October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan PDF
Preview October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan
America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan GARY SICK All f FPT U.S.A. $23.00 Canada $30.00 This bookwas never supposed to have been written. It is an account of a poHtical mystery never intended to be solved, atale ofbold deceptionbyafew powerful men who apparently calculated that political manipulation, ifconducted on a sufficiently grand scale, would be essentiallyinvisibleandultimatelybeyond the law. OctoberSurprisereconstructs the story ofhowthe 1980 Reagan-Bush presidential campaign, intent on delaying the release ofthe fifty-two Americans held hostage in Tehran until afterthe election, made clan- destineoverturestoIranandarrangedille- gal arms shipments through Israel. This effort, spearheaded by Republican cam- paign manager William Casey, not only prevented President Carter from reaping the political benefits of an early hostage releasebutalsohobbledhisabilitytoexer- cise the full powers ofhis elective ofFice. This book brings to light startling newinformation, including: The Reagan-Bush campaign's sys- tematic penetration ofthe national security complex ofthe U.S. govern- ment, through which a network of former and currentintelligence — agents kept Casey not then in any — government position informed of highly classified military movements, diplomatic initiatives, and policy decisions. The secret meetings that took place in Europe during the summer and fall of1980, atwhich Casey ham- mered out the deal with the Iranians. (continuedon luichflap) Digitized by the Internet Archive 2010 in http://www.archive.org/details/octobersurpriseaOOsick Also by Gary Sick All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran OCTOBER li^URPRISE OCTOBER SURPRISE America's Hostages in Iran and tiie Election of Ronald Reagan GARY SICK m MESrinBOOKS Tl RANDOM HOUSE To Lois Anna Gordon Sick and the memory ofmyfather, Ralph Sick © Copyright 1991 by Gary Sick All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Grateful acknowledgment is made to WGBH Educational Foundation for permission to reprint portions from FRONTLINE: The Election Held Hostage, broadcast on © WGBH April 16, 1991. Copyright 1991 by Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. Supportfor Gary Sick's research into U.S. policy in the Persian Gulfwas provided by the Twentieth Century Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan researchfoundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sick, Gary October surprise America's hostages in Iran and the election of : Ronald Reagan / Gary Sick, p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-8129-1989-0 — — — 1. Presidents United States Election 1980. 2. Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981. 3. Reagan, Ronald. I. Title. E875.S48 1991 973.926—dc20 91-50608 CIP Manufactu9red8in7the6Un5ite4d St3ate2s of America
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