Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes wordy, always chilling account of a very dark time
Review: At times, this reads as a text book. At times, it reads as a spy thriller. Walsh goes into great detail on the investigation and attempted prosecution of those involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. This book is best suited for those interested in the affair, and are anti Reagan/Bush. I was moved by the compassion of Walsh when after interviewing Reagan, felt it would have been more damaging to our nation to try and prosecute Reagan when it was apparent alzheimers had set in. Walsh felt Reagan knew more then he said, but he also knew that the alzheimers would have been humilitaing to Reagan, and would have made prosecution impossible.

Rating:
Summary: The TRUTH will set you free!!!
Review: Even for someone familiar with the Iran-Contra scandal, Walsh's account helps to clear up many details of the Washington power structure, and to understand the odds which he was against. The White House never intended him to do what he did. The book is sensational! NYTimes says first chapters are dull. Hah! Since the NYTimes didn't pick up on the scandal from the beginning, now it sniffs. What did NYTimes want.. photos of Hoover in his undies?

Rating:
Summary: Patriotism? Self responsiblity? Rule of Law? Character?
Review: This book is the story of a life-long Republican retired federal judge's seven year struggle to unravel the truth behind a vast government conspiracy to conceal willful violations of our country's laws by President Ronald Reagan and many members of his cabinet,CIA officials, members of his national security team and assorted Republican political operatives both inside Congress and out. Mr. Walsh does yeoman work in presenting the unvarnished truth he and his many assistants were finally able to decipher out of hundreds of thousands of original documents and the direct testimony of those his team were able to catch in their lies and bring into court under indictment. The complex legal issues and large cast of perpetrators makes this a difficult and necessarily repetitve slog, but the chilling story is one that Americans of any political persuasion need to be aware of. Lead by a naive President in the early stages of Alzheimers disease,and guided by a perverse notion of patriotic anticommunism that was the bedrock of cold war Republicanism, our top leaders deliberately violated laws put in place by Congress and even their own foreign policies relating to terrorism. When discovered these "patriots" launched an unprecedented web of lies and stonewalling to save Reagan from possible impeachment. Mr. Walsh was impeded at every step of his investigation and by all branches of the government. The importance of this account by Mr. Walsh is that irregardless of the legal results of the investigations, the truth of what happened and who did it is revealed for all to see. When this party touts its patriotism, beliefs in the rule of law and self responsiblity and the importance of character, remember what happened here.

Rating:
Summary: This book explains why Walsh did not get any convictions
Review: While I was at times confused by the legal problems Walsh's team were confronted with, I did clearly understand why Lawrence Walsh did not get very far with his investigation. Mainly it was because the targets of his investigation had designed a highly secretive plot and had the protection of the CIA or the National Security Council. Documents were denied or shredded, subjects lied or refused to testify all on the basis of "national security" or out of a belief that Congress had no right to interfere in foreign policy. After reading this book, I was shaken by the realization that under the guise of a "higher purpose" or holy war our democratic principles could so easily be dispensed with. Oliver North and President Reagan were rewarded with national affection despite showing utter contempt for the rule of law! Iran-Contra was a true case of Machiavellian politics because all of our most sacred principles were run over for the sake of the dictators ideology - that the end justifies the means. Firewall reveals the incipient dictatorship lurking beneath our fragile democracy.