The overwhelmingly positive image Reagan enjoyed was finally shaken when a report surfaced that the administration had secretly sold arms to Iran in an effort to free American hostages held in Lebanon. The situation looked even worse when it became clear that the President's National Security Advisor and staffers had used money from the sale illegally to aid anti-Communist "Contras" in Nicaragua in their effort to topple the "Sandinista" government there.
In a 1989 Saturday Night Live sketch, Phil Hartman playing former President Reagan answers basic questions by a census taker with the same evasiveness with which he responded to Congressional queries about his knowledge of the affair. However, by this point, few questioned whether he had actually been in the loop, and still another nickname seem to apply: "the Teflon President", as little seemed to stick to him or dampen the affection most Americans had come to feel for him. He was, to offer one more unofficial nickname, a doddering but lovable "Grandpa in the White House". A comprehensive Senate report on the Iran-Contra Affair confirmed the unwillingness to reprimand him for the Illegal and embarrassing travesty that brought the eight-year Reagan administration to an ignominious end.
Source: Daily Dose: "Iran-Contra Affair" ( • Iran-Contra Affair ).
2 окт 2024
