Podbit · Stuff You Should Know
The civil war the Reagan administration fomented in Nicaragua lasted a full decade, with civilians murdered by the scores. One Contra leader admitted there was no disciplinary system within the rebel factions at all — meaning fighters could commit any atrocity without consequences. A woman described finding her children's mutilated bodies the next day.
Where this was said
At 24:19 · chapter starts 21:50
Reagan ran a parallel public campaign to drum up congressional support for turning the funding back on. He cast the Contras in heroic terms — 'the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers' — and stoked fear about a communist-driven refugee crisis at America's doorstep. What he didn't mention was what affidavits were beginning to document: Contra factions committing murder, rape, mutilation, and kidnapping against Nicaraguan civilians. One woman described finding her children's mutilated bodies. A Contra leader admitted there was no disciplinary system within the factions, meaning fighters could do whatever they wanted with zero accountability. Josh and Chuck sit with the cognitive dissonance of Reagan describing these groups in Founding Father terms while their atrocities went unacknowledged and unreported.
The US-supported civil war in Nicaragua lasted into the 1990s, with civilians murdered, kidnapped, and tortured by the scores throughout the conflict.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
The official narrative: John Poindexter wanted to help the Contras, tapped Oliver North, and North went rogue — creating the entire network, brokering the Iran deal, all without Reagan or Bush knowing anything. The American public was not impressed.
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