Selects: Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 1

In 1982, Congress passed the Boland Amendment with a unanimous 411–0 vote, explicitly prohibiting the CIA and Defense Department from using funds to aid the Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. Congress believed the matter was settled. They were wrong. By 1983, the CIA had secretly mined Nicaragua’s harbors—sinking small fishing boats and damaging commercial ships from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, and the Soviet Union—all while writing press releases for the Contras to take credit. When the Wall Street Journal broke the story, Congress passed two more amendments to close every loophole. Reagan signed those too. And then his administration simply took the operation even further underground.

This is the Iran-Contra affair, which the hosts call "probably the shadiest thing the U.S. government has ever done." Part one of this two-part episode traces how a president’s laser focus on stamping out communism led his administration to violate the law, run a secret proxy war, and eventually trade arms for hostages—all while publicly championing the "Just Say No" campaign.

The Reagan Doctrine and the Nicaraguan Powder Keg