The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

by Peter Frankopan

These embarrassing revelations had consequences that ran deep through the Reagan administration, where a slate of senior figures were subsequently indicted on charges ranging from conspiracy to perjury to withholding evidence. They included Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense; Robert McFarlane, National Security Advisor, as well as his successor, John Poindexter; Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs; and a host of senior CIA officers, including Clair George, Deputy Director of Operations. The illustrious roll-call showed how far the United States had been prepared to go in order to secure its position in the heart of the world.135 So too did the fact that the charges turned out to be nothing more than window-dressing: all the leading figures later received presidential pardons from President George H. W. Bush, or had their convictions overturned on Christmas Eve 1992. “The common denominator of their motivations—whether their actions were right or wrong—” read the citation, “was patriotism.” The impact on their personal finances, careers and families, the President went on, was “grossly disproportionate to any misdeeds or errors of judgment they may have committed.”136 Several of those pardoned had already been convicted on charges ranging from perjury to withholding information from Congress, while Weinberger’s trial had been due to start two weeks later. It was a classic case of justice being elastic, and of the ends justifying the ...