Once Ridiculed, the October Surprise Deal Is Now Confirmed

As with JFK's assassination, new evidence leads to the collapse of an old cover story

President Ronald Reagan and CIA director William Casey (Credit: Levan Ramishvili/Flickr)

The notion that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign forged a secret agreement with the government of Iran to delay the release of American hostages until Reagan won the White House was once dismissed by national publications like Newsweek and The New Republic as a “conspiracy theory.” Two congressional committees claimed the story was factually baseless.

Now, with the revelations of a former Reagan aide, Ben Barnes, published in a front page story in the New York Times, “One’s Man Sabotaging Carter’s Re-Election,” the so-called October Surprise deal has gained acceptance as historical fact.

There’s a lesson here for the JFK assassination story.