Under Fire; An American Story
North, Oliver, with Novak, William
- Publisher: HarperCollins, New York
- Date published: 1991
- Format: Hardcover
- ISBN: 9780060183349
xvi, [2], 446 pages. Illustrations. Appendix. Index. Rear flyleaf creased. Signed by the author. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator and television host, military historian, New York Times best-selling author, and former United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel. He was convicted in the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s but his convictions were vacated and reversed, and all charges against him dismissed in 1991. North is primarily remembered for his term as a National Security Council staff member during the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. The scandal involved the illegal sale of weapons to Iran to encourage the release of U.S. hostages then held in Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan, which was to divert proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua, which had been specifically prohibited under the Boland Amendment. From 2001 to 2016, North hosted War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel. The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah, a paramilitary group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista, or Contras, in Nicaragua. After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. On March 4, 1987, Reagan in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility, and saying that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages"
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