Iran-Contra has at least penetrated public consciousness to the degree that people don't dismiss it entirely as a conspiracy theory. They don't actually know what it is, but they've herad of it and know it was a scandal, and that makes it a good place to start with a lot of people.
What's amazing about Iran contra isn't that it happened, or even that we found out about it (turned in by international "collaborators" as usual) but that anyone was punished (however mildly).
And it's because the reading they were doing was against a bill recently passed in Congress. Like, they could have done the exact same trading scheme with two different countries instead and it would have been totally fine.
The catch is Americans only know it as "bad" because Reagan sold guns to Iran, not because the CIA was involved in the deaths and tortures of thousands of innocent people.
Iran-Contra has at least penetrated public consciousness to the degree that people don't dismiss it entirely as a conspiracy theory. They don't actually know what it is, but they've herad of it and know it was a scandal, and that makes it a good place to start with a lot of people.
What's amazing about Iran contra isn't that it happened, or even that we found out about it (turned in by international "collaborators" as usual) but that anyone was punished (however mildly).
And it's because the reading they were doing was against a bill recently passed in Congress. Like, they could have done the exact same trading scheme with two different countries instead and it would have been totally fine.
The catch is Americans only know it as "bad" because Reagan sold guns to Iran, not because the CIA was involved in the deaths and tortures of thousands of innocent people.