Surrealpolitik

Surrealpolitik: October Surprise: America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan

Author: Gary Sick

New York: Random House (1991)

Quick Summary

Gary Sick's account of how Reagan's people made a deal with Iran to hang onto the hostages until after the election, making Carter look weak and ineffective as a campaign strategy. A widely attacked "conspiracy theory" for which two Congressional inquiries have concluded there was no credible evidence. Some specific details of the allegations have apparently been proven wrong. Sick stands by the story and is supported notably by Barbara Honegger (a Reagan administration insider) and former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr.

Quotes

There is 1 quote currently associated with this book.

We in Washington are accustomed to the petty scandals of Washington politics. However, there is another category of offenses, described by the French poet Andre Chenier as "les crimes puissants qui font trembler les lois," crimes so great that they make the laws themselves tremble.

[W]hen the Iran-Contra scandal exploded in 1986, both the Congress and the national mainstream media pulled up short. . . . The laws trembled at the prospect of a political trial that threatened to shatter the compact of trust between the rulers and the ruled, a compact that was the foundation upon which the very law itself rested.

The lesson was clear: accountability declines as the magnitude of the crime and the power of those charged increase. (page 226)
Tags: [Politics & Art, Truth & Real, Myth, Lead Quote Candidate, Conspiracy, Media, Taboo]