Here we see foreshadowing in the Reagan-Bush era of the mindset of the Bush-Cheney administration: The end justifies the means if the means benefits the GOP or its friends. Laws they don’t like can simply be ignored. And since democracy is antithetical to conservatism, it is the role of conservatives in government to undermine democratic institutions such as the US Congress.
The day after the House voted to halt all aid to rebels fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras John D. Negroponte urged the president’s national security adviser and the CIA director to hang tough.
The thrust of the envoy’s “back channel” July 1983 message to the men running the contra war against Nicaragua was contained in a single cryptic sentence: “Hondurans believe special project is as important as ever.”
“Special project” was code for the secret arming of contra rebels from bases in Honduras — a cause championed by Negroponte, then a rising diplomatic star. In cables and memos, Negroponte made it clear that he saw the “special project” as key to the Reagan administration’s strategy of rolling back communism in Central America.
