In the middle of the 1980s, a government scandal came to light when a Lebanese newspaper began writing about U.S. weapons being sold to Iran. The U.S. was selling arms through Israel to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages. The funds from those sales were being used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, a group that Congress had already stopped funding. In this inquiry, students will investigate the compelling question, “How do breaches of trust affect public perception?”
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About the inquiry
Compelling Question
How do breaches of trust affect public perception? (Iran-Contra)
Standards
D2.His.4.9-12. Analyze complex and interacting factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
Instructional Snapshot
The teacher may start class by briefly describing the core issues of the Iran-Contra Scandal: that the U.S. funded the Contras in Nicaragua to fight communism and that in the Middle East, an Iranian-backed group held U.S. hostages. Congress passed the Boland Amendment which made it illegal to fund the Contras. Additionally, the US does not negotiate with terrorist groups. With this background information, in small groups, students analyze interviews with government officials about the Iran-Contra scandal. Students identify a piece of information from each interview that would break Americans’ trust in their government and record it on the analysis sheet. Students then work together to match each source to a headline that best summarizes the interview. After reminding students that the public was originally aware of the information in the interviews, the lesson culminates with students deliberating the question: If U.S. citizens had read these headlines as the events were unfolding, how might it have affected their perception of the government?
Formative Tasks
PRODUCE: Work together to produce a list of trust-breaking elements from a series of interviews.
COLLABORATE: Match sample headlines about the Iran-Contra Scandal with the interviews they describe.
DELIBERATE: Deliberate on how U.S. citizens may have felt if they saw the headlines as the events were unfolding.
Sources
Sources A-J: Iran-Contra Source Set, Library of Congress
Source K: Iran-Contra AI Headlines
Summative Performance Task
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Taking Informed Action
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