A Brief History
On November 3, 1986, a Lebanese magazine reported that the US had been selling weapons to Iran as part of a negotiation to get seven Americans released in Lebanon. President Reagan, as part of his “tough guy” image as a presidential candidate had repeated a line from US leaders since Nixon, “there will be no negotiation with terrorists of any kind.”
Digging Deeper
Reagan, however, appeared outed as dealing with terrorists in violation of US law in the Iran-Contra Scandal, dealing with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorists. Reagan’s team was allegedly even negotiating with terrorists before he even took office!
Reagan is not the only US president to go against the “no deals with terrorists” mantra, as Presidents GW Bush, Obama, and Trump found themselves negotiating with terrorists on various occasions. President Biden inherited President Trump’s deal with the Taliban and found out the hard way when the US flubbed the Afghanistan withdrawal that deals with terrorists are problematic!
Question for students (and subscribers): Should the US acknowledge that we do indeed negotiate with terrorists? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Byrne, Malcolm. Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power. University Press of Kansas, 2017.
Duran, Nicholson. THE IRAN-CONTRA SCANDAL: An Intriguing Tale of Covert Operations, Arms Deals, and the Dark Secrets of Reagan Administration. Independently published, 2023.
The featured image in this article, President Ronald Reagan during his address to the nation on the Iran-Contra Controversy in the Oval Office, 11/13/1986, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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