For example, in the 1980s, Reagan's immediate national security staff contrived the rickety Iran-Contra arrangement in order to get around the resistance of the US military brass to supporting the Contras in Nicaragua because doing so might lead to a repeat of the Vietnam debacle. Or, as a naval officer friend of mine personally familiar with the episode put it, "The brass was ready to fight a nuclear war with the Soviets but having to put helicopters over the jungle chasing guerillas gave them nightmares."
“Reagan’s immediate national security staff contrived the rickety Iran-Contra arrangement in order to get around the resistance of the US military brass to supporting the Contras in Nicaragua”
No, it was executed to get around the U.S. Congress’s opposition to interfering with communism.
I was a naval officer at the time, and, while not directly involved, I had access to good information sources. I didn’t know Oliver North, but I knew people who knew him, and were talking with him.
As for “rickety,” it was one of the most beautiful trick-fucks of domestic traitors ever seen. Kennedy and the other commie swine were unable to prevent the Reagan administration from accomplishing all goals, so they went after all concerned with the same kind of fake news and bogus accusations they tried to use on Trump.
There was no Internet at the time, and they owned the media, so they were able to sell the BS narrative that Reagan did something wrong. It comforts me some to think of the Cape Cod Orca sizzling in Hell.