From the 'Memory Hole' account on YouTube. Remember this video when reading the news about ANY foreign war. Right now it's UKRAINE and the narrative isn't representative as to what's actually happening on the ground in Mainstream Press.
"The CIA Had Co-opted Several Hundred Journalists to Pump Its False Stories into Our Press" (1986) - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgWn5mVEwrQ
John R. Stockwell (born 1937) is a former CIA officer who became a critic of United States government policies after serving seven tours of duty over thirteen years. Having managed American involvement in the Angolan Civil War as Chief of the Angola Task Force during its 1975 covert operations, he resigned and wrote In Search of Enemies.
Stockwell's testimony before Congress: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71338458
Stockwell's unpublished account of his Vietnam experience with the CIA: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/p/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_St...)
Although the Carter Administration had attempted to work with FSLN in 1979 and 1980, the more right-wing Reagan Administration supported a strong anti-communist strategy for dealing with Latin America, and so it attempted to isolate the Sandinista regime.[60] As early as 1980–1981 an anti-Sandinista movement, the Contrarrevolución (Counter-revolution) or just Contras, was forming along the border with Honduras. Many of the initial Contras were former members of the Somoza regime's National Guard unit and many were still loyal to Somoza, who was living in exile in Honduras.[60]
In addition to the Contra units who continued to be loyal to Somoza, the FSLN also began to face opposition from members of the ethnic minority groups that inhabited Nicaragua's remote Mosquito Coast region along the Caribbean Sea. These groups were demanding a larger share of self-determination and/or autonomy, but the FSLN refused to grant this and began using forced relocations and armed force in response to these grievances.[60]
Upon taking office in January 1981, Ronald Reagan cancelled the dispersal of economic aid to Nicaragua,[61] and on 6 August 1981 he signed National Security Decision Directive number 7, which authorized the production and shipment of arms to the region but not their deployment.[62] On 17 November 1981, President Reagan signed National Security Directive 17, authorizing covert support to anti-Sandinista forces.[61]
An armed conflict soon arose, adding to the destabilization of the region which had been unfolding through the Central American civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala. The Contras, heavily backed by the CIA, secretly opened a "second front" on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast and Costa Rican border.[citation needed] With the civil war opening up cracks in the national revolutionary project, the FSLN's military budget grew to more than half of the annual budget.[60] The Servicio Militar Patriótico (Patriotic Military Service), a compulsory draft, was also established.[63]
By 1982 Contra forces had begun carrying out assassinations of members of the Nicaraguan government, and by 1983 the Contras had launched a major offensive and the CIA was helping them to plant mines in Nicaragua's harbors to prevent foreign weapons shipments from arriving.[64] The 1987 Iran–Contra affair placed the Reagan Administration again at the center of secret support for the Contras.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicarag...
With Congress blocking further aid to the Contras, the Reagan administration sought to arrange funding and military supplies by means of third countries and private sources.[69] Between 1984 and 1986, $34 million from third countries and $2.7 million from private sources were raised this way.[69] The secret contra assistance was run by the National Security Council, with officer Lt. Col. Oliver North in charge.[69] With the third-party funds, North created an organization called The Enterprise, which served as the secret arm of the NSC staff and had its own airplanes, pilots, airfield, ship, operatives, and secret Swiss bank accounts.[69] It also received assistance from personnel from other government agencies, especially from CIA personnel in Central America.[69] This operation functioned, however, without any of the accountability required of U.S. government activities.[69] The Enterprise's efforts culminated in the Iran–Contra Affair of 1986–1987, which facilitated contra funding through the proceeds of arms sales to Iran.
According to the London Spectator, U.S. journalists in Central America had long known that the CIA was flying in supplies to the Contras inside Nicaragua before the scandal broke. No journalist paid it any attention until the alleged CIA supply man, Eugene Hasenfus, was shot down and captured by the Nicaraguan army. Similarly, reporters neglected to investigate many leads indicating that Oliver North was running the Contra operation from his office in the National Security Council.[70]
According to the National Security Archive, Oliver North had been in contact with Manuel Noriega, the military leader of Panama later convicted on drug charges, whom he personally met.
