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A four-decade secret: One man’s story of sabotaging Carter’s re-election
- jtotheh 4y agoSo, Team Reagan left the hostages there longer, sold arms to an enemy and subverted the POTUS - why is there a statue of that !@# at Washington National Airport?????
- kadoban 4y agoBecause Republicans are not at all interested in the failings of their leaders.
- lockhouse 4y agoThat’s not a quality that is unique to Republicans.
- funstuff007 4y agoI agree that it's a reasonable approximation to say the Republicans are the bad guys, but that in no way makes it true that the Democrats are the good guys. In fact, the more odious the R's behave the worse the D's can do say and still say, "well, at least we're not them.".
- lockhouse 4y agoLife isn’t a Marvel comic book. There aren’t good guys and bad guys in Washington, DC, just corrupt self serving politicians on both sides of the aisle that say what they think their constituents want to hear while doing the bidding of their campaign donors.
- michaelmrose 4y agoIn the last 55 years they've had Nixon Reagan Bush Sr Bush Jr and Trump. Compare this to Carter Clinton Obama and Biden. 4 of the 5 on team red blatantly attempted to subvert Democracy. One legalized indefinite detention and torture and Another outright attempted to take the government after losing. They might as well be comic book villains.
- lapcat 4y ago> 4 of the 5 on team red blatantly attempted to subvert Democracy Wait, which 1 do you think didn't?
- michaelmrose 4y agoIt's possible I'm less aware of the exploits of Bush Sr due to being very young then and it not being as notable as Nixon or Reagan.
- lapcat 4y agoFirst of all, Bush was Director of the CIA before he was VP, which is bad enough by itself. (Operation Condor, etc.) Bush was also close to Bill Casey (mentioned in the article), who ran Reagan's campaign, recruited Bush for the ticket, and became Reagan's Director of the CIA. Bush and Casey were both knee deep in Iran-Contra, a massive subversion of democracy and constitutional crisis in which the Reagan administration disobeyed an act of Congress. When Bush left office, he pardoned a bunch of Iran-Contra conspirators, thus covering his own ass too.
- rendall 4y agoThere won't be any reasonable, principled government in the US while people voluntarily divide themselves into these two arbitrary tribes and shout about how they are better than the other side. People actually believing this is how the Duopoly is maintained. If you can take a hard look at your own side, a really hard look, you'll see rot there too. Better to see it, know it, be aware of it. Support those who oppose it irrespective of the arbitrary label they choose to call themselves.
- atoav 4y agoSadly the politicians manage to distract anybody from wanting tougher campaign financing and lobbying laws. I am not too deep into US politics, but if you wanna vote for tougher regulations on that there is one party that is not like the other based on the bills they proposed. But hey, that won't stop the majority from waving their stupid party-political flags and go full "but the other side"-mode.
- 20after4 4y agoFailings? Seems he was rather successful. I mean, he got away with it.
- P_I_Staker 4y agoI think this illustrates the problem. You can't seem to recognize that failures of character are concrete failings.
- 20after4 4y agoMy apologies, I was being facetious. Of course he had failings but our society rewards rather than punishing them.
- P_I_Staker 4y agoPlus let people die of AIDS, because he thought it was gay. Then straight people started dying and it was a problem. Gay lives don't matter to Republicans.
- dickeyrat 4y agoKeep in mind, the proceeds from the weapons sales to Iran were used to finance Nicaragua's Contras, in the Amerikan attempt to create a right-wing puppet state in Central America.
- MandieD 4y agoHeck, the airport was even renamed for him, as a special slap in the face to the air-traffic controllers.
- jtotheh 4y agoI live there, I still try and refer to it as National Airport.
- krolden 4y agoDont forget flooding america with cocaine to pay for those weapons.
- mud_dauber 4y ago[flagged]
- DrJosiah 4y agoAnd only when Carter is in hospice.
- mcdonje 4y agoPaywall. Summary?
- raylad 4y agoBen Barnes, a former Texas political figure, has revealed that his political mentor, John B. Connally Jr., who served three US presidents, went on a mission to the Middle East in 1980 to sabotage President Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign. Connally, who had just lost his own bid for the White House and wanted to become Secretary of State or Defense in a new administration, was determined to help Ronald Reagan beat Carter. He met with regional leaders and delivered a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don't release the hostages before the election, and Reagan will win and give you a better deal. Shortly after returning home, Connally reported to William J. Casey, chairman of Reagan's campaign, and later the director of the CIA, briefing him about the trip in an airport lounge. Barnes, who accompanied Connally on the trip, identified four people he had confided in over the years, including the president of the L.B.J. Foundation, a former aide to Lyndon Johnson, a former aide to Connally and Johnson, and a University of Texas historian. All four confirmed that Barnes shared the story with them years ago. Records at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum confirmed part of Barnes's story. An itinerary found last week in Connally's files showed that Connally left Houston on July 18, 1980, for a trip that would take him to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel before returning to Houston on Aug. 11. Barnes was listed as accompanying him. The October surprise theory has been long debated, with Carter's camp long suspecting that someone in Reagan's orbit sought to secretly torpedo efforts to liberate the hostages before the election. Congressional investigations have debunked previous theories of what happened, but Connally did not figure in those investigations. With Carter now 98 and in hospice care, Barnes said he felt compelled to come forward to correct the record. Confirming Barnes's account is problematic after so much time, as Connally, Casey, and other central figures have long since died, and Barnes has no diaries or memos to corroborate his account.
- mcdonje 4y agoThank you!
- mbgerring 4y agoWhat this and so many other sordid tales from America’s recent history should tell you is that however cynical and suspicious you might be about whatever is happening in American foreign policy, there’s always room for more.
- clashandcarry 4y agohttps://archive.ph/F0yhX https://archive.ph/F0yhX
- Kukumber 4y ago[flagged]
- ss108 4y agoWhat?
- Kukumber 4y agothere are no bad questions, only bad answers, so let me ask you a question what do you mean by "what"? should i be more clear? provide more details? or you simply do not understand the subject and therefore need a digestible short summary? let me know, i'm here to help spread the knowledge
- dang 4y agoWe've banned this account for posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments and for using HN for political battle generally. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- roughly 4y agoIt’s staggering the degree to which this may have bent the course of the nation. To call Reagan a departure from his predecessor is an understatement second only to saying his influence on the course of politics and society in this country was substantial.
- oildynastyb 4y ago"October Surprise conspiracy theory" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory#Allegations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_th... The Reagan/Bush team subsequently removed the solar panels Carter had added to the White House, (Energy policy of the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_the_United_St... ), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_traffi... Tom Cruise, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War:_The_Extraordinary_Story_of_the_Largest_Covert_Operation_in_History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Wilson%27s_War:_The_Ex... ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unocal_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unocal_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai#Unocal_connection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai#Unocal_connection ), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone#Aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone#Aftermath "You are creating a Frankenstein" - Bhutto (Pakistan), "https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Instead%2C+he+predicted%2C+the+most+extreme+forms+of+Islamism.%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Instead%2C+he+predicted%2...", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_state-sponsored_terrorism#Nicaraguan_Contras https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_state-sponso... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics#Debt_and_government_expenditures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics#Debt_and_governmen... ... Gulf War I ("read my lips, no new taxes") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War "Starve the Beast" (intent to cause bankruptcy of; intent to sabotage by reducing revenue but not expenses) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast Gulf War II; OIF,: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War "The Power of Nightmares": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares
- MandieD 4y ago
- av3csr 4y agoI watched the Ken Burns' Vietnam documentary a few weeks ago, this reminds me of the claims that the Nixon campaign pretty much did the same thing in '68 with the Republic of Vietnam and the peace talks (i.e. our guy will get you a better deal.)
- LBJsPNS 4y agoSee also: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05tapes.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05tapes.html
- hunglee2 4y agoUS comes out with revelations of this type 40 years after the fact, by routine. Can't wait to see the confirmations in 2060, if we're all still around to muse over it
- dickeyrat 4y ago[flagged]
- atoav 4y agoMaybe, but the rest of the world doesn't deserve the fallout of that.
- PicassoCTs 4y agoThe day the CIA had proof and evidence that the soviet union was in a slow downward spiral and "containable", that was the day the carot of middle class shared progress was packed away and it was back to the stick in the salt-mines of the gilded age again. It may be hard to fathom, but the "golden" age of capitalism was in actual competition with a actual "socialism" aka a rivaling empire. The nice past we remember, was given to us at gunpoint and is now clawed back. Some societies take longer on this course, because they found the outcome pleasant and want to keep it. But the forces of the market, drag it towards a economic singular entity, which owns politics, with democracy on the label or not. The figureheads were exchanged accordingly.
- euroderf 4y agoYup, capitalism was much better behaved when it had some real competition. I guess China could maybe play the same role except that it is just too easy to pigeonhole China's experience as foreign and inapplicable to the West.
- InTheArena 4y ago“None of that establishes whether Mr. Reagan knew about the trip, nor could Mr. Barnes say that Mr. Casey directed Mr. Connally to take the journey. Likewise, he does not know if the message transmitted to multiple Middle Eastern leaders got to the Iranians, much less whether it influenced their decision making. But Iran did hold the hostages until after the election, which Mr. Reagan won, and did not release them until minutes after noon on Jan. 20, 1981, when Mr. Carter left office.” We actually can read histories on this - from the Iranian side. After the failed invasion/raid the chance that the Iranians ever would have worked with carter is nil. Zero. Nada.