by Alan McPherson
University of North Carolina Press
3/4/2025, paperback
SKU: 9781469686349
A president defying Congress. Disrespect for the law. Attacks on the press. Evasion in the courts. The privatization of war. Quid pro quos with foreign nations. The mounting dangers to American democracy have long been with us. But all these perils first emerged together during the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan-Bush era. This opaque foreign policy mess has receded from history, a minor speedbump at the triumphant end of the Cold War. With American democracy in increasing jeopardy from the inside, however, Iran-Contra must be reassessed as a major step down that dark path.
In this gripping blow-by-blow account of the 1980s efforts to trade arms with Iran illegally, fund rebels in Central America despite a congressional prohibition, and dodge political and legal consequences once the truth emerged, Alan McPherson argues for the salience of six democracy-degrading behaviors throughout the fiasco. At the time, many warned of the broad attack on democratic norms, yet no one paid a real price or learned a lesson. Those failures left the country more divided than ever before, and ill-equipped for more severe assaults to come.
Reviews:
"A clear, compelling narrative of the Iran-Contra scandal, the best that I have read. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the erosion of democracy in the United States."--Andrew J. Kirkendall, author of Cold War Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America
"McPherson's detailed, story-rich account will not only hold readers' attention but will also alert them to the blatantly dishonest and self-serving actions of the top officials in the U.S. government during the Iran-Contra scandal."--Library Journal
"Reading Alan McPherson's brilliant examination of the Iran-Contra affair it is almost as if Washington has become trapped in a timeless Bermuda Triangle of deception of its own making that stretches from Iran to Nicaragua to DC."--Latin American Review of Books
About the Author:
Alan McPherson is professor of history at Temple University and author of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle.