Passing The Buck

How the President's men attempted to evade accountability

At high noon on Wednesday, July 15, almost eight months after he was relieved of his White House duties, Admiral John Poindexter made it official: there was no smoking gun. Ronald Reagan, his former National Security Adviser claimed under oath, had not been told that profits from the ill-conceived arms deals with Iran were diverted to support the Nicaraguan contras. "I made a very deliberate decision not to ask the President so that I could insulate him from the decision and provide some future deniability," the loyal admiral insisted. Then he lit his pipe, sending up a puff of white smoke....

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