Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:21 PM

A Clandestine Trip and a Four-Decade Secret: An Untold Story Behind Jimmy Carter's Defeat

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Source: NYT

His longtime political mentor invited him on a mission to the Middle East. What Mr. Barnes said he did not realize until later was the real purpose of the mission: to sabotage the re-election campaign of the president of the United States.

It was 1980 and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, bedeviled by a hostage crisis in Iran that had paralyzed his presidency and hampered his effort to win a second term. Mr. Carter’s best chance for victory was to free the 52 Americans held captive before Election Day. That was something that Mr. Barnes said his mentor was determined to prevent.

His mentor was John B. Connally Jr., a titan of American politics and former Texas governor who had served three presidents and just lost his own bid for the White House. A former Democrat, Mr. Connally had sought the Republican nomination in 1980 only to be swamped by former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California. Now Mr. Connally resolved to help Mr. Reagan beat Mr. Carter and in the process, Mr. Barnes said, make his own case for becoming secretary of state or defense in a new administration.

What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html

This has been stated and restated many times since 1980. Barnes had the sheer gall to say this about his betrayal and silence:

Mr. Barnes said he did not reveal the real story at the time to avoid blowback from his own party. “I don’t want to look like Benedict Arnold to the Democratic Party by participating in this,” he recalled explaining to a friend. The headlines at the time, he imagined, would have been scandalous. “I did not want that to be on my obituary at all.”

But as the years have passed, he said, he has often thought an injustice had been done to Mr. Carter. Discussing the trip now, he indicated, was his way of making amends. “I just want history to reflect that Carter got a little bit of a bad deal about the hostages,” he said. “He didn’t have a fighting chance with those hostages still in the embassy in Iran.”

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37 replies	Author	Time	Post
A Clandestine Trip and a Four-Decade Secret: An Untold Story Behind Jimmy Carter's Defeat (Original post)	Miguelito Loveless	Saturday	OP
Bookmarking! for reading in full later	liberalla	Saturday	#1
This old story	snowybirdie	Saturday	#2
It is an old story, but this is the first time I recall any Republican verifying the truth	DemocraticPatriot	Saturday	#36
This is also quite similar to what the Nixon campaign did to LBJ during the Vietnam War.	keep_left	Saturday	#3
LBJ	Miguelito Loveless	Saturday	#4
Two Texans with Big Oil support?	bucolic_frolic	Saturday	#7
Yes, most definitely. By the way, I think it was Everett Dirksen who broke the news to LBJ about...	keep_left	Saturday	#19
IIRC it showed up in Ken Burns's "The Vietnam War,"	soldierant	Saturday	#32
I also heard that Reagan promised arms to Iran if they kept the hostages until after the 1980 electi	UCmeNdc	Saturday	#5
He did	DENVERPOPS	Saturday	#17
A closely-related scandal, "Iraq-gate", implicated a lot of the same people...	keep_left	Saturday	#25
I think you're thinking of the Stark incident?	EX500rider	Saturday	#29
This excerpt is incendiary...	Hekate	Saturday	#6
Thanks	Miguelito Loveless	Saturday	#9
Just makes me want to throw up!	hamsterjill	Saturday	#8
Pretty much	DownriverDem	Saturday	#10
Remember this well.	Pas-de-Calais	Saturday	#11
Republicans cheating in presidential elections has been going on a loooong time. nt	SunSeeker	Saturday	#12
The last legitimately-elected republican president was Eisenhower.	PSPS	Saturday	#34
"...Carter got a little bit of a bad deal about the hostages."	markodochartaigh	Saturday	#13
There's a quote	stage left	Saturday	#24
Another Republican cheating to interfere in a presidential election which we hear about decades later	Rhiannon12866	Saturday	#14
20th century Republicans and treason like day follows the dawn.	jaxexpat	Saturday	#31
Kick	dalton99a	Saturday	#15
Make amends? Losing a reelection bid is small potatoes	Raven123	Saturday	#16
Your a little late are you not Mr. Barnes.....	turbinetree	Saturday	#18
History will right this, I hope. As for Reagan, history will take care of him, too.	Joinfortmill	Saturday	#20
Another conservative POS!	Grumpy Old Guy	Saturday	#21
So evil	Blues Heron	Saturday	#22
I was alive in the era	Marthe48	Saturday	#23
remember that morning in america TV ad - the voice is just as you say	Blues Heron	Saturday	#28
Treason, is what it is, and helping usher in the radical right too	LymphocyteLover	Saturday	#26
He should be prosecuted as if he had taken those hostages himself	Blues Heron	Saturday	#27
. . . and there is this from the NYT article	AverageOldGuy	Saturday	#30
A DU post from November 1st, 2003: ex-President Carter's Operation Desert Claw sabotaged?	NBachers	Saturday	#33
He should know there is no statute of limitations for kidnapping	Blues Heron	Saturday	#35
Locking after a discussion with forum hosts.	Lasher	Saturday	#37

Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:23 PM

liberalla (8,273 posts)

1. Bookmarking! for reading in full later

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:29 PM

snowybirdie (4,498 posts)

2. This old story

has been bantered around for 40 years. Finally the NYT has gotten around to verifying it. About time!

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Response to snowybirdie (Reply #2)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:38 PM

DemocraticPatriot (1,930 posts)

36. It is an old story, but this is the first time I recall any Republican verifying the truth

of it!

Previous versions may have had the details wrong, they supposed that Casey was the person doing the dirt--
those stories never seemed to consider that lower-level people did all the talking to Iran.

In any case, now we have a confession out of their own Republican treasonous mouths...

At least this lower functionary tried to do the right thing at the last moment,
with President Carter on his deathbed.

That does not excuse what he did back then,
but it confirms the fact that this conspiracy did exist, from a Republican who participated at the time.

No longer can they call it "a conspiracy theory".

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:38 PM

keep_left (1,094 posts)

3. This is also quite similar to what the Nixon campaign did to LBJ during the Vietnam War.

The Nixon campaign tried to undermine the ongoing Paris peace talks. They were apparently overconfident in their ability to keep things secret, and the NSA was listening in. I've forgotten who broke the news to LBJ, but I recall it being described as "treasonous" on the part of the Nixon officials. The story was kind of an open secret for many years, and I remember it being officially confirmed on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! show.

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Response to keep_left (Reply #3)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:45 PM

Miguelito Loveless (4,202 posts)

4. LBJ

would have done the country a great service if he had blown the whistle on Nixon in ‘68.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Reply #4)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:56 PM

bucolic_frolic (36,098 posts)

7. Two Texans with Big Oil support?

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Reply #4)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:11 PM

keep_left (1,094 posts)

19. Yes, most definitely. By the way, I think it was Everett Dirksen who broke the news to LBJ about...

...what the NSA had discovered. I would have to listen to that episode of Democracy Now! again, or read up on my history, but what I clearly recall is that whoever the individual was, they were very upset about the actions of the Nixon campaign, calling it "treason" in no uncertain terms. There is a recording of this meeting with LBJ in the Oval Office; it was played on the show, and it was damning.

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Response to keep_left (Reply #3)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:23 PM

soldierant (5,074 posts)

32. IIRC it showed up in Ken Burns's "The Vietnam War,"

including the word "treasonous.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:47 PM

UCmeNdc (9,323 posts)

5. I also heard that Reagan promised arms to Iran if they kept the hostages until after the 1980 electi

It is a history that is not well understood or reported on.

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Response to UCmeNdc (Reply #5)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:56 PM

DENVERPOPS (7,580 posts)

17. He did

but truly, Reagan was just a pawn, like W and Trump. It was HW and his CABAL that did every thing during the Reagan "years"......

HWBush also gave the Ayatolla the promise of weapon sales to cinch the deal.........

As I recall later, Iran shot one of the missiles HW had sold them at a U.S. Navy Ship in the gulf, killing 27? sailors. I remember the Republicans having to go into overdrive for weeks to cover up the fact that it was one of our missles and everyone wondering how Iran was able to get a hold of OUR missles.......

THAT was a slam dunk for Treason, if there ever was one..............

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Response to DENVERPOPS (Reply #17)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:39 PM

keep_left (1,094 posts)

25. A closely-related scandal, "Iraq-gate", implicated a lot of the same people...

...that were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. There was a really good and largely forgotten book about it, Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq by Alan Friedman.

https://www.democracynow.org/2003/12/17/spiders_web_the_secret_history_of

https://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Web-Secret-History-Illegally/dp/0553096508

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Response to DENVERPOPS (Reply #17)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:54 PM

EX500rider (8,795 posts)

29. I think you're thinking of the Stark incident?

That was in a Iraqi fighter firing a French made Exocet missile at a US naval vessel

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stark_incident#:~:text=The%20USS%20Stark%20incident%20occurred,attack%2C%20and%2021%20were%20injured.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:53 PM

Hekate (82,811 posts)

6. This excerpt is incendiary...

Stuff we did not know, stuff we did know, confirmation of what we intuited a long time ago.

Barnes thinks this will “make amends,” because “Carter got a little bit of a bad deal” ? Oh, I don’t think this goes anywhere near making amends.

By the way, Nevilledog has the non paywall link
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217738499

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Response to Hekate (Reply #6)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:01 PM

Miguelito Loveless (4,202 posts)

9. Thanks

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 05:56 PM

hamsterjill (14,928 posts)

8. Just makes me want to throw up!

I lived through that time frame and I cannot imagine anyone allowing those hostages to suffer one minute longer than necessary. Despicable!

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:28 PM

DownriverDem (5,824 posts)

10. Pretty much

figured out at the time.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:38 PM

Pas-de-Calais (9,709 posts)

11. Remember this well.

There was a book if I recall correctly

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:42 PM

SunSeeker (49,129 posts)

12. Republicans cheating in presidential elections has been going on a loooong time. nt

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Response to SunSeeker (Reply #12)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:34 PM

PSPS (12,888 posts)

34. The last legitimately-elected republican president was Eisenhower.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:45 PM

markodochartaigh (536 posts)

13. "...Carter got a little bit of a bad deal about the hostages."

And sure he did. But I'm pretty sure that President Carter himself would say that it was really democracy in the US that took the real hit from the Republicans' self-serving and vicious coercion.

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Response to markodochartaigh (Reply #13)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:38 PM

stage left (2,562 posts)

24. There's a quote

that will make you see red. "A little bit of a bad deal." It was an enormous bad deal for the hostages and for us, the American people, the beginning of our downward slide.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:48 PM

Rhiannon12866 (175,438 posts)

14. Another Republican cheating to interfere in a presidential election which we hear about decades later

It took 50 years for it to be revealed that Nixon was secretly conspiring with the Vietnamese to win in 1968 which shut down promising peace talks - and prolonged the war for seven more years resulting in thousands more war deaths on both sides. And now we learn what we always suspected, Reagan was guilty of the same foreign power collusion to defeat President Carter.

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Response to Rhiannon12866 (Reply #14)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:20 PM

jaxexpat (5,158 posts)

31. 20th century Republicans and treason like day follows the dawn.

And night the dusk.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:50 PM

dalton99a (74,365 posts)

15. Kick

https://archive.ph/FgABN

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 06:53 PM

Raven123 (3,941 posts)

16. Make amends? Losing a reelection bid is small potatoes

Think of the lives of the hostages and their families. What the he** is he thinking? His moral compass is as broken now as it was when he executed the plan

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:08 PM

turbinetree (23,966 posts)

18. Your a little late are you not Mr. Barnes.....

have you gone and spoken to Mr. Carter yet .....

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:12 PM

Joinfortmill (10,665 posts)

20. History will right this, I hope. As for Reagan, history will take care of him, too.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:15 PM

Grumpy Old Guy (2,195 posts)

21. Another conservative POS!

Too little, too late.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:19 PM

Blues Heron (4,827 posts)

22. So evil

“I just want history to reflect that Carter got a little bit of a bad deal about the hostages,” he said. “He didn’t have a fighting chance with those hostages still in the embassy in Iran.”

Any message for the hostages, sicko?

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:32 PM

Marthe48 (12,251 posts)

23. I was alive in the era

The r line at the time was so freakin' smooth, seamless, subtle. I'll never, even fall for it again, ever.

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Response to Marthe48 (Reply #23)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:52 PM

Blues Heron (4,827 posts)

28. remember that morning in america TV ad - the voice is just as you say

so smooth, deep, ultimately creepy in retrospect

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:42 PM

LymphocyteLover (4,134 posts)

26. Treason, is what it is, and helping usher in the radical right too

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:45 PM

Blues Heron (4,827 posts)

27. He should be prosecuted as if he had taken those hostages himself

He thinks he got away with it scot-free. Someone needs to disabuse this little punk of that notion.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 07:58 PM

AverageOldGuy (918 posts)

30. . . . and there is this from the NYT article

He (Barnes) was such an influential figure that he helped a young George W. Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard rather than be exposed to the draft and sent to Vietnam.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:34 PM

NBachers (15,735 posts)

33. A DU post from November 1st, 2003: ex-President Carter's Operation Desert Claw sabotaged?

Ollie North and the whole stinking band of republican traitors & spooks in their still-ongoing RICO Crimewave Against America:

https://democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x629531

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:36 PM

Blues Heron (4,827 posts)

35. He should know there is no statute of limitations for kidnapping

If he caused those people to be held even a minute longer than they would have been, he is guilty of kidnapping.

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Response to Miguelito Loveless (Original post)

Sat Mar 18, 2023, 08:42 PM

Lasher (25,905 posts)

37. Locking after a discussion with forum hosts.

We see this as more of a feature than breaking news. After all, this same story has been around in one form or another for years.

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