The Iran-Contra Scandal

President Ronald Reagan sought to eradicate Communism around the world. During his administration, he aided the Contras, a revolutionary group in Nicaragua, to overthrow the quasi-Communist regime in the country. Halfway across the globe, military troops in Lebanon had been taken hostage by a Muslim terrorist group. How the two situations would join together and form the Iran-Contra affair (or scandal) would shock the American public as the secrecy within the White House became exposed.

Iran and Iraq had been at war and in 1985, Iran secretly requested to buy weapons from the United States. Coincidentally, the terrorist group which was holding the Americans hostage was funded by Iran. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane was interested in making an exchange of sorts with Iran: weapons for the release of the prisoners. However, due to an embargo with Iran, the sale of weapons to that country would go against that. President Reagan believed that it was his duty as the president and leader of the US to "bring those Americans home", and so he was growing desperate with the situation. In the end, he decided to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for the hostages.

Reagan had been seen as an honest, trustworthy president up till that point. He denied contact with Iran when the events first appeared in the press. However, once word got out about the shipments of weapons to Iran, Reagan insisted that the sales had not been part of an arms-for-hostages. The fact that he sent weapons to Iran, which was considered an enemy to the US, violated his policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Polls showed that only 14% of Americans believed Reagan when he stated that the weapons were not in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Furthermore, when Attorney General Edwin Meese was investigating this case, he found that only $12 million of the $30 million in sales had actually reached the federal government. The rest of the money was found to have gone towards funding the Contras in Nicaragua, as confessed by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. In his testimony, North admitted that the funds had been redirected with full knowledge by National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter, who was forced to resign. What was uncertain was whether or not the president knew about the events, which was the source of further probing.

The investigation was conducted for the next eight years, with fourteen people charged with "cover-up" crimes. In the end, Reagan's image suffered but not enough to rebound. He left office in 1989 with the highest approval rating of any president since FDR and later, President Bush issued pardons for those involved with the affair.

Sources: http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-02/news/mn-571_1_hostage-crisis
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reagan-iran/