Editing Blowback (intelligence) (section)

===Nicaragua and Iran-Contra===
In the 1980s, the blowback was a central theme in the legal and political debates about the efficacy of the [[Reagan Doctrine]], which advocated public ''and'' secret support of anti-Communist counter-revolutionaries.  For example, by secretly funding the secret war of the militarily-defeated, right-wing [[Contras]] against the left-wing [[Sandinista]] government of [[Nicaragua]], which led to the [[Iran–Contra Affair]], wherein the Reagan Administration sold American weapons to Iran (a state unfriendly to the US) to arm the Contras with Warsaw Pact weapons, and their consequent drug-dealing in American cities.<ref>Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose (1994) "Smugglers linked to [[Iran-Contra Affair|Contra]] arms deals," [[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph plc.]]</ref> Moreover, in the case of [[Nicaragua v. United States]], the [[International Court of Justice]] ruled against the United States secret military attacks against Sandinista Nicaragua, because the countries were not formally at war.

Reagan Doctrine advocates, including [[The Heritage Foundation]], argued that support for anti-Communists would topple Communist [[regime|régimes]] without retaliatory consequences to the United States and help win the global [[Cold War]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}