iran-Contra Scandal

Reagan gained office in 1977, and at first his foreign policy looked no different from the Presidents before him (Search for Security: The United States and Central America in the Twentieth Century).

Not unlike the administrations before him, Reagan believed that communist movement, such as those in Nicaragua, were linked to a world-wide communist conspiracy and needed to be stopped . There was much debate as to whether we should continue to give money to Nicaragua, but in 1984, aid was cut off. Some officials were upset with this decision and decided to continue giving money to Nicaragua which led to the Iran Contra Scandal(Leogrande & Brenner, The House Divided: Ideological Polarization over Aid to the Nicaraguan "Contras").

Although the United States has been involved in many plans to destabilise governments, Nicaragua stand out because it was one of the most intense and long lasting, which culminated into the Iran-Contra scandal ( Leogrande, Making the economy scream: US economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua).

During the Reagan Administration it was discovered that the officials of the United States government were illegally smuggling guns to Iran to aid in their fight against Iraq, and through that interaction, giving money to the Nicaraguan contras trying to overthrow the government in power. This was all incredibly illegal, and did not succeed on overthrowing the Nicaraguan government (Making the economy scream: US economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua).

Since the contra war failed, the United States began an economic war against Nicaragua and enacted economic sanctions. According to Leogrande, these economic sanctions along with the cost of war succeeded in eventually having the Sandinistas voted out of office, but at the same time devastated the economy of Nicaragua ( Making the economy scream: US economic sanctions against Sandinista Nicaragua).

Reagan and North [1]

Nicaragua [2]