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Lawrence E. Walsh

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Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-up

by Lawrence E. Walsh (Author)

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In its chilling and unsparing revelations, Firewall is the definitive account of the most dangerous breach of presidential authority since Watergate.

With Ronald Reagan's knowledge and support, the United States attempted to trade arms for hostages held by Iranian terrorists; some of the secret money then funded the guerrilla activities of the Nicaraguan Contras, a counter-revolutionary group that Congress had specifically forbidden the administration to support. In this historic, first-person account, the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation exposes the extraordinary duplicity of the highest officials of the Reagan administration and the paralyzing effects of the cover-up.

ISBN-10

0393318605
ISBN-13

978-0393318609
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

November 17, 1998
Language

English
Dimensions

6.2 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches
Print length

594 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Not simply an important public accounting of an egregiously misconceived policy, but a cautionary tale of power."
― August Richard Norton, Boston Globe

"We would never have known the truth about Iran-Contra without the tenacious seven-year struggle by the independent counsel in the affair, Lawrence Walsh, to get to the bottom of it…Of first-rate historical importance."
― Doug Ireland, The Nation

About the Author

Lawrence E. Walsh (1912―2014) was an American lawyer and former U.S. District Court judge and Deputy Attorney General who was appointed Independent Counsel in December 1986 to investigate the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan Administration.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (November 17, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 594 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393318605
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393318609
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1300L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1.4 x 9.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #360 in Iran History
- #1,181 in United States Executive Government
- #1,316 in Middle Eastern Politics

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4.4 out of 5

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Franco

The Real story about Iran Contra...

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

I quite literally used this accurate book to help me write a paper on the sandinistas and the contras. Walsh, being a former Independent Counsel, had direct access to the truth regarding the sale of weapons to Iran in the Reagan era, and the usage of profits from that sale to fund the counter revolutionary group called contras in Nicaragua.

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Amazon Customer

If you're old enough to remember the Iran-Contra Affair, ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

If you're old enough to remember the Iran-Contra Affair, this book will either seem incredible or a validation of what you suspected. In either case, it almost pales in comparison to Nixon's sabotoge of the Viet Nam peace agreement so he could get elected and carry on the war for two more bloody years.

8 people found this helpful

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Timothy A Jewell

Great book and Great seller

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

Finding book very interesting but it is coming from a legal point of view which is even better than expected since I like understanding law and its intricacies. Would buy from this seller again.

5 people found this helpful

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ct reader

A Study in Integrity

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2005

Verified Purchase

The Iran-Contra case is well known as a bipartisan bludgeon. Are the news outlines of it accurate? Was the affair a minor bureaucratic transgression preyed upon by liberal hacks; a deceitful attack on the constitutional separation of powers (checks and balances); or a hyped media event?

Presiding (Republican) Judge Lawrence E. Walsh skillfully relates the jurisdictional history of the investigation and trial in `Firewall.' This includes the record of defendants Oliver North and Admiral Poindexter (both convicted), as well as Judge Silberman (known as `our ambassador to Iran' before he overturned the verdicts).

Media star Oliver North now makes an bountiful living hawking American `New-Order' patriotism for Australian Rupert Murdock. Admiral Poindexter left the current administration only after he sponsored a prospective internet website speculating (wagering) on terrorism targets. Judge Silberman was recently enlisted for an intelligence committee report (to obscure the 9/11 Commission findings?).

Though this may seem ancient history, the principals remain active. Walsh provides the best vehicle to examine their early history. You decide.

10 people found this helpful

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Sharon Hope

The definitive view on Iran-Contra.

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

Comprehensive and thorough, this lays out all the complexities of the Iran-Contra affair and shows how it was a much greater constitutional challenge than Watergate ever was.

One person found this helpful

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DMO

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2016

Verified Purchase

I was so glad we found this book - the best coverage of the Iran-Contra conspiracy.

One person found this helpful

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Mikel Norwitz

Not at all a casual read, but a vital document of Republican interference with the rule of law

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023

Walsh was the independent counsel who prosecuted the Iran-Contra conspiracy. The events of the conspiracy itself are disposed of in the first chapter, and the remainder of this thick (500+ page) volume consists of of an intensely detailed account of the investigation, and the ways in which many in government (notable George Bush and Bob Dole) tried to interfere with the investigation in order to prevent Reagan for being held to any accountability.

Consisting primarily of discussions of legal strategies, this is not at all a casual read, but a vital document for anyone researching Republican interference with the rule of law.

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2009

Verified Purchase

In his book `Firewall,' purportedly the "definitive Iran/Contra book," Walsh decries the "lies and dissembling" by the "political upper crust" in the Reagan Administration to multiple Congressional inquiries into foreign policy. Therefore in my review, I feel it only fair to decry Walsh's disingenuous analysis of historical facts in general and the Constitutional balance of power between the three branches of government specifically, in order to justify his seven year inquisition, which cost taxpayers more than $35 million. This sacred quest that he imagined himself to have been on for the Holy Grail that Walsh calls, ad nauseam, to be the "rule of law," had very little to do with the factual record and in reality was simply a retaliation by Congressional Democrats against Reagan for defeating the incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. There can be little doubt that Congressional Democrats felt it particularly poetic when they were able to create a scandal for Reagan from Iran/Contra, since it was the Iranian hostage crisis that is generally accepted to have caused Carter's defeat at the polls. The basis of this conclusion, contrary to Walsh's misrepresentations, is that both the Iran arms deal and the Nicaraguan Contras can be tied directly to policy decisions made during Carter's tenure as president.
In 1979 as the Sandinistas overthrew the Anastasio Somoza regime - the Carter Administration made it known that America wasn't going to idly standby while Nicaragua experimented with a Marxist government. Then president, Jimmy Carter, insisted that the Sandinistas retain Somoza's National Guard, the Sandinistas balked and so Carter ordered the CIA to enlist Argentine officers to train the Nicaraguan exiles. These were the same Argentine officers who were running death squads during Argentina's own "dirty war," prior to the debacle with the British over the Falklands. The CIA called the exiles, made-up mostly of Somoza's former National Guard, Contras. Also in 1979, a coup overthrew the Romero dictatorship in El Salvador; the Carter Administration's response was to send millions in aid and riot equipment to the Salvadoran military, who were killing nearly 1,000 peasants and workers per month, send in military trainers and train Salvadoran officers in Panama. The Reagan Administration merely continued an existing policy toward Central America, albeit more successfully.
It was the mining of Nicaraguan harbors in 1984, which was condemned in the World Court at The Hague that prompted retaliation by Congressional Democrats against the intelligence community, specifically the CIA and Department of Defense. Although the predominant sentiment in Congress was that continued aid was critical to stop the spread of communism in Central America, then Speaker of the House, Democrat -- Jim Wright, sought to appease the Sandinistas at the expense of the Contras by attempting to usurp foreign policy from Reagan by using the "power of the pocketbook." In a series of contentious and close votes, Congressional Democrats pushed through a highly limited, very ambiguous compromise bill, because they didn't have the votes for a comprehensive ban, titled the Boland Amendments. These amendments were generally considered to be an unconstitutional interference of a president's ability to conduct foreign policy and were limited only to appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies.
Reagan's national security officials used non-appropriated funds spent by the National Security Counsel as a stopgap measure to circumvent this petty amendment until the votes could be acquired to reinstitute funding in support of the Contras. No court ever made a determination on whether the Boland Amendments covered the NSC, and because it was a prohibition rather than a criminal statute, no one could be indicted for violating it anyway. As a final note, the Boland Amendments were repealed by a later Congress, elections forced on the Sandinistas by the Contras ousted the Marxists from power, and the "scandal" of Iran/Contra has been rightfully relegated to historical irrelevance. In view of the history, trivial nature and political atmosphere surrounding the details to the Iran/Contra so-called scandal, there should never have been an Independent Counsel investigation. No amount of rationalization by Walsh will justify the time and expenditure that went into his spurious crusade - as a taxpayer, and as a booklover I feel twice cheated. Firewall, much like the Iran/Contra scandal it depicts, is a fizzle.

10 people found this helpful

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