Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:37:56.714Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The politics of presidential illness: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Scandal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2016

Robert E. Gilbert
Robert E. Gilbert*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This paper assesses the likelihood that the Iran-Contra scandal was shaped heavily by the effects of Ronald Reagan's cancer surgery in summer, 1985. During the President's hospitalization and in the period soon after, he took several actions—which he apparently did not remember—that launched a policy that was unwise, counterproductive, and a failure. These damaged both his Administration and his standing in history. The 25th Amendment afforded Reagan the means by which his involvement in these events could easily have been avoided. However, the President and his aides determined that he would resume the powers and duties of the presidency only hours after undergoing extensive cancer surgery. This decision contributed materially to the most damaging episode of Reagan's eight-year presidency.

Keywords

Ronald Reagancolon cancer25th AmendmentsurgerystressanesthesiaIran-Contra scandal
Type
Research Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , Fall 2014 , pp. 58 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Reagan, Nancy, My Turn (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 272.Google Scholar
2. Speakes, Larry, Speaking Out (New York: Charles Scribner, 1988), p. 186.Google Scholar
3. SeeGilbert, Robert E., “Attempted assassination and presidential achievement: The case of Ronald Reagan,” in The World of Biology and Politics: Organization and Research Areas, eds. Peterson, Steven A. and Somit, Albert (London: Emerald Publishing, 2013), pp. 165–171.Google Scholar
4. Public Papers of the Presidents: Ronald Reagan, 1985 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), p. 919.Google Scholar
5. Fielding, Fred F., “An eyewitness account of executive ‘inability,”’ Fordham Law Review, 2010, 79(3): 823–834, at 830.Google Scholar
6. Eltgroth, Deborah and Hafetz, Daniel, “A modern father of our Constitution: An interview with former Senator Birch Bayh,” Fordham Law Review, 2010, 79(3): 781–821, at 797.Google Scholar
7. Fielding, , p. 831.Google Scholar
8. Reagan, Ronald, An American Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 500.Google Scholar
9. Reagan, Nancy, p. 274.Google Scholar
10. Interview withHutton, John Dr., in theRonald Reagan Oral History Project (Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, April 15-16, 2004), p. 32.Google Scholar
11. Gilbert, Robert E., The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House (New York: Fordham University Press, 1998), p. 235.Google Scholar
12. New York Times, July 14, 1985, p. A20.Google Scholar
13. Ibid.Google Scholar
14. Brody, Jane E., “Reagan's illness. Medical outlook, cancer of the colon: A leading killer,” New York Times, July 16, 1985, p. 1.Google Scholar
15. Brody, , p. 1.Google Scholar
16. Reagan, Ronald, p. 500.Google Scholar
17. Regan, Donald T., For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 9.Google Scholar
18. Regan, , p. 9.Google Scholar
19. Speakes, , p. 191.Google Scholar
20. Fielding, , p. 831.Google Scholar
21. Fielding, , p. 832.Google Scholar
22. Hutton, , pp. 11–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23. Public Papers of the Presidents, p. 919.Google Scholar
24. Breo, Dennis, “Experts support Reagan's care,” American Medical News, August 2, 1985, p. 1.Google Scholar
25. Post, Jerrold M. and Robins, Robert S., When Illness Strikes the Leader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 99.Google Scholar
26. New York Times, July 16, 1985, p. 10.Google Scholar
27. Reagan, Maureen, First Father, First Daughter (Boston: Little Brown, 1989), p. 344.Google Scholar
28. Speakes, , p. 193.Google Scholar
29. Reagan, Ronald, The Reagan Diaries (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 343.Google Scholar
30. Skinner, Kiron K., Anderson, Annelise, and Anderson, Martin, eds., A Life in Letters: Ronald Reagan (New York: Free Press, 2004), p. 86.Google Scholar
31. Interview with Dr. Daniel Ruge, Winston Salem, NC, November, 12, 1995.Google Scholar
32. New York Times, July 15, 1985, p. A1.Google Scholar
33. Reagan, Nancy, p. 279.Google Scholar
34. Marlo, Francis H., Planning Reagan's War: Conservative Strategists and America's Cold War Victory (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2012), p. 131.Google Scholar
35. Tygiel, Jules, Ronald Reagan (New York: Pearson, 2005), pp. 102–103.Google Scholar
36. Meese, Edwin III, With Reagan (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1992), p. 81.Google Scholar
37. Regan, , p. 229.Google Scholar
38. Baker, James A. III, with Fiffer, Steve, Work Hard, Study…and Keep Out Of Politics (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2006), p. 202.Google Scholar
39. Benze, James G. Jr., Nancy Reagan: On the White House Stage (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2005), p. 77.Google Scholar
40. Regan, , p. 137.Google Scholar
41. Brokaw, Tom, The Time of Our Lives (New York: Random House, 2011), p. 205.Google Scholar
42. Knott, Stephen F. and Chidester, Jeffrey L., At Reagan's Side: Insiders' Recollections from Sacramento to the White House (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), p. 122.Google Scholar
43. Wirthlin, Dick, The Greatest Communicator (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004), p. 167.Google Scholar
44. Deaver, Michael, A Different Drummer (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), p. 199.Google Scholar
45. Marshall, Jonathan, Scott, Peter Dale, and Hunter, June, The Iran-Contra Connection (Boston: South End Press, 1987), pp. 174.Google Scholar
46. Schweizer, Peter, Reagan's War (New York: Doubleday, 2002), p. 267.Google Scholar
47. Oliver North, NSC Staff, Subject: Buckley Kidnapping Case, Box 11, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
48. Secord, Richard, Honored and Betrayed (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992), p. 222.Google Scholar
49. Iran-Contra Hearings, May-November, 1987 (1), Box 3, Subject: Howard H. Baker Files, Series I, Lytton to Culvahouse, July 10, 1987, p. 1, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
50. Ledeen, Michael, Perilous Statecraft (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988), p. 102.Google Scholar
51. Marshall, Jonathan, Scott, Peter Dale, and Hunter, Jane, The Iran-Contra Connection (Boston: South End Press, 1987), pp. 175–176.Google Scholar
52. Abshire, David, Saving the Reagan Presidency: Trust Is the Coin of the Realm (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005), p. 4.Google Scholar
53. DiClerico, Robert D., The Contemporary American President (New York: Pearson, 2012), p. 323.Google Scholar
54. Abshire, , p. 4.Google Scholar
55. Iran-Contra Hearings–June [May-November, 1987] (4), Subject: Howard Baker Files, Box 3, Series 1, Subject Files, p. 2, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
56. Reagan, Ronald, The Reagan Diaries, p. 384.Google Scholar
57. Arquilla, John, The Reagan Imprint: Ideas in American Foreign Policy from the Collapse of Communism to the War on Terror (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006), p. 202.Google Scholar
58. Pfiffner, James P., The Modern Presidency (Boston: Wadsworth, 2011), p. 212.Google Scholar
59. Wallison, Peter J., Ronald Reagan (Cambridge: Westview, 2003), p. 274.Google Scholar
60. Reagan, Ronald, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Book I (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1989), p. 209.Google Scholar
61. Arquilla, , The Reagan Imprint, p. 157.Google Scholar
62. Spitzer, Robert J., Presidency and Congress: Executive Hegemony at the Crossroads of American Government (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), p. 226.Google Scholar
63. Shore, Daniel, Come to Think of it: Notes on the End of the Millennium (New York: Viking, 2007), p. 45.Google Scholar
64. Wirthlin, , p. 109; Cronin, Thomas E. and Genovese, Michael A., The Paradox of the American Presidency (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 254.Google Scholar
65. Winik, Jay, On the Brink (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 553.Google Scholar
66. Kornbluh, Peter and Byrne, Malcolm, eds., The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (New York: The New Press, 1993), p. 392.Google Scholar
67. Anderson, Martin and Anderson, Annelise, Reagan's Secret War: The Untold Story of His Fight to Save the World from Nuclear Disaster (New York: Crown Publishers, 2009), p. 322.Google Scholar
68. Marlo, , p. 148.Google Scholar
69. Neustadt, Richard, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents (New York: Free Press, 1990), p. 280.Google Scholar
70. North, Oliver, Under Fire: An American Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 13.Google Scholar
71. Neustadt, , p. 281.Google Scholar
72. Keisler, Peter D.: Files 1984-1987, Series IV–Iran-Contra Legal Analysis Team, Box 55, Subject: Contra Aid Laws (2), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
73. Keisler, Peter D.: Files 1984-1987, Series IV–Iran-Contra Legal Analysis Team, Box 56, Subject: Contra Aid Laws, (2), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
74. Secord, , p. 203.Google Scholar
75. Edwards, Lee, The Essential Ronald Reagan (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), p. 122.Google Scholar
76. The Tower Commission Report (New York: Bantam Books, 1987), p. 129.Google Scholar
77. Reagan, Ronald, The Reagan Diaries, p. 343.Google Scholar
78. Ibid.Google Scholar
79. Mann, James, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan (New York: Viking Press, 2009), p. 141.Google Scholar
80. DiClerico, , p. 322.Google Scholar
81. Cohen, William S. and Mitchell, George T., Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings (New York: Viking Press, 1988), p. 79.Google Scholar
82. Tower Commission Report, pp. 31, 142.Google Scholar
83. Scheiffer, Bob and Gates, Alan Paul, The Acting President (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1989), p. 233.Google Scholar
84. Iran-Contra Hearings, May-November, 1987 (1), Box 3, Subject: Howard Baker Files, Memo, Lytton to Culvahouse, July 8, 1987, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
85. Regan, , pp. 82–83.Google Scholar
86. Reagan, Ronald, The Reagan Diaries, p. 453.Google Scholar
87. Cohen, and Mitchell, , pp. 11–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
88. Hutton, , p. 9.Google Scholar
89. Tower Commission Report, p. 138.Google Scholar
90. Ibid.Google Scholar
91. Tower Commission Report, p. 77.Google Scholar
92. Spitzer, , 1993, p. 227; Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, 100th Congress, 1st session. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987), p. 168.Google Scholar
93. Reagan, , An American Life, pp. 50, 501.Google Scholar
94. Sprinkle, Robert Hunt, comments to the author, September 27, 2014.Google Scholar
95. Knorr, Norman J. M.D. and Harrington, Daniel M.D., “Psychological considerations,” in Papers on Presidential Disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ed. Thompson, Kenneth W. (New York: University Press of America, 1981), p. 101.Google Scholar
96. Ruge, Daniel.Google Scholar
97. Abrams, Herbert L., The President Has Been Shot (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992), p. 155.Google Scholar
98. Abrams, , pp. 156–157.Google Scholar
99. Heaver, J., “Toxicity of anesthetics,” Clinical Anesthesiology, 2003, 17(1), 1–3.Google Scholar
100. Abrams, , pp. 157–158.Google Scholar
101. Ledeen, , p. 277.Google Scholar
102. Anderson, Martin, Revolution (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 220.Google Scholar
103. Reagan, Ronald, The Reagan Diaries, p. 374.Google Scholar
104. Weinberger, Caspar W., In The Arena: A Memoir of the 20th Century (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001), p. 351.Google Scholar
105. DiClerico, , p. 321.Google Scholar
106. Shultz, George P., Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993), p. 784.Google Scholar
107. Thomas, Norman C. and Pika, Joseph A., The Politics of the Presidency (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1996), p. 433.Google Scholar
108. Shultz, , pp. 578–579; Pika, and Maltese, , p. 463.Google Scholar
109. Hess, Stephen, Organizing the Presidency (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002), p. 143.Google Scholar
110. Hess, Stephen, p. 143.Google Scholar
111. Quirk, Paul, “Presidential competence,” in The Presidency and the Political System, Nelson, Michael, ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010), p. 120.Google Scholar
112. DiClerico, , p. 277.Google Scholar
113. Meese, , p. 85.Google Scholar
114. Baker, James A. III, The Politics of Diplomacy (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), p. 27.Google Scholar
115. Johnson, Haynes, Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003), p. 323.Google Scholar
116. Reagan, Ron, My Father at 100 (New York: Viking Press, 2011), p. 213.Google Scholar
117. Hart, John, The Presidential Branch (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, 1995), pp. 75–76.Google Scholar
118. Baker, , Work Hard, Study…and Keep Out of Politics, p. 203.Google Scholar
119. Reagan, Ron, p. 218.Google Scholar
120. Pemberton, William E., Exit With Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), p. 200.Google Scholar
121. Abshire, , pp. 120–121.Google Scholar
122. Wallison, Peter, Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003), p. 266.Google Scholar
123. Abshire, , p. 125.Google Scholar
124. Telephone interviews withMohr, Lawrence C. Dr., January 10, 2014, October 22, 2014.Google Scholar
125. Hutton, , p. 16.Google Scholar
126. Tower Commission Report, p. 22.Google Scholar
127. Weinberger, Caspar, Fighting For Peace: Seven Critical Years in the Pentagon (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1990), p. 367.Google Scholar
128. McDermott, Rose, Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 28.Google Scholar
129. Tygiel, Jules, Ronald Reagan and the Triumph of American Conservatism (New York: Longman, 2006), p. 213.Google Scholar
130. Edwards, George C. III and Wayne, Stephen J., Presidential Leadership (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010), p. 238.Google Scholar
131. Pika, Joseph A., Maltese, John Anthony, and Thomas, Norman C., The Politics of the Presidency (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002), p. 362.Google Scholar
132. Kengor, Paul, The Crusader (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), p. 270.Google Scholar
133. Diggins, John Patrick, Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), p. 345.Google Scholar
134. Haywood, Steven F., The Age of Reagan (New York: Crown Forum, 2009), p. 531.Google Scholar
135. DiClerico, , p. 320.Google Scholar
136. Bunch, Will, Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy (New York: Free Press, 2009), p. 109.Google Scholar
137. Cohen, Jeffrey and Nice, David, The Presidency (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003), p. 366.Google Scholar
138. Greenstein, Fred I., The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Barack Obama, 3e (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), p. 153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
139. Rudman, Warren B., Combat: Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate (New York: Random House, 1996), p. 147.Google Scholar
140. Gilbert, , “Attempted assassination and presidential achievement: The case of Ronald Reagan,” pp. 173–180.Google Scholar
141. Mayer, Jane and McManus, Doyle, Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 387.Google Scholar
142. Reeves, Richard, President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 414.Google Scholar
143. Mann, , p. 142.Google Scholar
144. Regan, , p. 71.Google Scholar
145. Regan, , pp. 79–80.Google Scholar
146. Washington Post, July 16, 1987, p. A17.Google Scholar
147. Hayward, Steven F., The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980 (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), p. 534.Google Scholar
148. Mann, , p. 141.Google Scholar
149. Wroe, Ann, Lives, Lies and the Iran-Contra Affair (New York: I. B. Tauris and Company, 1991), p. 155.Google Scholar
150. Anderson, and Anderson, , p. 323.Google Scholar
151. Knott, and Chidester, , p. 128.Google Scholar
152. Rudman, , p. 145.Google Scholar
153. Howard Baker Files, Series 1, Subject: Iran-Contra Hearings, June [May-November, 1987, Box 3, Testimony of North, Lytton to Culvahouse, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.Google Scholar
154. Meese, , p. 289.Google Scholar
155. Skinner, , Anderson, , and Anderson, , p. 469.Google Scholar
156. Walsh, Lawrence E., Iran-Contra: The Final Report (New York: Random House, 1993), p. 446.Google Scholar
157. Walsh, , p. 445.Google Scholar
158. Niskanen, William A., Reaganomics: An Insider's Account of the Policies and the People (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 288.Google Scholar