Ronald Reagan's Failure to Secure Contra-Aid: A Post-Vietnam Shift in Foreign Policy Rhetoric

Regardless of any criminality, the so-called Iran-Contra Affair resulted from the Reagan Administration's earlier failure to secure legitimate military aid for the contra rebels in Nicaragua. The rhetoric of Pres Reagan's foreign policy is compared to that of previous administrations through Philip Wander's concept of "prophetic dualism" and "technocratic realism" in an attempt to determine whether or not the failure of Pres Reagan's rhetorical campaign marked an end to Cold War rhetoric.