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The movie "American Made (2017)" is related to the history of the American government.

REPORTER: Vice President Bush, did you know about the Contra aid or not, sir?

Snapshot is real and taken from American Made (2017) movie:

enter image description here

Context: Ronald Reagan is the President.

Why did Vice President Bush hide when the reporter asked this question?

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    Please provide source information for this photo, date of the referenced news conference.
    – justCal
    Dec 6, 2017 at 13:55
  • @justCal I added source information
    – Deijling Tsang
    Dec 6, 2017 at 15:33
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    So your image is a 'real' snapshot of a scene in a movie? By source I mean is the image from, for instance a publicity site for the movie, so the legal rights to show this image on this site can be confirmed? (especially since this is a movie currently in theaters).(Possibly covered in this discussion)?
    – justCal
    Dec 6, 2017 at 16:38

1 Answer 1

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Likely Because George H W Bush wanted to run for President and he hadn’t yet figured out how he was going to obfuscate the fact that he had been a vocal and powerful voice in favor of the policy and he would eventually allow the blame to fall on the people he had convinced to join him.(*) Bush would say he was “out of the loop” or literally out of the room when it was discussed, due to drinking too much ice tea that day.

The Tower Commission (John Tower) would find George H W Bush innocent of all involvement in Iran-Contra. Senator Tower would be offered the Secretary of Defense job in the Bush administration but would fail to be confirmed by his colleges in the senate, after several military women came forward and detailed several drunken gropings by the senator while chairman of the armed forces committee and visiting military bases.

(*) This sentiment that Bush had been an early supporter and had convinced others to join him were also given in the book "Destiny and Power".

Bush would go on as President to pardon 6 Iran-Contra decision makers on Christmas Eve, who by all rights could have included himself.

  1. Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Central America
  2. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane.
  3. CIA official Duane Clarridge.
  4. CIA official Alan Fiers.
  5. CIA official Clair George
  6. former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

LA Times Headline

Bush Pardons Weinberger, 5 Others in Iran-Contra; Act Called Cover-Up : Inquiry: Prosecutor accuses President of misconduct, claims Bush kept own notes of arms-for-hostages affair. Christmas Eve clemency scuttles six-year investigation.

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    "I am pretty sure that the reporter had reviewed a variety of documents" - I am afraid your trust in journalistic integrity is misplaced.
    – sds
    Dec 6, 2017 at 16:17
  • I wrote the original post from memory. As I sourced it I did discover a few errors.. Secretary of Defense, not state.. 6 pardon's not 5. As for the rest it is common knowledge and not be confused with supposition.
    – user27618
    Dec 6, 2017 at 16:33
  • I can't quite understand your basic thesis. From what I remember, most if not all of the people who would vote for Bush would have approved of aid to the Contras.
    – jamesqf
    Dec 6, 2017 at 18:35
  • I don't have a thesis. Nor an agenda. Just recounting the facts and interpreting the question.
    – user27618
    Dec 6, 2017 at 19:02
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    And regardless of whether people "agreed with it or not", It was against the law, and their was a special prosecutor working for two years to get to the bottom of it. The administration can't sell military equipment to generate a slush fund, so they can create their own budget unapproved by congress. The special prosecutor as well as the presidential commission missed the most basic facts that bush would later freely admit.
    – user27618
    Dec 6, 2017 at 19:22

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