Patriotic Crime: Iran-Contra

There is a touch of farce to some incidents in the Iran-contra affair: Robert MacFarlane carries a cake from a Tel Aviv bakery as a gift on his secret mission to Teheran; Fawn Hall smuggles official documents out of Oliver North’s office in the waistband of her panty hose. These are comforting memories because their sheer looniness suggests Iran-contra is an exception to the normal course of events even in the twilight zones of international politics.

This muting of the more serious implications of the affair is also apparent in the report of the first official inquiry by the Tower Board, which blamed President Ronald Reagan’s “management style.” Senators William S. Cohen and George J. Mitchell in Men of Zeal draw a related conclusion. Their title is taken from a Justice Brandeis decision: “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” Excessive enthusiasm is substituted here for “management style”; that is, Iran-contra can be traced to the predispositions of its leading actors.

...