Word: contra
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...loose cannon . . . People used to walk up to me and tell me what a great job I was doing." Among them, he declared, was Secretary of State George Shultz, who opposed the Iran deals but, claimed North, "knew in sufficiently eloquent terms what I had done" for the contras. Shortly before he was fired, North said, Shultz took him aside at a party, "put his arm around my shoulder and told me what a remarkable job I had done keeping the Nicaraguan resistance alive." (A spokesman for Shultz said the Secretary had intended only to compliment North for boosting contra...
Rather than apologize for lying to congressional committees about his role in the contra military effort, North boasted, "I didn't want to show Congress a single word on this whole thing." Said he: "Lying does not come easy to me. But we all had to weigh in the balance the difference between lives and lies." Yet North seemed caught in a contradiction between this assertion and his insistence that his support for the Nicaraguan rebels was always in full compliance with...
North also explained why he had cashed traveler's checks, given to him by Contra Leader Adolfo Calero, at such places as a tire shop and a hosiery store. The checks, he said, were meant for use in his contra resupply and other covert operations. He kept "meticulous" records in the now destroyed ledger about his expenses, and when no funds were at hand, he spent his own money. Then he reimbursed himself when new checks arrived...
Still, Liman and House Chief Counsel John Nields managed to sketch some broader themes than North's more limited view of how a democracy functions. Nields pounced on North's complaint that his contra support role had been publicized in Moscow, Havana and Managua. "All our enemies knew it," replied Nields solemnly, "and you wanted to conceal it from the United States Congress...
...matter how grim life may seem and how insistent his critics are that Reagan look and act despondent, he refuses. Amid Washington's Iran-contra catharsis, Reagan has wandered off unexpectedly in his odd little byways...