DEN OF SPIES

A journalist argues that Jan. 6, 2021, wasn’t the first instance of Republican treason.

The term “October surprise” describes a spectacular act or revelation meant to capture the hearts and minds of undecided voters. Ronald Reagan’s October surprise, by Unger’s account, was never made public: his intermediaries negotiated a deal, working with Israel, to ensure that the Iranians would not free the U.S. embassy workers they took hostage in November 1979 and held for 444 days. The aim was to make Jimmy Carter’s administration look feckless, and within minutes of being sworn in, Reagan announced that the hostages were freed, a seeming coincidence that in itself spoke of backroom bargains. “Carter had been told of clandestine dealings between Reagan campaign officials and the Iranians,” writes Unger, but the president did not make sufficient hay out of acts that, Unger holds, were treasonous. The deal was orchestrated by former CIA executive William J. Casey and two Iranian arms dealers, but it had plenty of ancillary players. It was also, Unger argues, an open secret, even though Iran’s deposed president, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, publicly revealed “that the Republican campaign was making a concerted effort to bar the hostages’ release.” It took 11 years for Congress to investigate; by that time Casey was dead, George H.W. Bush—also an actor in the proceedings—was in office, and other acts of Reagan administration criminality were well known. Still, Unger says with regret, Americans were little worked up by the persistent revelations of that despicable political maneuvering. Unger’s book, which he has been working on for decades, comes late to the table, but it’s welcome all the same, complete with its gloomy conclusion: “Most Americans did not know their past well enough to have forgotten it.”

A compelling account of political wrongdoing.