The dangerous game of private, back-channel diplomacy has long corrupted American elections. How the 1980 October surprise still haunts American politics.
As Russia provocatively tests its nuclear arsenal, Donald Trump’s back-channel conversations with Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk’s direct line to the Kremlin signal an ominous echo of past October surprises.
These eleventh-hour manipulations of foreign policy for partisan electoral gain can undermine American democracy — and lead indirectly to the deaths of thousands of people.
The seditious shenanigans of Trump and Musk are reminiscent of one of the most consequential October surprises in American history, meticulously documented in Craig Unger’s new book, Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stone the White House. This long-ago episode is unknown to most Americans, but had an impact on the US and the world in the years since.
Unger reveals how Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign manager, William Casey, a former World War II spymaster, orchestrated a treasonous scheme with Iran to delay the release of 52 Americans already held hostage for a whole year — until two months after the election — thereby ensuring Carter’s defeat.
The operation, involving arms dealers and double agents, wasn’t just about winning an election; it had dire consequences for decades to come, including the Iran-Contra scandal and other attempts to circumvent constitutional guard rails in the conduct of foreign policy.
Drawing on 30 years of investigation and newly uncovered documents, Unger exposes how this secret operation set a dangerous precedent for private citizens subverting the government’s control of foreign policy as well as subjecting American citizens to more months of humiliating incarceration for political gain — a pattern of heedless self-serving that continues to threaten American democracy today.
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