Secret GOP Plan to Fuck Over the Iranian Hostages

Ben Barnes is 84, but in 1980 he was the youngest speaker of the Texas  youngest speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and on his way to becoming lieutenant governor. He was also a close ally of former Texas Gov. John Connolly. At Connolly’s request, Barnes took on a very special role in 1980—travel the Middle East and convince Iran to not release U.S. hostages, so that Ronald Reagan could beat Jimmy Carter.

As The New York Times reports, Barnes has sat on this story for the last 43 years. However, with President Carter currently in hospice care, Barnes has decided to reveal the traitorous plot, and the role he played in sabotaging Carter’s campaign.

“History needs to know that this happened,” said Mr. Barnes. “I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we’ve got to get it down some way.”

The plot was simple enough. Connally and Barnes traveled “to one Middle Eastern capital after another” over the summer of 1980, as U.S. hostages were being held in Tehran. On every one of those stops, they passed along the same message for the new leadership in Iran: Don’t make a deal with Carter. Wait for Reagan. He’ll give you a much better deal.

What this plan callously disregarded is the fact that every day of captivity put the lives and health of the hostages in Iran at risk. In addition, the military planned and attempted to execute a rescue operation in which eight U.S. service members died and another four were injured. Prolonging the crisis created a risk every day to the lives of those in Iran, and to members of the U.S. military. It also created ongoing harm to U.S. standing abroad and to national security in general.

For his role in “torpedoing” Carter’s chance at reelection, Connolly had hoped to be rewarded with the job of Secretary of State. He was not. The Iranian government announced the release of the hostages after the election. Jimmy Carter was there to welcome them home on what should have been the first day of his second term, but was instead his last day in office.

This wasn't the first time treasonous GOP politicians imperiled national security and hurt Americans.  Doris Kearns revealed in her LBJ biography that Nixon and Kissinger spiked the negotiations for the end of the Vietnam war to help Nixon's presidential campaign.  Kissinger promised the North Vietnamese a better deal if they waited for Nixon to win the election. They did, and Nixon was elected...as thousands of Americans in Vietnam continued to die in that war.