All language subtitles for Fiasco S01E02 Body and Soul 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP5 1 H 264-FLUX (1)_track4_[eng]

[narrator]
Previously on "Fiasco"...

While President Jimmy Carter
is engulfed

by a hostage crisis in Iran,

a new religious movement
in the United States

finds traction

and a kindred spirit
with a familiar face.

After Carter suffers
a landslide defeat

in his bid for a second term,
he remains determined

to negotiate
the release of the hostages.

But it's the newly
inaugurated President Reagan

who welcomes them home.

[dramatic music]

♪

Right next door to the White
House, in Washington, D.C.,

is another building
that's never gotten

quite as much attention.

[man] The Old Executive Office
Building

was built more
than 100 years prior.

It was actually the Department
of the Navy

and the Department of War.

At the time, the National
Security Council staff

was all located on the third
floor of the building.

The National
Security Council,

or NSC for short,
was a body of senior advisors

who had the President's ear
on foreign policy.

The NSC had its own staff,

whose job it was
to monitor world events

and keep
the President informed

of any incoming threats
to America's national security.

My office was probably
20 feet by 20 feet,

with 15-foot ceilings.
I had a big sofa.

I could spend the night.
I had a bar.

Those were days
when you could smoke cigars

in the office
and drink scotch.

Oliver North's office
was not like that.

Colonel North, please rise.

[cameras clicking]

Do you solemnly swear--

Before Oliver North

became associated
with an international scandal,

he was a little-known
junior aide on the NSC staff,

a young Vietnam vet
with no previous experience

as a government bureaucrat.

Starting in 1981,
North had his own office

in the Old Executive
Office Building.

Room 392.

He was actually stuck up
in a room

that was carved
out of other rooms.

His office was uncomfortable,
it was hot, it was cramped.

[suspenseful music]

Most people
in government at the time,

even those with top secret
security clearance,

had no idea
this room even existed.

Ollie had three
or four computers,

four or five phones.

He had more
electronic equipment

than anyone else in the NSC.
It was a bit sci-fi.

We're still talking 5 1/4
floppies in this time.

There were no hard drives.

Whenever there was
a hint of danger

anywhere in the world,
a little bell would go off,

and some days room 392 was
filled with the din of bells.

North's office was definitely
a little command center,

and it enabled him to have,

you know,
international conversations,

secure conversations,
whatever he wanted,

while dealing
with three different computers

at the same time.

You know, it was sort
of a real-time picture

of global terrorism.

♪

I came to
the National Security Council

six years ago

to work in the administration
of a great president.

How did
Oliver North find himself

so close to the center
of American power?

There were many problems.

Sometimes we succeeded
and sometimes we failed.

What was he doing

behind the closed doors
of room 392?

And what part did he play in
paralyzing the administration

of a wildly popular president?

But at least we tried.

And I want to tell you
that I for one

will never regret having tried.

♪

I'm Leon Neyfakh.

This is "Fiasco,"
the story of Iran-Contra.

[patriotic music playing]

♪

We have every right
to dream heroic dreams.

Those who say
that we're in a time

when there are no heroes,

they just don't know
where to look.

You can see heroes every day.

Ronald Reagan
glided into office in 1981,

thanks in part to the missteps
of his predecessor,

Jimmy Carter.

I'm told that tens of
thousands of prayer meetings

are being held on this day,

and for that
I'm deeply grateful.

But he was also really good
at playing the part.

We are a nation under God,

and I believe God
intended for us to be free.

He had star quality,

and he just came across
as presidential.

Reagan had this special charm
about him,

this appealing factor.

In this springtime of hope,

some lights seem eternal.
America's is.

[cheers and applause]

It was almost like
if it was on camera

and you were watching him
on television,

you had the sense that he was
right there with you,

leaning over a fence.

I have a letter with me.

The letter came
from Peter Sweeney.

He's in the second grade,

and he said,
"I hope you get well quick

or you might have to make
a speech in your pajamas."

[laughter]

The image of Ronald Reagan
that voters

had probably uppermost
in their minds

by the time he entered politics
in the middle of the 1960s

was as a TV star.

Ain't you supposed to be good
with a gun?

[gunshot]

Good enough.

[upbeat music]

On Sunday nights,

Reagan was on the General
Electric Sunday Night Theater.

[announcer]
For General Electric,

here is Ronald Reagan.

Good evening.
Tonight, Jack Benny,

with Zsa Zsa Gabor, stars on
the "General Electric Theater."

He was a comforting figure

on your television screen
every Sunday night,

on this show that was,

you know,
among the most popular

in the late 1950s
and early 1960s.

Once upon a time
there was a girl,

and of course there was a boy
who fell in love with her.

When Reagan decided
to make the jump to politics,

it became clear
that he was bringing

his acting experience
with him.

His acting skills were
inherent in his communication.

He had a cadence
to the way he spoke.

For example, he often starts
his sentences--

very frequently-
by saying "Well,"

and he cocks his head
a little bit.

Well. Well. Well. Well. Well.

He told me
that was a stage pause

that allowed him
just a fraction of a second

to think through how he wanted
to start the sentence.

And so I actually started
writing that

into his speeches.

Well, now to get on
with the business at hand.

After an assassination
attempt in 1981...

[gunshot]

- [man shouts]
- [woman whimpering]

...Reagan showed such grace
and humility

that his approval ratings
with both parties increased.

I'd like to say a few words
directly to all of you

and to those who are watching
and listening tonight.

The warmth of your words,
the expression of friendship,

and yes, love, meant more to us
than you could ever know.

Amid the upheaval
of the late 1970s

and early '80s,

many Americans saw Reagan
as an almost mythical leader

who would bring the country
back to a simpler time.

Reagan was a man
of very strong convictions,

but they were also
very broad convictions.

He believed
in military strength.

He was fiercely anti-Soviet,
fiercely anti-communist.

In his mind he was
a rescuer. He was a hero.

He was gonna rescue America
from communists,

from liberals, from chaos.

Our forbearance should never
be misunderstood.

Our reluctance for conflict
should not be misjudged

as a failure of will.

When action is required to
preserve our national security,

we will act.

Reagan's convictions,
broad as they were,

had a galvanizing effect
on the people around him.

He knew how to make people
want to follow him

My name is Oliver North,

lieutenant colonel of the
United States Marine Corps.

[dramatic music]

The National Security Council
is, in essence,

the president's staff.
It helps to formulate

and coordinate
national security policy.

When Oliver North was
first starting out at the NSC,

Vietnam was still fresh
on his mind.

Since graduating
from the Naval Academy in 1968,

I have strived to be the best
Marine officer that one can be.

Following his graduation,

North joined the Marine Corps
and deployed to Vietnam.

Ollie is an
extraordinarily patriotic man,

and he is a Marine
in every fiber of his being.

In combat, my goal was always
to understand the objective,

follow orders,
accomplish the mission

and to keep alive the men
who served under me.

During both
of his tours of duty,

North wrote letters
to his family,

updating them
about life in Vietnam.

He expressed frustration
about what he saw

as Washington's reluctance
to support the war.

"I wish the politicians
would get off their fat,

soft posteriors," he wrote,
"and clear this mess up."

In 1971, when North returned
from Vietnam,

he continued to speak out.

Yes, I have a question
for Captain North.

Did you ever yourself witness

the mistreatment
of Viet Cong prisoners

by either American
or South Vietnamese troops?

I never witnessed
a single ear being cut off,

a single round being fired
at a man without a rifle,

a single piece of ordnance
dropped at, on,

or near a village of any type

or a single civilian
being maltreated

by either South Vietnamese
or American personnel.

Is that specific, sir?

North would later say

that the war was not lost
in Vietnam.

It was lost in Washington.

In 1981,

he moved there himself
and began work at the NSC.

Ollie North came
across reporters' radar early,

but no one quite knew
what he did.

Well, it turned out

that he was a special
operations aficionado,

a counterterrorism aficionado.

And over time,
he made that his specialty

in the
National Security Council.

After years of military duty,

the job was North's
first opportunity

to test
his patriotic principles

off the battlefield,

from inside the halls
of Washington, DC.

And thanks to
a Soviet-sponsored civil war

raging south of
the American border...

Ah!

...North had quite a bit of work
ahead of him.

♪

I started my career
as a foreign correspondent

in the Middle East,

covering the Iranian revolution
and the Iranian hostage crisis.

So I was immersed
in Iranian affairs at the time.

And a few years later,
when I got to Washington,

my editors asked what subjects
I wanted to focus on.

And I said,
"I don't care what it is

"as long as it has
nothing to do with Iran.

I'm sick and tired
of that country."

They said, "Fine.

"We want you
to cover Central America.

That will have nothing to do
with Iran at all."

And so I began to learn
about Nicaragua.

[ominous music]

And here is where
we get to the Contra part

of the Iran-Contra scandal.

-[man] Solo el pueblo!
- both] Solo el pueblo!

You see, Ronald Reagan

held a pretty simple view
of the world.

There were the good guys,
and there were the bad guys.

And the president of Nicaragua,
Anastasio Somoza,

was one of the good guys.

But around the time
Reagan began his march

to the White House in the 1970s,

the Central American country
was rocked by revolution.

[man shouts in Spanish]

My fellow Americans,
I must speak to you tonight

about a mounting danger
in Central America

that threatens the security
of the United States.

As Reagan described it
to the American people,

this was a clash between
the Soviet-backed Sandinistas

and a counterrevolutionary
force called the Contras.

Using Nicaragua as a base,
the Soviets and Cubans

can become the dominant power
in the crucial corridor

between North
and South America.

It was framed
as a classic battle

between communism and democracy.

But it was never
really that simple.

[man speaking in Spanish]

Nicaragua was the classic
Central American dictatorship.

It had been ruled
for several generations

by the Somoza family.

It was a thoroughly repressive
and corrupt and nasty regime.

To maintain the peace
of a country

is a way
of protecting the people.

Neutralizing those
who break the peace

is also a form
of protecting the people.

I grew up in a household
that was firmly antisomocista.

However, right,

I had relatives all over
the political spectrum.

My name
is Victoria González-Rivera.

I grew up in Nicaragua during
the Sandinista Revolution

and the Contra War.

Many Nicaraguans
supported the Somozas.

And they did horrific things--
human rights abuses

and massacres.

But many people were willing
to look the other way

if they thought that
it benefited them economically.

The Somoza regime was,
of course, for many years,

a close ally
of the United States.

And in the 1950s
and the 1960s,

if a regime
was anti-communist,

that was essentially all anyone
in Washington needed to know.

[man on radio] Good afternoon.
From the steps

of New York City Hall,

your city station brings you
the official reception

to the president of Nicaragua,

the honorable
Anastasio Somoza.

[applause]

[Somoza]
I feel very proud to say

that the Nicaraguan people
and President Somoza

are the best friend
the United States have

and will ever have
in Latin America.

[applause]

[Neyfakh] America's friendship
with the Somoza regime

was put to the test
just before Christmas of 1972

when Nicaragua's capital city,
Managua,

was all but destroyed
by an earthquake.

[reporter] This, now,
is the tragedy of Managua.

The thousands and thousands
of men,

women, and children,

who have been told that
they have to leave their city,

because it's no longer safe.

[man speaking]

[suspenseful music]

[suspenseful music]

[suspenseful music]

♪

[reporter] The whole
of the center of the city

is gradually being
eaten up my flames.

It's the faces of
the children involved

that reflect the tragedy of
a great disaster like Managua

more than all the pictures
of shattered buildings

and blazing fires.

I was just three,
almost four years old.

You know, it changed a lot.
It changed Nicaragua forever.

There was great concern
because, of course,

so many people died.

[reporter] Under the rubble
of these buildings,

there still lie countless
thousands of bodies

which are decaying
and presenting

a major health risk.

[man speaking in Spanish]

Bulldozers combed the streets

in search of bodies
buried beneath the rubble.

And as the city burned,

Somoza declared martial law.

Approximately 80%

of all the buildings
have been badly damaged,

and they have
to be surveyed to see

if they are safe to inhabit.
We are going to live in tents

until we make an appreciation
of the situation,

and the government will have

to decide
what they're going to do.

♪

[reporter] Throughout the week,
there's been a nonstop stream

of relief aircraft

coming here with food
and medical supplies.

[overlapping chatter]

Food and water
are still desperately needed.

And there's criticism
that the supplies,

which have been coming in,

are not going to the people
for whom they were intended.

In the aftermath
of the earthquake,

the Somoza government
was accused

of stockpiling foreign aid

and engaging in various
other forms of fraud.

What do you need
at the moment?

Right now,
what is your most urgent need?

Hospital beds.

We have people here
with fractures untreated.

No treatment for four days.
No food for four days.

I saw people
drinking sewage water.

♪

[man speaking Spanish]

It felt very heavy.

You know, like,
the air felt heavy,

like something
was going to happen.

There was always
this sense of...

[speaking in Spanish]

The war is coming.
The war is coming.

[men shouting in Spanish]

[dramatic music]

In response,
a revolutionary group

called the Sandinistas
started to gain momentum.

[man speaking in Spanish]

[reporter] The Sandinistas take
their name from national hero

Augusto Sandino,

who fought against
a United States intervention

in Nicaragua in the 1920s.

The idea was obviously

that Nicaragua needs
to be ruled by Nicaraguans,

and it was very much
an anti-imperialist position.

-Solo el pueblo!
- [all] Solo el pueblo!

You know, they were
influenced by socialists,

socialist thought,
by the Cuban Revolution

in particular.

♪

They trained
in the mountains of Nicaragua

and, over time, built up
their military strength.

♪

This is a war against Somoza.

You know,
these are young men, groups,

who want to do something
and change this country.

[speaking in Spanish]

How long do you think
this war will now last?

I give it a week.

In Nicaragua,
the rebellion continues.

[reporter] These men,
apparently rebel fighters,

were not known
in this neighborhood,

and no one claimed them
for burial.

The Red Cross burned
the bodies in the streets.

They were concerned about
the spread of disease.

The brutality
of Somoza's regime pushed

even moderates in Nicaragua to
support the Sandinista cause.

He's killing innocent people.

Witnesses have seen
with their own eyes

how they have killed men,
women and children.

He's a monster.
He's an assassin.

[speaking in Spanish]

[reporter] Somoza is defiant.

This week he told reporters,
"I will not resign."

If they had the support

of the people,
I wouldn't be here.

And if Somoza doesn't go?

We'll keep on fighting.

In 1978,
President Carter stopped aid

to Somoza's government,

citing human
rights violations.

The Americans
now believe, in effect,

that you've got to go,
that they will no longer

continue
to support you in power.

As far as I've heard
officially,

the United States is not
in favor of my overthrow.

The Sandinistas
saw this as an opportunity

and launched
an emboldened campaign

to overthrow the dictator.

[dramatic music]

[reporter] The Sandinista
guerrillas have launched

what they call
their Final Offensive.

Led by Commander Eden Pastora,

the Sandinistas seized
the national palace

while the legislature
was in session.

[gunshots]

They overpowered the building

and took 2,000
government officials

and employees as hostages.

After the storming
of the palace, it was clear

that Somoza
had lost his grip on power.

So our parents send us off

to live
with my grandparents.

We end up in Seattle,

and we don't know what is
happening to our parents.

Sandinista rebels
are fighting Nicaraguan troops

again in Managua today.

Nicaragua was on
the news every single night,

so we're watching it on TV.

We even witnessed my street
on television,

because that's where a lot of
the fighting was taking place.

My grandma is a wreck,

and she's trying to get
the U.S. Embassy

to tell her
where her daughter is.

Finally,
after a year of war,

Somoza fled Nicaragua, and the
Sandinistas declared victory.

The weeks of rumors
became fact today

as President Anastasio Somoza
of Nicaragua resigned.

[reporter] The president
turned in his resignation

early this morning.

And an aide who was present
at the bunker

said the President

tearfully hugged staff
members one last time.

♪

[Neyfakh] The Sandinistas took
control of Nicaragua in 1979,

the same year that a parallel
revolution took hold in Iran.

[crowd chanting]

Both countries were one-time
U.S. allies turned enemies...

[crowd chanting
in foreign language]

...which made 1979
a distinctly destabilizing year

for American dominance
across the world.

[somber music]

But even as global tensions
simmered,

it felt like peace
had come to Nicaragua.

- [crowd chanting]
- [woman speaking in Spanish]

[speaking in Spanish]

The euphoria
wouldn't last long.

Soon, a new armed conflict
was brewing in Nicaragua,

one that the new
American president

would be watching
very closely.

[speaking in Spanish]

As the Sandinistas took power,

they confronted
the instability

left by the Somoza regime.

♪

[reporter] Because
the departing Somocistas

took with them all the cash
and gold reserves

they could carry,

Nicaragua's agriculture
and industry

have been in a bad way.

Many people tend to
romanticize revolutions.

They forget about
the unintended consequences.

[reporter] Queues for food
have become a common sight,

because the government
has been unable

to eliminate shortages
in certain basic commodities.

We are trying to fight
for the creation

of a social democratic system
in this country.

The revolution was
a revolution of young people,

and so inevitably,

all these young people
went on to make mistakes,

in part because they--
they didn't know any better.

As the Sandinistas struggled
to create a government,

those who opposed them
began to organize.

Over time those ragged
remnants of Somoza's army

coalesced

in a not very well organized,
not very well funded,

not very coherent
set of forces.

[shouts, grunts]

They called themselves
the counterrevolutionaries.

They were trying
to overthrow the revolution.

And their shorthand name
became "the Contras."

[tense music]

[shouts]

[reporter] The Nicaraguan
Democratic Force

is the largest Contra group

opposing the Sandinista
government.

[man] We're fighting
for the democratic rescue

of the Nicaraguan Revolution.

[all speaking in Spanish]

[reporter]
Some of these people

may be former
national guardsmen.

some are simple peasants

trying hard to become
professional soldiers.

We need food, boots,
arms, everything.

But the main thing we need
here is the real support

of the democratic governments.
We need help.

The Sandinistas officially
took control of Nicaragua

around the same time
Ronald Reagan took office,

and he did not conceal
his contempt for them.

There are atrocities
going on in Nicaragua,

but they're largely the work of
the institutionalized cruelty

of the Sandinista government.

America has to see
the true face of Nicaragua.

[applause]

For Reagan,
the newly leftist Nicaragua

represented the presence
of an enemy

in America's backyard.

And it reflected an escalation
of the decades-long

Cold War conflict
that Reagan ad inherited.

We anticipated a world
of peace and cooperation.

The calculated pressures
of aggressive communism

have forced us, instead,
to live in a world of turmoil.

[suspenseful music]

After World War II,
to be an American president

meant playing a lead role
in the clash

between the East and the West,

between capitalism
and communism.

♪

The Communists' drive
to impose

their political
and economic system on others

is the primary cause
of world tension today.

The conflict played out

in nearly every corner
of the globe.

The contest in Vietnam
is part of a wider pattern

of aggressive purposes.

We can have differences
without being enemies in war.

And in the 1970s,

what had been a Cold War
began to heat up.

The Soviet Union,
in the aftermath of Vietnam,

had begun extending
its influence

all over the Third World.

There is no Soviet domination
of Eastern Europe,

and there never will be
under a Ford administration.

[chanting]

We demand
that the Soviets withdraw

from Afghanistan.

I pledge to you
that we will do

everything we can to win
this great struggle.

The Reagan administration
saw a Cold War

domino theory kind of world,

one in which it was
a zero-sum game

between the American side
and the Soviet side.

Will we support freedom
in this hemisphere or not?

Will we defend
our vital interests

in this hemisphere or not?

Will we act
while there is still time?

To have the Sandinistas
in Nicaragua,

I think Reagan felt
that they could very well

provide a foothold for communism
in this hemisphere.

As Ronald Reagan was fond of
telling the American public,

"You'd have a wave of refugees
fleeing the communists..."

More than a quarter
of a million refugees

have fled Nicaragua since
the Sandinistas took control.

Hundreds of thousands
of refugees

fleeing communist oppression
to seek entry into our country.

We don't want to see the map
of Central America

covered in a sea of red,

eventually lapping
at our own borders.

We must act now.

[applause]

One of
the perennial challenges

for American diplomacy

and American intelligence
during the Cold War was:

What do you do
when there is a hostile force

or an unfriendly government
somewhere in the Third World?

Ronald Reagan's solution
was to overthrow

the Sandinista government

and make it clear
to all the other insurgents

that the United States

was going to draw the line
against revolution

and that everybody
was gonna suffer,

and they should
just give it up.

And so, in December of 1981,

Reagan secretly authorized
the CIA to help the Contras

in their fight
against the Sandinistas.

They are the moral equal
of our Founding Fathers

and the brave men and women
of the French Resistance.

We cannot turn away from them,

for the struggle here
is not right versus left.

- It is right versus wrong.
- [ applause ]

The CIA began supplying
the Contras with weapons

as well as money
and strategic advice.

[people speaking in Spanish]

For months,
the Reagan administration

had a guiding hand
in Nicaragua's civil war.

[overlapping chatter]

And, for a while, the CIA's
activities went undetected.

But then...

the extent of the CIA's
involvement in Nicaragua

came under scrutiny

when Newsweek published
an explosive cover story

on the operation in 1982.

[reporter]
Sources in Washington reveal

CIA officers have directed

and funded the war
against Nicaragua,

CIA employees executing
the more damaging attacks.

More and more members of
Congress are asking questions

and demanding answers

about the United States' role
in Nicaragua.

I would hope and pray

that the policy
of this government

would be
the policy of diplomacy

and not gunboat diplomacy.

[dramatic music]

It's important for
a director of the CIA or,

for that matter,
anyone who's head

of an intelligence agency,

to make certain
that members of Congress

are fully informed
of covert operations.

We are not doing anything

to try and overthrow
the Nicaraguan government,

and anything that
we're doing in that area

is simply trying to
interdict the supply lines,

which are supplying
the guerillas in El Salvador.

What can happen is
you can get individuals

that will abuse the power
of this country

and will do things that
ultimately could be damaging

to our national security.

That was the whole purpose
of the Boland Amendment.

The secret war hasn't
brought Central America

closer to peace

or Nicaragua closer
to democracy.

What it does do is provide
the Sandinistas

with the perfect excuse
to foist unfair elections,

a huge Army, censorship,

and the draft upon
the Nicaraguan people.

The Boland amendment
specifically banned the CIA

and other U.S. intelligence
agencies from supporting

anyone trying to overthrow
the Sandinista government.

Its purpose was to keep
the United States

out of Nicaragua,

lest it became
another Vietnam.

By and large,
I think that what

this committee has done

is in the interests
of our government.

Once again,
when the going gets tough,

the United States quits.

That's the message
we're going to broadcast

to the rest of the world

if we in fact
cut off our assistance

to the Nicaraguan resistance.

Silly, foolish, dangerous,
tragic, naive,

sad--it's all of those things,
and even more.

♪

It is, by now,

a familiar
American predicament:

If we abandon the rebels

to whom we've given
encouragement, arms and money,

they will be left
high and dry.

It happened in Vietnam,
Cambodia, Iran, and Lebanon.

But if we continue
to support the Contras,

and they continue to war
on the economy

and civilians
of Nicaragua,

then we will be subsidizing
violence against people

who happen to be living in the
wrong place at the wrong time

who have done us no harm.

["Hail to the Chief" playing]

The debate over
the Boland Amendment

coincided with a major
PR campaign

by the Reagan administration
to rally public support

around the anti-communist
Contra cause.

These men are not putting
their lives on the line

to restore a dictatorship
of the past.

These men are fighting
for freedom.

If we give them
the aid they need,

the Nicaraguan people
can win this battle

for freedom on their own.

[suspenseful music]

To do so, the CIA
started to assemble

a group of Nicaraguan
counterrevolutionaries

who could lend a public face
to the struggle.

Edgar Chamorro had moved
to Miami from Managua,

and in his free time,

he was meeting with a group
of fellow Nicaraguan expats

to discuss their country

and strategize about
their possible return.

[telephone rings]

The man told Chamorro
his name was Tony Feldman

and that he was calling from
the National Security Agency.

♪

Mr. Feldman didn't mention
a connection to the CIA,

but it's safe to assume
that he had one.

The man told Chamorro

that the Nicaraguan
Democratic Force,

known as the FDN,

was recruiting
a panel of new leaders.

The panel would be a military
and political hybrid

made up of Nicaraguan expats

who were dedicated to rolling
back the Sandinistas.

♪

With that,
Chamorro became a Contra.

He returned
to Central America,

where his task was to sell
the Contra cause

both to the American public
and to his countrymen.

He gave interviews,
distributed fliers,

and established
a pro-Contra radio station,

broadcasting out of Honduras.

[reporter] In Nicaragua,
the war between the Contras

and the ruling Sandinistas
continues.

The Reagan Administration

continued to find ways
to support the Contras.

At least for now,
it seemed the White House

was taking a quiet approach

to Reagan's fervent
anti-communism crusade.

Then, in 1983, the CIA did
something quite a bit noisier.

[man] In a pre-dawn strike,

the Contras blew up
fuel storage tanks,

turning most of the country's
oil reserves into flames.

By helping
the Contras attack

a major port about
100 miles north of Managua.

It was the Contras
who took the credit,

but CBS news has learned

it was Americans
who led the raid.

Publicly, the Pentagon won't
talk about those actions,

and privately the American
military just keeps doing them.

The law of the land,

as embodied
in the Boland Amendment,

is not being fully adhered to.

If the law is being violated
in the Congress,

then we do have
a clear responsibility

to bring our government
into compliance.

The bombing of the port
in Nicaragua

was a turning point

for the Reagan
administration's ability

to operate effectively
and covertly

in the war
against the Sandinistas.

[reporter] Nicaraguans are still
attempting to repair

the oil storage tanks

damaged in the biggest attack
yet from the outside.

The bombing provoked
congress to further tighten

the restrictions
on the White House's ability

to help the Contras.

But instead of shifting
their focus away

from Nicaragua completely,

the Reagan White House
found a loophole,

one that led them straight to
the National Security Council.

It turned out that the law
said no intelligence agency

may give this kind of support
to the Contras.

But it didn't say
anything about someone

who wasn't
an intelligence agency.

[tense music]

Somebody had
the quite brilliant idea:

"Well, you know,
the National Security Council

isn't an intelligence agency."

[electronic sounds]

♪

And so in 1984,

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North

was assigned a new brief:
Nicaragua.

Ollie North had already been
tangentially involved.

Now he became the point man,
formally put in charge of,

as I think he later said,

"Keeping the Contras together,
body and soul."

It was a covert
paramilitary war,

but it was the most
overt covert war

in the history of the CIA.
Everybody knew about it.

It was being conducted
essentially out in the open.

Once the funding was cut off,

then you had the real
covert operations that began.

As part of an early
training mission,

in the spring of 1984,

North traveled
to Central America

to meet the Contras'
military leaders.

Upon his return, North
earnestly told his colleagues

that he made a commitment
to them.

"I told those guys I'd come
through for them," he said.

[North] The Contras,

the Nicaraguan
Freedom Fighters,

are people--living, breathing,
young men and women--

who have had to suffer
a desperate struggle

for liberty, with sporadic
and confusing support

from the United States
of America.

North's dedication
to the Contras

stemmed in part from
his experience of Vietnam,

a war that had
been over for years,

but retained a grip,
not just on North,

but on the whole country.

[dramatic music]

There was, at the time,
still a Vietnam syndrome.

[indistinct chanting]

Before Vietnam,

the United States
had never lost a war.

When American troops
left Saigon in 1975,

it was the start of a new era
in American foreign policy,

one defined by
a traumatic military defeat.

The concern was

that we were basically risking
the possibility

of a greater war
in Central America,

in our own hemisphere,
and that concerned all of us.

The country was torn asunder

by the devastating effects
on human life,

both in Vietnam
and for U.S. citizens

and on our social
and political system.

And so the mantra of, really,

almost the entire
United States

was no more Vietnams.

♪ You give 14 million
and what do you get? ♪

♪ Ten thousand more lives
in the national debt ♪

♪ Listen, Reagan,
don't you call on us ♪

♪ 'Cause we won't go

♪ We owe it to humanity
to say hell, no ♪

But to Oliver North,

the Contras looked
like anti-communists

who needed America's help.

And soon after
taking up their cause,

the young lieutenant colonel
began to form a bond

with someone who felt

just as strongly
about protecting them:

CIA Director William Casey.

If that regime succeeds
in consolidating itself,

we can expect that Managua

will become the terrorist
capitol of this hemisphere.

-Casey would drop by room 392.
- [ringing]

Often, he would call North on
the phone over a secure line.

[machine beeping]

[North] I readily admit
that I was action-oriented,

that I took pride in the fact
that I was counted upon

as a man who got the job done.

But despite his zeal
for the Contras,

North started to realize
he needed a little help.

It was beginning to be a job
too big for just one man.

So Casey went about
looking for private actors,

most of them veterans
of earlier covert wars,

people who weren't in the CIA
or in the military,

who might volunteer
to come back

and work off the books
on unofficial operations.

Casey and North
considered their options

for filling the job at hand.

The candidate had to be
someone they trusted.

It also had to be someone
committed to the cause.

Most importantly, it had to be
someone well-versed

in covert operations.

It was around the end of 1984.

I got contacted
by the government

to come back and work
on a minor little project.

I guess I must have been
temporarily insane.

[emotive music]

I agreed to do what I could,
and the rest is history.

My name is Richard Secord.

I'm a retired
U.S. Air Force general.

In the world
of unconventional warfare,

Richard Secord was almost
universally recognized

as a master
of covert air operations.

Covert operation, by definition,

is an operation
that is absolutely secure

and very tightly controlled
so as to maintain the cover

until it's decided
to uncover it.

It's very simple.

Secord had a reputation
for being effective, intense,

and extremely impatient
with bureaucracy.

By the time CIA Director
Bill Casey called him,

Secord had 28 years
of combat experience,

both in guerilla wars in Asia

and in conventional
air operations in Iran.

I was in charge
of a lot of air operations

and learned the trade
pretty well, I think.

You have to have true teamwork,

and you have to be
quite comfortable

with small unit operations,

because they don't involve
a lot of people.

Secord's career in government
had been cut short

after allegations surfaced

that he was involved
in a secret arms dealing network

that, among other things,
tried to sell explosives

to Libya's dictator
Muamar Gadafi.

But that's a different fiasco.

It was quite a long haul,

and I wouldn't change
much of it.

The secretary of defense
himself, Caspar Weinberger,

officiated
at my retirement ceremony,

so I guess
I didn't retire in disgrace.

Bill Casey was well aware
of Secord's past

and more than willing
to look beyond it.

They were looking
for a "bridging operation,"

as they called it,

the creation
of a covert airlift operation

to take the place
of the CIA airlift

that was hauling arms
and other supplies

to the Contras
in the field in Nicaragua.

With Secord officially on board,

Oliver North had
an outside channel

that he could use to provide
logistical support

for the Contra forces.

Together, they would keep
the resistance alive,

body and soul.

There are now three times
as many Freedom Fighters

fighting the Sandinistas

as there were Sandinistas
fighting Somoza.

[applause]

Our first requirement
was to put together a ragtag,

if you will, Air Force.

[upbeat music]

♪

Our main operating base
was in El Salvador

at the Ilopango Air Base.

[man speaking in Spanish]

It became apparent early on

that we were gonna
have to help out

on the procurement
of weapons too.

And so I hired
some old friends

from my military days.

Logistics are truly
the sinews of war.

It's not just
the muscle of war.

It's the beginning
and the end.

If you don't have
adequate logistics,

you're not going to make it.

By 1985,
Secord and North had developed

a fully functioning
airline operation,

whose sole purpose
was to deliver food

and weapons
to the Contra forces.

But the operation
wasn't going to fund itself.

And with
the Boland Amendment in place,

Congress wouldn't be
funding it either,

at least not any time soon.

[speaking in Spanish]

So it was time for North
to get creative. Again.

Our friend and patron, the
president of the United States.

[cheers and applause]

One of the underappreciated
parts of this story

is that even when Congress said,

"We want to cut off United
States funding to the Contras,"

Congress forgot
that it couldn't stop

the president
of the United States

from doing fundraising
on his own.

I want to begin by saying
that I'm honored to be

in the presence of those
who are here from Nicaragua

and all the rest of you, too.

The Nicaraguan
Refugee Fund Dinner,

April 1985.

Six years ago, many of you
were part of the fight

to overthrow
an oppressive regime

that had ruled
your country for decades.

In many ways,

it looked like a typical
fundraising gala.

And she just said,
"I love you Mr. President."

Isn't that nice?

But this gala was different,

and it's one of the key
moments in our story,

because it brought together
several elements

that would set the Iran-Contra
scandal in motion.

[suspenseful music]

Shortly after the gala,
North was approached

by two prominent
Republican fundraisers

who had attended the event:

Spitz Channell
and Richard Miller.

They were interested in
raising money for the Contras

and offered a new and more
efficient way to do it.

They looked around
for private donors.

American anti-communists
who might be willing

to give some of
their own money to the cause.

To North, the plan offered
a potential gold mine

of private funds
that could be directed

to the Contra forces
in Nicaragua.

He put together a slideshow,
where he showed the Sandinistas

to be evil and the Contras
to be wonderful.

He started meeting with donors
and giving them the slideshow

and tugging on not only
their heartstrings

but their purse strings
to convince them

that they should be supportive
of the Contra War.

He would tell them,

"Federal law prohibits me
from asking you for money.

"But, of course, this guy
sitting right next to me

will ask you for it."

And that is how
these operatives believed

they were somehow
adhering to the law.

That operation did serve
an important political purpose.

Because anytime a reporter
like me asked,

"So, where are the Contras
getting their money?"

people in the Reagan
administration could say,

"Well, there are these wealthy
private donors.

"You need to go talk
to this lady in Dallas

"or this man in Massachusetts.
These people are really worried

about Nicaragua,
and they're giving the money."

It may have been
repetitive, but it worked.

In 1985 alone, North
and his fundraising partners

raised over $10 million
for the Contras.

Flush with cash, North now had
to find a way to store it.

For that, he turned
to Richard Secord,

who had some experience
with this kind of thing.

Secord created a network
of Swiss bank accounts

that would keep operations
running smoothly and unnoticed.

[ringing]

Secord referred
to this conglomerate

simply as "The Enterprise."

North, ever the patriot,
called it "Project Democracy."

And, at least
for the time being,

Congress wasn't calling it
anything at all.

[man] Gadafi used
to be far away,

but now he sits
on our doorsteps

supplying arms
and terrorist experts

to the communisis
in Nicaragua,

only two hours away
from our borders.

All of this, only two hours
away from where we live.

Support the President
on Nicaragua.

[Neyfakh] By 1985,
Project Democracy

was drawing from 16 different
bank accounts

located mainly
in Switzerland.

We had contracts
with a number of companies

throughout the world.

[man] Here is terrorism
we can do something about

if we support the President
on Nicaragua.

[ominous music]

The money trail
was so intricate

that even North had
trouble following it.

But that didn't mean
he had any problem spending it.

The aid itself paid for hiring
planes, pilots, trucks.

It enabled the U.S. government
to bribe the Honduran military

to continue to let the
United States use its bases.

We used to call Honduras
the USS Honduras,

because basically it was
a landed U.S. destroyer

that was serving as a base
for the Contra War.

North and Secord now
had a system

for keeping the Contras going,

but there was still
the need for more money.

And so they continued
to look towards Congress.

There is a vote
coming up in Congress

of utmost importance.

And I have to tell you, I need
your understanding and support.

After losing a vote
for Contra aid

in April of 1985,
the Reagan Administration

became even more determined to
overturn the Boland Amendment

and to push Congress
to fund the Contras.

Now comes the crucial test

for the Congress
of the United States.

Will they provide the assistance
the Freedom Fighters need

to deal with Russian tanks
and gunships,

or will they abandon
the democratic resistance

to its communist enemy?

To achieve this,

they needed all the public
support they could get.

[dramatic music]

What the Sandinistas
have done to Nicaragua

is a tragedy.

But we Americans
must understand

and come to grips with the fact
that the Sandinistas

are not content
to brutalize their own land.

They seek to export
their terror

to every other country
in the region.

Whether it was true or not,
the media campaign worked.

And in February of 1986,
Congress approved

$100 million in aid
for Reagan's freedom fighters.

[Reagan] Through this aid,
we'll say to the free people

of Central America,
"We will not betray you."

♪

This funding package
was a landmark victory

- for the Reagan White House.
- [speaking Spanish]

And it was a badly needed
windfall for the Contras.

[Reagan] The Freedom Fighters
of Nicaragua

have pinned down
the Sandinista Army

and bought the people of
Central America precious time.

We Americans owe them
a debt of gratitude.

The bridging operation
had been a success.

With congressional aid
about to start flowing again,

Project Democracy
had served its purpose,

and Lieutenant Colonel
Oliver North

had proved his mettle.

♪

There were other problems
on the horizon.

But for now, Ronald Reagan
was content to focus

on defeating communism
in Nicaragua.

We can succeed
in turning the tide

to Democracy in Nicaragua.

We must succeed.

[introspective music]

♪