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Speaker 1: Two days before Christmas in nineteen seventy two, the capital
Speaker 1: city of Nicaragua was destroyed by an earthquake.
Speaker 2: When daylight finally came, you could still see smoke billowing
Speaker 2: over the city of Managua. The crews shook themselves and
Speaker 2: began another long day of digging out and trying to
Speaker 2: clear this city and stop the fires.
Speaker 1: Bulldozers combed the streets in search of bodies.
Speaker 3: The scent of the city has been utterly destroyed. Even
Speaker 3: the few tall buildings which do remain will soon be
Speaker 3: brought down by dynamite. Unofficial estimates of the dead are
Speaker 3: running as high as five thousand, many of these.
Speaker 1: As the city burned, Nicaragua's right wing dictator Anastasio Simosa,
Speaker 1: declared martial law.
Speaker 3: The army is now in full command of the city
Speaker 3: and the country. General Simosa is overflying the city in
Speaker 3: a US helicopter. He will personally direct the demolition operations
Speaker 3: to level the city.
Speaker 1: Simosa and his family had ruled over Nicaragua for decades,
Speaker 1: always with the full backing of the United States, but
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of the earthquake, the Samosa government was
Speaker 1: accused of stockpiling foreign aid, mismanagement, and fraud. Simosa responded
Speaker 1: to the criticism by tightening the screws on all forms
Speaker 1: of descent.
Speaker 4: The country felt increasingly militarized. As a child, you could
Speaker 4: feel it.
Speaker 1: Victoria Gonzales Rivera was growing up in Nicaragua during these
Speaker 1: turbulent years after the earthquake. Today, she's a history professor
Speaker 1: at San Diego State University. Gonzales Rivera remembers General Simosa
Speaker 1: seeming all powerful. His control over Nicaragua was embodied by
Speaker 1: the constant presence of his armed loyalists, the National Guard.
Speaker 4: They wore their uniforms, you know, these olive green uniforms.
Speaker 4: They were everywhere. I remember, for example, at one point
Speaker 4: a National Guards member shot someone, a civilian, you know,
Speaker 4: on my street, and I heard the shot, and of course,
Speaker 4: you know, adults just made me go inside the house,
Speaker 4: and later on I could still see the blood on
Speaker 4: the road, and the violence just became really, really widespread.
Speaker 1: The Samosa government's increasing authoritarianism and corruption gave rise to
Speaker 1: a popular opposition movement. A socialist revolutionary group started to
Speaker 1: gain momentum.
Speaker 5: The Sandinista National Liberation Front or FSLN, is named after
Speaker 5: the nineteen twenties nationalist leader Augusto Sandino.
Speaker 1: As the Samosa As regime grew more brutal, the FSLN,
Speaker 1: also known as the Sandinistas, evolved into a cohesive force
Speaker 1: with real military strength.
Speaker 5: The Sandonist gorillas have launched what they called their final offensive.
Speaker 5: With the recent development of fighting in Managua for anoun
Speaker 5: signs that Washington will start to priss Moore openly Forsmoza's resignation.
Speaker 1: In July of nineteen seventy nine, they deposed Simosa and
Speaker 1: declared a new government in Nicaragua.
Speaker 6: By midmorning here in Managua, Sandinista gorillas were coming.
Speaker 1: In from every direction.
Speaker 6: On Many of the tough young gorillas were raised in
Speaker 6: the four sections of this country were support for the
Speaker 6: Sandinista movement has been the strongest, and it.
Speaker 7: Was the poor people in the capitol.
Speaker 6: Who filled the breach today the Greek, the winners of
Speaker 6: the eighteen month old war.
Speaker 8: It wasn't long before the Gorilla.
Speaker 1: The Sandinista government started implementing its policy agenda, including a
Speaker 1: slate of social programs in public health and education, and
Speaker 1: for the first time in years, it felt as though
Speaker 1: peace was coming to Nicaragua.
Speaker 4: Right after the revolution, there was some euphoria the literacy campaign,
Speaker 4: vaccination campaigns. That was really safe, you know, I remember
Speaker 4: that really clearly, Like you could be out in the
Speaker 4: street really late, and it felt so safe. There was
Speaker 4: a sense of there being sort of endless possibilities.
Speaker 1: But the euphoria didn't last long. The Sandinistas quickly encountered
Speaker 1: resistance from Nicaraguans who were unhappy with the new government.
Speaker 1: That included former Somosa supporters and rural laborers who were
Speaker 1: forced into collective farming. Several groups of counter revolutionaries started
Speaker 1: popping up all over the country. Collectively, they were called
Speaker 1: the Contras, and soon a new armed conflict was brewing
Speaker 1: in Nicaragua.
Speaker 9: The so called Contras claim an army of ten thousand,
Speaker 9: with more joining every day.
Speaker 4: The Contra War started fairly soon after seventy nine. So
Speaker 4: it became a vicious circle of sorts where the Sandinistas
Speaker 4: justified the authoritarianism because it was wartime.
Speaker 8: They have shut down the only opposition newspaper five times,
Speaker 8: They've postponed election, outlawed strikes, and jailed some of their opponents.
Speaker 4: And then more people then turned away because of the authoritarianism.
Speaker 4: It just felt like never ending war.
Speaker 9: The largest of the rebel groups has extended its control
Speaker 9: from a sliver around the Hunduran border to several advanced
Speaker 9: locations in the center of Nicaragua. They say the war
Speaker 9: will continue until the Sandinistas are gone.
Speaker 1: Just as the Sandinistas were coming to power in Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: a presidential election was getting under way in the United
Speaker 1: States for Ronald Reagan, the Republican nominee. The spread of
Speaker 1: communism to a Central American nation looked like a serious threat.
Speaker 1: Here is Doyle McManus, who covered the Contra War for
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times and co authored the book Landslide.
Speaker 10: It was owned only five years after the United States
Speaker 10: lost the Vietnam War, and in those five years, the
Speaker 10: perception on the American right was that the United States
Speaker 10: was in headlong retreat. All over the world, and that
Speaker 10: the Soviet Union was winning everywhere, and there was in
Speaker 10: effect a new Domino theory that first Nicaragua, then l Salvador,
Speaker 10: then perhaps Guatemala, Honduras, and you are on the border
Speaker 10: of Mexico, and suddenly we have a new problem of
Speaker 10: communist regimes right up to our border.
Speaker 1: At the nineteen eighty Republican Convention, the GOP added a
Speaker 1: plank to its platform affirming the party's support for a
Speaker 1: free and independent government in Nicaragua. Reagan drove the point
Speaker 1: home when he accepted his party's nomination.
Speaker 11: The United States has an obligation to its citizens and
Speaker 11: to the people of the world, never to let those
Speaker 11: who would destroy freedom dictate the future course of life
Speaker 11: on this planet.
Speaker 1: As President, Reagan made no secret of his disdain for
Speaker 1: the Sandinistas, but most Americans were opposed to the United
Speaker 1: States getting involved in yet another proxy war abroad. One
Speaker 1: poll in nineteen eighty three found that sixty six percent
Speaker 1: of Americans feared that a US intervention in Nicaragua would
Speaker 1: turn into a repeat of Vietnam. That anxiety underpinned a
Speaker 1: lot of American politics in the seventies and eighties. It
Speaker 1: was known as Vietnam syndrome.
Speaker 5: Congressional critics warn of another Vietnam and say it's time
Speaker 5: for the US to keep its hands off.
Speaker 2: Is there now a.
Speaker 11: Kind of Vietnam phobia, a predisposition against the use of
Speaker 11: military force, a presumption that that is wrong and has
Speaker 11: to be proved right the old Mark Twain anecdote, a
Speaker 11: cat that jumps on a hot stove not only will
Speaker 11: not jump on a hot stove, won't jump on any
Speaker 11: stove at all.
Speaker 1: Even some of his fellow Republicans broke from Reagan on
Speaker 1: the Sandinista question. They agreed that democracy in Nicaragua would
Speaker 1: be a good thing, but they didn't want the US
Speaker 1: getting its hands dirty by helping the Contras make it happen.
Speaker 3: I don't think President Reagan has convinced some of the
Speaker 3: most powerful members, even of his own.
Speaker 4: Party, that it is really a Marxist struggle down there,
Speaker 4: and it's the US versus the Kamis. It is a
Speaker 4: very comminateduation.
Speaker 1: But Reagan and his top advisors did not harbor any
Speaker 1: doubts about what was going on down in Central America.
Speaker 1: By the same logic that would lead to the invasion
Speaker 1: of Grenada. Nicaragua looked poised to turn into a Soviet
Speaker 1: outpost in the Western Hemisphere if something wasn't done.
Speaker 10: Think about the big issues the Middle East, the Soviet
Speaker 10: Union at the time, the Cold War. They went on
Speaker 10: endlessly and there was nothing there you could solve. But
Speaker 10: here was a theater where someone sitting in the White
Speaker 10: House or the Defense Department or the State Department could say,
Speaker 10: you know, we actually do have enough power to fix
Speaker 10: this problem, if we only dare to use it.
Speaker 1: Nicaragua was a problem Reagan thought he could solve. The
Speaker 1: overwhelming opposition of the American people was an obstacle, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't insurmountable. Maybe the United States could help the
Speaker 1: Nicaragua in contras without anyone finding out about it. Maybe
Speaker 1: Reagan could set the Soviets BACKUPEG in Central America and
Speaker 1: nobody would ever have to know. I'm Leon Nathalk from
Speaker 1: Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is fiasco Iran Contra.
Speaker 1: The Reagan administration secret war in Nicaragua.
Speaker 11: Covert activities being engaged in uncovertly cannot be justified.
Speaker 12: The administration is going into high gear to salvage its
Speaker 12: policies on Central America.
Speaker 11: We cannot turn our backs on this crisis at our doorstick.
Speaker 9: No longer can we so easily bear witness to the
Speaker 9: standards of international law.
Speaker 6: The Sandinistas can hold out forever, but the US Congress cannot.
Speaker 1: Episode three Contra Dance. How the Reagan administration forged a
Speaker 1: secret military alliance with the Contra fighters in Nicaragua, and
Speaker 1: what happened when Congress tried to stop them. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Anthony Quainton started his mission as the US
Speaker 1: Ambassador to Nicaragua in March of nineteen eighty two. Given
Speaker 1: Reagan's intense interest in Nicaragua, Quainton knew the job would
Speaker 1: put him in the spotlight, but he didn't expect the
Speaker 1: headaches to start quite as immediately as they did.
Speaker 13: When I arrived, I climbed off the plane from Miami
Speaker 13: to be greeted by cameras, clea lights, microphones, and there
Speaker 13: were some hopes that maybe a new ambassador would bring
Speaker 13: a new approach.
Speaker 1: It turned out that while Quainton was in the air
Speaker 1: flying from Miami to Monagua, Contra forces had blown up
Speaker 1: two bridges as part of their war on the Sandinistas.
Speaker 6: The chief reason for the imposition of the state of
Speaker 6: emergency was the sabotage of two Nicaragua bridges by anti
Speaker 6: government guerrillas.
Speaker 1: And according to the government led by Daniel Ortega, the
Speaker 1: CIA had been in on the plot.
Speaker 6: Military leaders here are telling the people they must be
Speaker 6: prepared for a US backed invasion.
Speaker 13: I was confronted with questions, which began more or less
Speaker 13: as follows. Mister, Ambassador Daniel Ortega has declared a state
Speaker 13: of emergency because the CIA has blown up the bridges
Speaker 13: connecting Nicaragua and Honduras. What do you think about this
Speaker 13: start to your investorship?
Speaker 1: Quentin didn't quite know what to say. He didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about a CIA operation to blow up bridges in Nicaragua. Officially,
Speaker 1: the Reagan administration was exercising restraint in its opposition to
Speaker 1: the Sandinistas. Officially they were holding back from joining the
Speaker 1: contra war.
Speaker 13: And I had to think very quickly because I had
Speaker 13: not been briefed on the operation, nor did I expect
Speaker 13: any particular clandestine operation would be time to with my arrival.
Speaker 13: So I don't know whether I mumbled. I tried not
Speaker 13: to mumble, but to suggest that these were very difficult issues,
Speaker 13: and I look forward to discussing them with Commandante Ortega
Speaker 13: and others.
Speaker 6: The newly appointed US Ambassador, Anthony Quainton is now a Nicaragua.
Speaker 6: He says he wants to try to decrease the level
Speaker 6: of tension.
Speaker 1: That was only the first time Quainton would find himself
Speaker 1: caught between the Reagan administration he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: representing in the Nicaraguin leaders he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: working with. The awkwardness was never more palpable than when
Speaker 1: the Sandinistas sang their anthem in Quaintan's presence. The hymn
Speaker 1: of the Sandinistas was sung at nearly every official function
Speaker 1: and referred to the Yankee enemy of mankind.
Speaker 13: So every time they sang an Imigo del money, that
Speaker 13: enemy of humanity, it was a dilemma. I mean, at
Speaker 13: what point would I should I be? Was I expected
Speaker 13: to be visibly in opposition? It was a constant question
Speaker 13: for me.
Speaker 1: The tension over the Contra War escalated in the fall
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two when Newsweek ran a blockbuster cover
Speaker 1: story about CIA covert operations being coordinated out of Honduras
Speaker 1: along the Nicaragua border.
Speaker 6: Newsweek's cover story this week is an extraordinary exclusive report
Speaker 6: on the Reagan administration secret war in Nicaragua.
Speaker 14: There are a number of different types of operations in
Speaker 14: what is generally perceived to be a war of nerves.
Speaker 1: Newsweek reported that some fifty CIA operatives were working in
Speaker 1: Central America to undermine the Sandinistas. The Contras only had
Speaker 1: about twelve thousand guerrilla soldiers, but according to Newsweek, Reagan
Speaker 1: had approved a CIA plan to help them. It entailed
Speaker 1: relatively modest activities like repairing equipment and disrupting Sandinista supply chains,
Speaker 1: but it also involved training Contra forces and helping them
Speaker 1: plan attacks. According to many of the US officials quoted
Speaker 1: in the Newsweek story, these efforts were ineffective, risky, and
Speaker 1: deeply embarrassing. One official said, this is our bay of pigs.
Speaker 1: The contract didn't come across well in the article either.
Speaker 1: One Contra officer was quoted saying that come the counter revolution,
Speaker 1: there will be a massacre in Nicaragua. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of scores to settle, and there will be bodies
Speaker 1: from the border to Monagua. Here's one of the authors
Speaker 1: of the Newsweek story giving a radio interview about her piece.
Speaker 14: The policy may in fact have the opposite effect of
Speaker 14: that which is intended. In other words, it may consolidate
Speaker 14: what little support remains for the Sandinistas. As one person
Speaker 14: told me in Minaugua earlier this summer, just because we
Speaker 14: want these bastards out doesn't mean we want the old
Speaker 14: bastards back.
Speaker 1: The Newsweek's story put a lot of heat on Reagan
Speaker 1: and the CIA.
Speaker 3: The COVID operation in Central America has drawn sharp criticism
Speaker 3: on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 9: I've told the President I feel that he makes a
Speaker 9: foreign policy mistake if he wants to substitute COVID activity
Speaker 9: for a good foreign policy.
Speaker 1: Opposite position to Reagan's secret medaling in Nicaragua was led
Speaker 1: by Democratic Congressman Edward P. Boland.
Speaker 8: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Edward Boland has made it almost
Speaker 8: a personal crusade to cut off CIA financing for guerrillas
Speaker 8: in Nicaragua.
Speaker 1: Boland was appalled that the administration was trying to avoid
Speaker 1: congressional oversight in order to pursue a secret agenda. Boland
Speaker 1: wanted to rein in the rogue executive branch.
Speaker 8: He argues, the Reagan administration is trying to overthrow the
Speaker 8: Nicaraguan government with the gorillas and the US support for them,
Speaker 8: makes this country the meddler the bully in the region.
Speaker 1: Another congressman had proposed a blanket ban on all military
Speaker 1: aid to the Contras, but Boland wanted to find a
Speaker 1: compromise that Reagan would be willing to sign, so he
Speaker 1: suggested an amendment to the Defense budget that would specifically
Speaker 1: forbid the CIA from sending military aid to anyone seeking
Speaker 1: to overthrow the Sandinista government, which is to say, the
Speaker 1: CIA could help the Contras as long as they weren't
Speaker 1: doing it with the intention of bringing about regime change.
Speaker 1: The law came to be called the bowl In Amendment,
Speaker 1: and it passed the House unanimously with overwhelming support from
Speaker 1: both Democrats and Republicans. Here again is La Times reporter
Speaker 1: Doyle McManus.
Speaker 10: As long as they said the purpose of this operation,
Speaker 10: the purpose of this arms shipment is not to overthrow
Speaker 10: the government of Nicaragua, they figured they were in the clear.
Speaker 10: So the CIA saw that as the biggest loophole that
Speaker 10: they could drive arms trucks through that they had ever seen,
Speaker 10: and that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 8: So for now, the administration feels free to pursue what
Speaker 8: some here feel are rather uncovert covert activities in Nicaragua.
Speaker 1: The debate over the Bolan Amendment coincided with the major
Speaker 1: pr push by the Reagan administration. They wanted to galvanize
Speaker 1: support for the contrast among American lawmakers and to get
Speaker 1: regular Americans excited about the contract cause. To that end,
Speaker 1: the CIA set about finding a group of counter revolutionary
Speaker 1: who could represent Nicaragua's anti communist movement, and if they
Speaker 1: couldn't find one, they would settle for creating one.
Speaker 10: There was in the Reagan administration a kind of generalized
Speaker 10: search for good guys. We could back that if you
Speaker 10: wanted to organize and mobilize American public support for this
Speaker 10: great crusade against Soviet Communism, you needed some heroes, You
Speaker 10: needed some good guys, and so that was an important
Speaker 10: part of the narrative.
Speaker 1: Selecting members for this contra organization was kind of like
Speaker 1: putting together a boy band. The perfect number of people
Speaker 1: to serve in the group was seven. It would include
Speaker 1: a businessman, a politician, and a doctor. The CIA was
Speaker 1: looking for Nicaraguan anti communists with good reputations, people who
Speaker 1: weren't associated with the brutality of the Samosa National Guard.
Speaker 1: The new seven person directorate was going to be the
Speaker 1: public face of an entity called the Nicaraguan Democratic Force,
Speaker 1: the FDN.
Speaker 15: Well, my life called many, many ups and downs, or
Speaker 15: ins and out.
Speaker 1: Edgar Chamorro moved to Miami from Monagua in the midst
Speaker 1: of the Sandinista Revolution. Chamorro was born to one of
Speaker 1: Nicaragua's most powerful and well connected families. There were multiple
Speaker 1: former presidents of Nicaragua and the Chamorrow family tree, but
Speaker 1: Edgar never felt the poll of politics. After a short
Speaker 1: stint as a Jesuit priest, he founded an advertising agency
Speaker 1: and made ads from breweries, rum distilleries, and car dealerships.
Speaker 1: After he moved to Miami, Chamorrow became more interested in
Speaker 1: his home country's politics. He didn't doubt that the Sandinistas
Speaker 1: genuinely wanted to help people, but he thought their plans
Speaker 1: for transforming the country were too radical. He started attending
Speaker 1: meetings in the homes of other Nicaragua expats who were
Speaker 1: critical of the Sandinista government.
Speaker 15: When I started attending groups that were interesting what was
Speaker 15: going on, I followed very closely, and I went to
Speaker 15: many meetings and I heard things that people were sending
Speaker 15: weapons or even hunting rifles. I heard stories like that.
Speaker 1: The meetings were pretty informal. What could a bunch of
Speaker 1: people sitting in the living room in Miami we do
Speaker 1: about a government a thousand miles away. But then at
Speaker 1: the end of nineteen eighty two, Tomorrow got a mysterious
Speaker 1: phone call.
Speaker 15: He spoke with a very solemn or gravitas, like somebody
Speaker 15: who has power or something. He said us speaking on
Speaker 15: behalf of high authority of the government.
Speaker 1: The man said his name was Steve Davis, and he
Speaker 1: invited Tomorrow to lunch.
Speaker 15: He already had chosen a restaur and we went there.
Speaker 15: But he looked like a very sharp, well dressed like
Speaker 15: politician or Washington executive or business executive. He was well dressed.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow came to believe that Steve Davis was an agent
Speaker 1: of the CIA. He invited Chamorro to join the new
Speaker 1: FDN Directorate, and Chamorrow accepted the offer. About a month later,
Speaker 1: he and the other members of the Directorate gathered for
Speaker 1: a press conference at a hotel near Fort Lauderdale. There
Speaker 1: they would introduce the new Contra brand to the world.
Speaker 15: There was a long table with aposion. We all very
Speaker 15: just stop. I had to buy best suit or best usual.
Speaker 13: You know.
Speaker 15: Everybody looked very sharp, and so it was like a
Speaker 15: meeting for something in olive or something.
Speaker 1: The Americans overseeing the directorate briefed Tomorrow and the others
Speaker 1: on what they should say to the public and more importantly,
Speaker 1: what they absolutely should not say. The main thing was
Speaker 1: to never, under any circumstances let it slip they had
Speaker 1: received help or even been in contact with anyone from
Speaker 1: the American government. At one point during the press conference,
Speaker 1: a reporter asked whether the group had any supporters who
Speaker 1: were fits in Nicaragua. We do have people, chamorro' said many.
Speaker 15: I knew all that I was not telling them the truth.
Speaker 15: I mean, it was so fake in that sense, but
Speaker 15: dous the way the American want us to do it.
Speaker 1: Soon, Chamorro moved to Honduras to be closer to where
Speaker 1: most of the contras were based. At a salary of
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars per month plus expenses, he was put
Speaker 1: in charge of communications and pr Among his responsibilities was
Speaker 1: giving interviews to international newspapers and TV reporters. He also
Speaker 1: worked on propaganda. One of the most consequential projects Chamorro
Speaker 1: helped with was an eighty eight page guide called Psychological
Speaker 1: Operations in Guerrilla Warfare. It was intended for distribution among
Speaker 1: contra leadership on the ground, but when Chamorro looked over
Speaker 1: the final draft of the text, he was deeply disturbed.
Speaker 1: Under the heading selective use of violence for propagandistic effects,
Speaker 1: he read the following line, it is possible to neutralize
Speaker 1: carefully selected and planned targets such as court judges, police
Speaker 1: and state security officials.
Speaker 15: And I started reading the booklet and I got very upset.
Speaker 15: It says very clearly neutralize, a word that sounds neutral,
Speaker 15: but it's not neutral at all. It means eliminating people
Speaker 15: who are capable, or leaders of unions or whatever. So
Speaker 15: he wasn't recommending selective assassination.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow knew from that very first FDN press conference in
Speaker 1: Florida that American agents might ask him to bite his
Speaker 1: tongue or even lie in service of the contract. Cause
Speaker 1: now Tomorrow just felt like a puppet of the US government.
Speaker 1: That feeling was reinforced when in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night on January fifth, nineteen eighty four, he was awakened
Speaker 1: by a call from a CIA operative.
Speaker 15: It was a late at night. I was called and
Speaker 15: I was told it was something very important I have
Speaker 15: to do right now. Or who was an origin matter?
Speaker 1: The agent told Chamorrow that bombs had been placed in
Speaker 1: Nicaraguan harbors. The idea had been to scare off commercial
Speaker 1: ships from other countries that were doing business with the Sandinistas.
Speaker 1: Chamorrow had to get on the radio right away and
Speaker 1: announce on air that the contrast had been behind the operation.
Speaker 15: And then he gave me this page that I was
Speaker 15: supposed to read. I was asked to cover it up. Basically.
Speaker 1: Three months later, the Wall Street Journal told the world
Speaker 1: who was actually responsible for planning the harbor bombing operation.
Speaker 8: US government sources confirmed tonight that the Central Intelligence Agency
Speaker 8: is actively directing the mining of Nicaragua harbors.
Speaker 7: The government of Nicaragua opened Puerto Corinto to foreign journalists.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 1: Military leaders at the port say it.
Speaker 7: Was done to show the world that the US is
Speaker 7: involved in so called terrorist acts.
Speaker 4: The mines have been removed.
Speaker 1: This was an enormous story. The harbor bombings were evidence
Speaker 1: of direct military action taken by Americans in a foreign country.
Speaker 12: Suddenly, the law and order president is being attacked around
Speaker 12: the world and even by members of his own party
Speaker 12: as a man who has no respect for law and order.
Speaker 1: The backlash was swift and broad.
Speaker 12: Nicaragua and some Democratic Congressmen are saying that US involvement
Speaker 12: with that mining of the Nicaragua Harbor's constitutes an act
Speaker 12: of war.
Speaker 1: Even Barry Goldwater, the Republican Senator, was furious. Here's Doyle
Speaker 1: McManus again.
Speaker 10: Barry Goldwater, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked
Speaker 10: the CIA what the hell was going on? And the
Speaker 10: CIA's answer was, oh, we told you about this. And
Speaker 10: Senator Goldwater was not happy because, as far as he knew,
Speaker 10: he had never been told, and as far as most
Speaker 10: of the members of the committee knew, they had never
Speaker 10: been told. And Goldwater hit the ceiling.
Speaker 1: Goldwater wrote a letter to the director of the CIA
Speaker 1: to express his frustration that Congress had not been informed
Speaker 1: of the operation. It gets down to one little simple phrase,
Speaker 1: Goldwater wrote, I am pissed off. This was not just
Speaker 1: about the contras and whether they deserved America's support. It
Speaker 1: was about the separation of powers between the executive branch
Speaker 1: and Congress. Lawmakers had used the power of the purse
Speaker 1: to impose restrictions from the president's foreign policy objectives, and
Speaker 1: the president had gone ahead and pursued those objectives. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the controversy would have been a major headache under any circumstances,
Speaker 1: but this was erupting during Reagan's re election campaign.
Speaker 11: My fellow Americans, much has been made of late regarding
Speaker 11: our proper role in Central America and in particular toward Nicaragua.
Speaker 11: We cannot turn our backs on this crisis at our doorstep.
Speaker 1: The news went from bad to worse. A few days
Speaker 1: before Reagan was set to debate his Democratic opponent, Walter Mondale,
Speaker 1: the story of the Guerrilla Warfare Manual became public.
Speaker 7: Controversy mounted over a CIA manual that offers advice to
Speaker 7: rebels on care billing officials in Nicaragua.
Speaker 8: In other words, that means assassination.
Speaker 1: It was reported that pages explaining how to carry out
Speaker 1: political assassinations have been part of the original document, the
Speaker 1: same pages that had horrified Edgar Chimorro. Despite his misgivings,
Speaker 1: Chimorro defended the manual in front of the cameras.
Speaker 6: Rebel leader Edgar Chamorro says, in a guerrilla war sometimes
Speaker 6: there's no choice for us.
Speaker 15: It's legal in our Catholic tradition to assassinate tiets.
Speaker 1: This prompted another flood of outrage. Here was documentary proof
Speaker 1: that the US had a grand strategy to de stabilize Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: a strategy that encouraged contrafighters to commit war crimes.
Speaker 6: Nicaragua and rebel leaders have now acknowledged that some of
Speaker 6: the manual's tactics, including political assassination, were followed by the commandos.
Speaker 11: And that CIA officials not only knew about it, they
Speaker 11: encouraged it.
Speaker 1: During the debate with Mondale, Reagan was caught off guard
Speaker 1: by a question about the CIA's operations in Nicaragua. In response,
Speaker 1: once the Great Communicator made a slip up that you
Speaker 1: really have to hear to believe.
Speaker 14: Is this not, in effect our own states supported terrorism.
Speaker 11: No, I'm glad you asked that question, because I know
Speaker 11: it's on many people's minds. We have a gentleman down
Speaker 11: in Nicaragua who is on contract to the CIA, advising
Speaker 11: supposedly on military tactics the Contras, and he drew up
Speaker 11: this manual. It was turned over to the agency head
Speaker 11: of the CIA in Nicaragua to be printed, and a
Speaker 11: number of pages were excised by that agency head there,
Speaker 11: the man in charge.
Speaker 7: Mister President, you are implying, then, that the CIA in
Speaker 7: Nicaragua is directing the contras there.
Speaker 11: I'm afraid I misspoke when I said a CIA head
Speaker 11: in Nicaragua. There's not someone there directing all of this activity.
Speaker 1: The Reagan campaign's internal polling numbers that night were a disaster,
Speaker 1: but by the end of the week, nearly every poll
Speaker 1: showed that Reagan had won the debate, in part because
Speaker 1: the CIA exchange had been overshadowed by a much more
Speaker 1: memorable one.
Speaker 11: I will not make age an issue of this campaign.
Speaker 11: I am not going to exploit for political purposes my
Speaker 11: opponent's youth and inexperience.
Speaker 1: In the end, Reagan was re elected by an astounding margin.
Speaker 1: He won forty nine out of the fifty states.
Speaker 11: A jubilant President Reagan today is savory and a re
Speaker 11: election mandate of near record proportions.
Speaker 14: Mister Reagan came just shy of the fifty states sweets.
Speaker 1: But by this point lawmakers had already made their displeasure
Speaker 1: with Reagan known. In response to the Harbour bombing operation,
Speaker 1: Congress had strengthened the Bowland Amendments for the upcoming fiscal year.
Speaker 10: The second Bowland Amendment basically said no money, no weapons,
Speaker 10: no indirect aid, no advice, no nothing. The intelligence age
Speaker 10: of the United States cannot get involved in this war,
Speaker 10: and that presented the Reagan administration with a terrible problem.
Speaker 10: The people the President wanted to support in Nicaragua had
Speaker 10: no more access to the CIA or any other American
Speaker 10: intelligence agency for help what to.
Speaker 1: Do, But some members of the administration saw that as
Speaker 1: another door left slightly open. The new and improved Bonone
Speaker 1: Amendment specifically barred US intelligence agencies from supporting the conference,
Speaker 1: but what exactly was the definition of an intelligence agency.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. By the end of nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: Oliver North was a rising star on the National Security
Speaker 1: Council staff. He'd been assigned to the NFC in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty one, partly because Reagan was trying to shrink the
Speaker 1: cost of the federal government, and it was cheaper to
Speaker 1: deputize military personnel than to hire new political staffers. North
Speaker 1: was inexperienced and overextended, but he worked harder and longer
Speaker 1: than almost anyone else to get up to speed. North
Speaker 1: wanted to be the guy who could be relied on
Speaker 1: to accomplish any task as superiors put in front of him.
Speaker 1: He wanted to be indispensable. Here is Anne Roe, the
Speaker 1: obituari's editor of The Economist, an author of the book Lives,
Speaker 1: Lives and the Iran Contra Affair.
Speaker 16: In his notebook, there's a rather nice little reference to
Speaker 16: Isaiah six', eight the part where the lord, says who
Speaker 16: AM i going to? Find who SHALL i? Send and
Speaker 16: the obedient servant, says, HERE i am send. Me and
Speaker 16: that was Something north was aware of all the. Time
Speaker 16: he'd be the man who'd be available to, send and
Speaker 16: he would.
Speaker 1: Obey roe says that When north started at THE, nsc
Speaker 1: he thought he'd be stuck in his office doing boring administrative.
Speaker 1: Work but now he saw wo how he could be
Speaker 1: involved in the exciting parts of foreign.
Speaker 16: Policy he had an, office a set up completely like
Speaker 16: secret agent's, office with the codes on the, door and
Speaker 16: the five telephones and the secure, phone and the tempered
Speaker 16: glass in the, windows and the huge, safe and heaven
Speaker 16: knows what was in the.
Speaker 1: Safe with the Second Bolon amendment about to go into,
Speaker 1: effect The reagan administration needed someone who wasn't involved in
Speaker 1: official intelligence activities to be in charge of organizing The.
Speaker 1: Contras in their narrow reading of The New Bowlan, amendment
Speaker 1: The National Security council wasn't technically an intelligence, agency so
Speaker 1: they thought setting up shop in THE nsc was the
Speaker 1: perfect way to get around the, restrictions And Oliver north
Speaker 1: seemed like the right man for the.
Speaker 16: Job norles had maps Of managua maps At nicaragua up
Speaker 16: on his. Wall he would talk about how they were
Speaker 16: going to be In monagula By. Christmas he was in
Speaker 16: a way directing the battle from his. Desk as he.
Speaker 1: Said north was put in charge of supplying The contra
Speaker 1: with money for, weapons food and other, supplies but Without congressional,
Speaker 1: funding the money had to come from somewhere. Else one
Speaker 1: solution was to solicit donations from foreign. Countries these efforts
Speaker 1: by The White house yielded huge piles of, cash including
Speaker 1: millions of dollars From Saudi arabia and a ten million
Speaker 1: dollar donation from The sultan Of. Brunei unfortunately for The,
Speaker 1: contras that money was accidentally sent to the Wrong Swiss
Speaker 1: bank account Because, north secretary wrote down the wrong routing.
Speaker 1: Number another Way north got around The Bowland amendment was
Speaker 1: by soliciting funds from, regular, old Wealthy. Republicans THE us
Speaker 1: government wasn't allowed to pay for The contra's, weapons But
Speaker 1: congress hadn't said anything about private. Citizens So north set
Speaker 1: about wooing potential donors who believed in The contra's freedom fighting.
Speaker 1: Cause to that, end he worked with a nonprofit called THE,
Speaker 1: nepl The National endowment for The preservation Of. LIBERTY a
Speaker 1: man Named carl Spitz channel from THE npl made the diligoustical.
Speaker 1: Arrangements north was the.
Speaker 16: Salesman these donors were particularly an interesting group of, people
Speaker 16: and there's a whole group of true believers who are
Speaker 16: generally quite elderly and female and very.
Speaker 1: Rich one of those donors Was Ellen, garwood and she
Speaker 1: was indeed, elderly, female and very. Rich garwood's anti communist
Speaker 1: philanthropy was inspired by her, father who had worked in
Speaker 1: The truman administration and was one of the architects of
Speaker 1: The Marshall.
Speaker 16: Plan they'd taken out for drinks And north joined them
Speaker 16: in somewhere like the Hay Addams.
Speaker 1: Hotel Here's garwood in nineteen eighty seven speaking about her
Speaker 1: experience as A contra.
Speaker 7: DONOR i met with him at the Hay Adams hotel
Speaker 7: in the. Evening after, dinner The.
Speaker 16: North would talk about the desperate plight of the.
Speaker 7: Contrast he said that they were in such a bad
Speaker 7: condition that they were out of, food madisone other, necessities
Speaker 7: and also practically out of. Weapons they might cease to
Speaker 7: exist if something weren't done about these various.
Speaker 16: Needs he then decides he'll, go but before he, goes
Speaker 16: he just slides a weapons price list onto the, table the.
Speaker 7: List of weapons that they. NEEDED i love that the
Speaker 7: list had different categories of, weapons had hand, GRENADES i, remember,
Speaker 7: bullets cartridge, belts possibly surface to air, missiles and there
Speaker 7: were quantities opposite each. Category and after that there was
Speaker 7: a sum of money that was needed in order to
Speaker 7: provide those weapons that those weapons would.
Speaker 1: Cost the idea of helping The contras was as thrilling
Speaker 1: to the donors as it was To.
Speaker 16: NORTH i love the idea of these blue rinsed women
Speaker 16: who know buying weapons to give to The. Contras and
Speaker 16: one of them was so enthusiastic she wanted her name
Speaker 16: put on a missile.
Speaker 1: Potential donors were invited to attend special briefings in the
Speaker 1: Old Executive office. Building north would give a slideshow presentation
Speaker 1: showing photographs of The contras and the conditions they, faced
Speaker 1: often including an image of A contra grave marked with a.
Speaker 1: Cross some donors were so moved that they, cried but
Speaker 1: they weren't always giving only out of the goodness of their.
Speaker 16: Hearts if you gave more than three hundred thousand, dollars
Speaker 16: you got an audience in The Oval office for fifteen,
Speaker 16: minutes often one on. One and it's so interesting to.
Speaker 16: Read how you know they went in there and really
Speaker 16: Told reagan what they thought he ought to be doing
Speaker 16: on foreign. Policy you, know it's the moment when citizens
Speaker 16: and complete demeateurs are trying to make foreign policy and
Speaker 16: shape it. Themselves they get the air of the president
Speaker 16: and they tell him what he what he should.
Speaker 1: Do the fundraising pitch painted The contra war as a
Speaker 1: black and white, conflict a fight between democracy and, communism
Speaker 1: good and, evil and that wasn't just a. Story north
Speaker 1: And reagan told donors to try to get them to give.
Speaker 1: Money it was a story they. Believed, meanwhile down In,
Speaker 1: honduras some of The contras were making it awfully hard
Speaker 1: to root for. Them here is An american nun who
Speaker 1: lived In nicaragua talking to A tv reporter about the
Speaker 1: lawless brutality of The.
Speaker 14: Contras when we first came, here we visited forty eight.
Speaker 14: Communities now we only visit thirty eight because the communities
Speaker 14: have been wiped. Out many people have frightened as a
Speaker 14: result of contractivity in this.
Speaker 1: Area Edward chamorro couldn't stomach these, tactics and after just
Speaker 1: a few years with THE fdn he grew profoundly.
Speaker 15: Disillusioned part of my thing was the credibility. Problem how
Speaker 15: we were committing.
Speaker 1: Atrocities according To, chamorrow the contras were murdering, civilians raping,
Speaker 1: women and destroying entire.
Speaker 15: VILLAGES i don't believe in the anglify the. MEANS i
Speaker 15: believe the means and the ends have to be.
Speaker 1: Good chamorrow parted ways with THE fdn in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1: Four he returned to his family In miami and started
Speaker 1: sharing his experiences with the.
Speaker 15: Press this policy has not, work and direcord of The
Speaker 15: contra is not. GOOD i think it's time to look
Speaker 15: for a better and cleaner.
Speaker 1: Approach chamorrow later settled In massachusetts and became a. Teacher,
Speaker 1: Meanwhile Victoria Gonzales rivera moved To michigan with her. Mother
Speaker 1: it was hard for her to hear people In america
Speaker 1: talk About nicaragua as some, hypothetical far away, place as
Speaker 1: if the war was just part of a political, argument
Speaker 1: and she was shocked by how Little americans seemed to
Speaker 1: know about what was really going.
Speaker 4: ON i felt that people in THE us were not just,
Speaker 4: uninformed but were just so, naive very very. Naive people
Speaker 4: wanted it to be a black and white. Story they
Speaker 4: wanted it to, be you, know good guys and bad. Guys,
Speaker 4: right over two percent Of nicaraua's population died between in
Speaker 4: the mid seventies and nineteen Ninety and what you see
Speaker 4: is just this, continuous CONTINUOUS us military and political and
Speaker 4: financial involvement in this, tiny tiny. Country and it just
Speaker 4: makes you, wonder like, why you, know what have Nicarong
Speaker 4: ones done to deserve? This and there is no, answer you,
Speaker 4: know as a nicarague and as a, historian there is no.
Speaker 1: Answer by the summer of nineteen eighty, Five Oliver north's
Speaker 1: secret campaign to funnel, money, weapons and supplies to The
Speaker 1: contras was going full steam, ahead but it wasn't quite
Speaker 1: a secret as he. Thought here again Is doyle.
Speaker 10: McManus there were enough reporters In washington following The Contra
Speaker 10: war that they began to realize That Ali north had
Speaker 10: something to do with. It they didn't know exactly what it,
Speaker 10: was but in the middle of nineteen eighty five a
Speaker 10: number of articles in newspapers said That Ollie north and
Speaker 10: The White house were somehow involved with The, contras and
Speaker 10: at that Point congress got.
Speaker 1: Interested members Of congress started writing letters To National Security
Speaker 1: Advisor bud McFarlane asking what exactly was going on With
Speaker 1: Oliver north and whether THE nsc was violating The Boland.
Speaker 10: Amendment and McFarlane sat down and wrote a formal, reply
Speaker 10: and it, said in, PART i can state with deep
Speaker 10: personal conviction that at no time DID i or any
Speaker 10: member of THE nsc staff violate the letter or spirit
Speaker 10: of the. Law these were breathtakingly false. Denials he knew
Speaker 10: that what he was writing was a.
Speaker 1: Lie McFarlane met with members of The House Intelligence committee in,
Speaker 1: person and his responses reassured the committee chairman that everything
Speaker 1: was above. Board after their, meeting the chairman told, McFarlane
Speaker 1: i for one am willing to take you at Your
Speaker 1: on the next episode Of, Fiasco Oliver north And bud
Speaker 1: McFarlane lead A us delegation on a risky secret operation
Speaker 1: into the heart Of.
Speaker 4: IRAN i later learned that he and McFarlane had suicide
Speaker 4: pills AND i had nothing.
Speaker 1: For a list of, books articles and documentaries we used
Speaker 1: in our research follow the link in the show. Notes
Speaker 1: fiasco is a production Of Prolog projects and it's distributed
Speaker 1: By Pushkin. Industries the show is produced By Andrew, Parsons
Speaker 1: Madeline Kaplan ulakulpa and Me Leon. Mathock our editor Was Camilla.
Speaker 1: Hammer our researcher Was Francis. Carr additional archival research From Caitlin.
Speaker 1: Nicholas our music is By Nick. Silvester our theme song
Speaker 1: is By Spatial. Relations our artwork is By Teddy blanks
Speaker 1: At chips And. Water audio mixed By Rob, Buyers Michael
Speaker 1: rayphiel And Johnny Vince. Evans copyright council provided By Peter
Speaker 1: yassi At Yass BUTLER. Poc thanks To Sam, Graham, Felsen
Speaker 1: Siria shockley And katchik And. Kova special thanks To luminary
Speaker 1: and thank you for.
Speaker 7: Listening