This success is indicative of how lucrative stridently politicized pseudo-research on the Middle East can be. Today he is a much sought-after commentator on Iran and Middle Eastern affairs withįrequent appearances on CNN and C-Span, columns in The Daily Beast and Foreign Policy, and a solid scholarly standing atĬolumbia - despite having published no subsequent books. Irresponsible allegations, The October Surprise made Sick a star. Senator Joseph McCarthy was destroyed by his Inquiries that definitively discredited the October Surprise conspiracy theory. With the United States still reeling from the Iran-Contra affair, Sick's accusations triggered a string of devastating journalistic critiques and two congressional The story incessantly, a January, 1992, poll showed that 55 percent of Americans believed the allegations. With all of the major television networks covering One man's accusations have not had such a sweeping impact on public perceptions since the McCarthy era. U.S.A., Europe, and the Middle East" with mostly anonymous sources had led him to conclude that "individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign ofġ980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages." Later that year, he published his findings in October Surprise:Īmerica's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan, an account that combined a heavily footnoted script with sensationalist revelations about In an April, 1991, New York Times op-ed, Sick wrote that "hundreds of interviews in the Now at Columbia University, Sick had written a well-received book on the 1979 Iranian Revolution and ensuing hostage crisis,Īll Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. The first to lend gravitas and mainstream credibility to allegations of a delay-for-arms deal was Gary Sick, a member of the National Security Council under CarterĪnd his Chief Advisor on Iran.
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Those who loathe the political Right in the United States found itĭifficult to accept that the Iranians held off on releasing the hostages until after Reagan's inauguration without some form of quid pro quo. Was not unreasonable to surmise that they would have sought to leverage this influence. Since the Iranians clearly had it in their power to have an impact on the 1980 election, it Scandal suddenly gave the idea of such collusion an aura of plausibility. Although subsequently discredited by congressional inquiries and journalisticĬritiques, the myth that Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign had made a secret deal with Iranian hostage-takers persists.įirst floated by Lyndon Larouche and his followers shortly after Reagan's landslide victory, the conspiracy theory remained obscure until the Iran-Contra The 1986-1987 Iran-Contra affair helped fuel the tale of an October Surprise. Republic in exchange for a delay in the hostage release until after the vote. Would secure President Jimmy Carter a second term in office, the campaign of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan agreed to funnel weapons to the Islamic As the story goes, fearful that the release of fifty-two American hostages in Iran before the November, 1980, presidential election The socalled October Surprise plot that briefly enthralled the American public twenty years ago is one of the most influential political conspiracy A rejoinder has been written, where the author rebukes Sick's retort and addresses his new New and previously unreported faults in Gary Sick's research have been unearthed and reported herein, material which further discredits the October POLITICALLY BIASED UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS ON AMERICAN PUBLIC DISCOURSE ABOUT ISLAM, ISLAMISM, & THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST IN SICK'S RESEARTH THAT HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED & REPORTED BY EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI - THE CORRUPTING EFFECTS OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES & GARY SICK'S VERSION OF THE OCTOBER SURPRISE CONSPIRACY THEORY: A THEORY FURTHER DISCREDITED BY NEW & PREVIOUSLY UNREPORTED FAULTS World War IV: Islamist Terror War Against the U.S.A. ConstitutionĪmerican Constitutional Law American Constitutional System American Political SystemĬonservatism, Liberalism, & Radicalism How America Goes to War Home Page Main Menu Recent Articles Site Map Website Index Issues & ControversiesĬyberland University Political Science, Philosophy, & History: Lectures U.S. Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative PrinciplesĮnsures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity October Surprise Conspiracy Theory THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis