Overview: Reagan and the Middle East

Ronald Reagan's administration was heavily involved in the Middle East. His first term was marked by the Beirut Barracks Bombing, while his second term is known for the 1986 bombing of Libya and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair.

The Beirut Barracks Bombing, 1983

Reagan’s desire to demonstrate U.S. readiness to use military force abroad sometimes had tragic consequences. In 1983, he sent soldiers to Lebanon as part of a multinational force trying to restore order following an Israeli invasion the year before. American forces in Beirut were attacked on October 23, 1983 in the Beirut Barracks Bombing, resulting in the deaths of 241 American servicemen and the wounding of more than 60 others by Iranian-trained militants known as Hezbollah. The suicide attack was motivated by U.S. support for Israel in the 1982 war with Lebanon, a war in which many Lebanese civilians were killed and the US was perceived as siding with Maronite Catholics in Lebanon's domestic conflicts.

1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing

The Beirut Barracks Bombing resulted in the deaths of 241 American servicemen and the wounding of more than 60 others by a suicide truck bomber.

Reagan sent a White House team to the site four days later, led by his Vice President, George H.W. Bush. There was no significant American military response to the Beirut Barracks Bombing; a joint American-French air assault on Islamic Revolutionary Guard positions was discussed but rejected. Reagan pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, a training ground for Hezbollah fighters; however, the mission was later aborted. On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the U.S. Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon. The suicide attacks boosted the prestige of the Shi'ite organization Hezbollah; this is thought to have contributed to their growth, despite their denial of any involvement in the attacks.

On February 9th, 1984, the USS New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut, contributing to the perception among Islamic Lebanese that America had sided with Christians in Lebanon's internal conflicts. A truck bomb that killed 80 civilians in Beirut was alleged to be an American-led retaliation for the Barracks Bombings, although no one in the U.S. has confirmed this.

Libya Bombing, 1986

Relations between Libya and the U.S. under President Reagan were continually contentious, beginning with the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981. By 1982, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was considered by the CIA to be a threat to the United States. In a reflection of the moral judgments inherent in the conflicts, Gaddafi, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and Cuban leader Fidel Castro were named the "unholy trinity."

These tensions were later revived in early April 1986, when a bomb exploded in a Berlin discothèque, resulting in the injury of 63 American military personnel and the death of one serviceman. Stating that there was "irrefutable proof" that Libya had directed the "terrorist bombing," Reagan authorized the use of force against the country. In the late evening of April 15, 1986, the U.S. launched a series of air strikes on ground targets in Libya. The attack was designed to halt Gaddafi's "ability to export terrorism," offering him "incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior." The president addressed the nation from the Oval Office after the attacks had commenced, stating, "When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I'm in this office."

The attack was condemned by many countries. By a vote of 79 in favor to 28 against, with 33 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 41/38, which "condemns the military attack perpetrated against the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 15 April 1986, which constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law. "

Iran-Contra Affair, 1986

In 1986, a scandal shook the Reagan administration stemming from the use of proceeds from covert arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua—activity which had been specifically outlawed by an act of Congress. The Iran-Contra affair became the largest political scandal in the United States during the 1980s. The International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction to decide the case was disputed by the U.S., ruled that the U.S. had violated international law and breached treaties in Nicaragua in various ways.

Background

In the early 1980s, Nicaragua was governed by a largely Marxist-inspired group, the Sandinistas. This organization, led by Daniel Ortega, had overthrown the brutal, right-wing dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Reagan, however, overlooked the legitimate complaints of the Sandinistas and believed that their rule opened the region to Cuban and Soviet influence. A year into his presidency, convinced it was folly to allow the expansion of Soviet and Communist influence in Latin America, he authorized the CIA to equip and train a group of anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans known as the Contras (contrarevolucionários or “counter-revolutionaries”) to oust Ortega from power.

Reagan’s desire to aid the Contras even after Congress ended its support led him, surprisingly, to Iran. In September 1980, Iraq had invaded neighboring Iran and, by 1982, had begun to gain the upper hand. The Iraqis needed weapons, and the Reagan administration, wishing to assist the enemy of its enemy, had agreed to provide Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with money, arms, and military intelligence. In 1983, however, the capture of Americans by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon changed the president’s plans. In 1985, he authorized the sale of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for help retrieving three of the American hostages.

Secret Weapons Sales

A year later, Reagan’s National Security Council aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, found a way to sell weapons to Iran and secretly use the proceeds to support the Nicaraguan Contras—in direct violation of a congressional ban on military aid to the anti-Communist guerillas in that Central American nation. Eventually the Senate became aware, and North and others were indicted on various charges. All of the charges, however, were dismissed, overturned on appeal, or granted presidential pardon. 

Reagan, known for delegating much authority to subordinates and being unable to “remember” crucial facts and meetings, escaped the scandal with nothing more than criticism for his lax oversight. He professed ignorance of the plot's existence and appointed two Republicans and one Democrat (John Tower, Brent Scowcroft, and Edmund Muskie, collectively known as the "Tower Commission") to investigate the scandal. The commission could not find direct evidence that Reagan had prior knowledge of the program, but criticized him heavily for his disengagement from managing his staff, making the diversion of funds possible. The nation was divided over the extent to which the president could go to “protect national interests,” and the limits of Congress’s constitutional authority to oversee the activities of the executive branch have yet to be resolved. Reagan's popularity declined from 67% to 46% in less than a week, the greatest and quickest decline for a president in history.