Iran-Contra Affair

Iran-Contra Affair, 1980s U.S. political scandal in which the National Security Council (NSC) became involved in secret weapons transactions and other activities that either were prohibited by the U.S. Congress or violated the stated public policy of the government.

Background

The scandal related to U.S. policy toward two countries that had undergone revolutionary regime change in 1979, Iran and Nicaragua. In Iran, Islamic fundamentalists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had adopted a militantly anti-U.S. posture after toppling the pro-Western government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In Nicaragua, the leftist Sandinistas had taken power from Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The administration of U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan feared that the presence of the Marxist-oriented Sandinista government would offer a launchpad for the spread of communist insurgency elsewhere in Central America, and, in fact, the Sandinistas had begun to provide support for leftist insurgents in El Salvador. In the early 1980s the U.S. government provided military aid and financial support for the warring Nicaraguan opponents of the Sandinista regime, the contras, whom Reagan referred to as “the moral equal” of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As American popular support for such efforts withered, at least partly because of fears of entanglement in a Vietnam War-like conflict, the Democratic-led Congress passed legislation in 1984 (the second Boland Amendment) that banned both direct and indirect U.S. military aid to the contras, much to the dissatisfaction of Reagan. In the meantime, U.S. efforts to engage with moderate elements in Iran were complicated when Shiʿite terrorists in Lebanon loyal to Iran took a number of American citizens hostage.

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Ronald Reagan: The Iran-Contra Affair of Ronald Reagan

Arms for hostages and the Enterprise

In early 1985 the head of the NSC, Robert C. McFarlane, undertook the sale of antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Iran in the mistaken belief that such a sale would secure the release of the American hostages. This and several subsequent weapons sales to Iran in 1986 directly contradicted the U.S. government’s publicly stated policy of refusing either to bargain with terrorists or to aid Iran in its war with Iraq, a policy based on the belief that Iran was a sponsor of international terrorism. A portion of the $48 million that Iran had paid for the arms was diverted by the NSC and given to the contras. The monetary transfers were undertaken by NSC staff member Lieut. Col. Oliver North with the approval of McFarlane’s successor as head of the NSC, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter. North and his associates also raised private funds for the contras, and the transfer of arms and other matériel to the counterrevolutionaries was conducted by an organization known as the Enterprise, which was overseen by retired Air Force major general Richard Secord. Aid for the contras was also solicited and obtained from third-party countries, which laid the groundwork for potential quid pro quo requests from them. These activities violated the Boland Amendment.

The Tower Commission

The NSC’s illegal activities came to light in November 1986 after a plane conveying supplies to the contras was shot down and its pilot taken prisoner by the Sandinistas. An immediate public uproar ensued. On November 26 Reagan created a Special Review Board to investigate the affair. It was made up of a pair of well-respected former senators, Edmund Muskie (who had also served as secretary of state) and John Tower, along with Brent Scowcroft, a longtime adviser on national security. Taking its name from Tower, the board became known as the Tower Commission. It was given 60 days to submit its findings, but, because it had no subpoena power, a number of individuals who were central to the investigation refused to appear before the commission, most notably North and Poindexter. The Tower Commission Report, released on February 26, 1987, was not the indictment of executive complicity that some left-liberal publications trumpeted it to be, but it did confirm the NSC’s arms-for-hostages policy, and it rebuked the Reagan administration for its “management style.”

Iran-Contra hearings

Congress responded to the affair in January 1987 by forming the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition (chaired by Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye, with Republican Sen. Warren Rudman as the vice-chairman) and the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (chaired by Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, with Republican Rep. Dick Cheney as the vice-chairman). From early May to early August 1987 the committees held televised joint hearings that became known as the Iran-Contra hearings. Reagan waived executive privilege and ordered all relevant government agencies to provide documents and witnesses. In addition to North and Poindexter (who had received partial immunity, compelling their testimony), the more than 500 witnesses who testified or were interviewed included McFarlane, Secretary of State George Shultz, Attorney General Edwin Meese, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, former presidential chief of staff Donald Regan, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams. Former CIA director William Casey, who would have been a key witness, did not testify. Afflicted with a brain tumour, he had resigned on January 29, 1987, and died on May 6. Significantly, relevant documents had been shredded by NSC staff members.

The Iran-Contra committees’ majority report was signed by all of the committees’ Democrats and three Republican senators. It found that the NSC had covertly raised money for the contras, established an organization for supplying them with arms, attempted to ransom hostages, transferred arms to Iran, and diverted to the contras money from the sales of those arms—all without presidential authorization. The report also emphasized that these actions had violated the fundamental constitutional requirement that government actions be funded by monies subject to congressional oversight. Moreover, it found that senior officials within the Reagan administration had knowingly misled Congress.

The minority report, signed by the committees’ remaining Republicans, credited Reagan for “acknowledging his mistakes and reacting precisely to correct what went wrong” and concluded:

The bottom line, however, is that the mistakes of the Iran-Contra Affair were just that—mistakes in judgment, and nothing more. There was no constitutional crisis, no systematic disrespect for “the rule of law,” no grand conspiracy, and no Administration-wide dishonesty or cover-up. In fact, the evidence will not support any of the more hysterical conclusions the Committees’ Report tries to reach.

Prosecutions and legacy

In the wake of the report issued in August 1993 by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, who had been appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair, Poindexter and North were prosecuted. Poindexter was convicted of making false statements to Congress, conspiring to obstruct official inquiries and proceedings, obstruction of Congress, and destruction and removal of records; however, on appeal, his conviction was reversed by virtue of his immunized testimony. North was convicted of aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress, accepting an illegal gratuity, and altering and destroying documents. On appeal, his conviction was reversed, and charges against him were later dropped on the grounds that witnesses at his trial had been tainted by North’s testimony on television before the Iran-Contra committees. Weinberger was also prosecuted, but in December 1992 then president George H.W. Bush pardoned him and five others involved in the affair, including McFarlane and Abrams. As a result of the scandal, Reagan’s public image was tarnished, and the United States suffered a serious, though temporary, loss of credibility as an opponent of terrorism.