What was the Iran-Contra Affair?
The Iran-Contra Affair was an agreement between the United States and Islamic Republic of Iran, having two separate initiatives in mind, the U.S. sold covert arms to Iran to provide support to the Nicaragua Rebels and placating moderates within the Iranian government in order to bring back seven hostages held there by pro Iranian groups in Lebanon and influence Iranian foreign policy towards a more western approach. Congress enacted a legislation known as the Boland Amendments which banned the Defense Dept., the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or any other government agency from providing military aid to the contras from Dec., 1983, to Sept., 1985. Even with these amendments put into motion the Reagan administration used the National Security Council to provide private and foreign funds to the contras. This operation was put under the command of Oliver North who later used Robert Mcfarlane to secretly ship arms to Iran even when there was a U.S. trade and arms embargo in place.When the scandal was revealed to the public Ronald Reagan along with other government officials they denied all of this until they were forced to confess and having many officials fired such as Oliver North.