The Iran-Contra Affair refers to a political scandal in the United States during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, in which senior officials of the executive branch facilitated the covert sale of arms to iran - then under an official U.S. arms embargo - and diverted proceeds from those sales to fund the contras, rebels opposing the sandinista government in nicaragua. The Nicaraguan funding violated restrictions Congress had placed on military aid to the Contras through the boland-amendment. The affair became public in November 1986 and led to congressional investigations, an independent counsel investigation, and the indictment or conviction of several administration officials. The characterization of the affair - whether as a rogue operation by mid-level officials, a policy approved at the highest levels, or a constitutional crisis - remains a matter of dispute; see iran-contra-affair-viewpoint sections below.

The basic factual sequence of the affair is not seriously disputed: the National Security Council staff, principally Lieutenant Colonel oliver-north, coordinated arms sales to Iran beginning in 1985, ostensibly to secure the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, and redirected a portion of the proceeds to the Contras. What remains contested is the scope of President Reagan's knowledge and authorization, the degree to which Vice President George H W Bush was informed, and whether the operation constituted an impeachable offense or a more limited failure of oversight. The Tower Commission, congressional committees, and independent counsel lawrence-walsh each reached somewhat different conclusions on these questions. For background on the arms embargo, the Boland Amendment, and the Contra war, see Iran-Contra Affair - History.

There is broad agreement among historians and the official investigative bodies that examined the affair - the Tower Commission, the congressional Iran-Contra committees, and the Office of Independent Counsel - that arms were sold to Iran and proceeds were diverted to the Contras in violation of congressional restrictions, and that this was concealed from Congress. This narrow factual consensus is described at iran-contra-affair-factual-record-consensus. No comparable consensus exists regarding President Reagan's personal knowledge or culpability, which remains a matter of viewpoint; see below.

• iran-contra-affair-rogue-operation-viewpoint - Holds that the diversion of funds was primarily the work of North and a small circle of NSC and CIA officials acting without full authorization from President Reagan, who knew of the Iran arms sales but not the Contra diversion.
• iran-contra-affair-presidential-knowledge-viewpoint - Holds that Reagan either knew of or should be held responsible for the diversion given the broader policy environment he created, and that the “rogue operation” framing understates presidential accountability.
• iran-contra-affair-constitutional-crisis-viewpoint - Holds that the affair represented a serious breach of the constitutional separation of powers and warranted impeachment proceedings or more severe consequences than resulted.
• iran-contra-affair-overstated-scandal-viewpoint - Holds that the affair, while improper, was driven by defensible foreign-policy goals (countering Soviet-aligned communism in Central America, freeing hostages) and that the scandal's political and legal fallout was disproportionate to the underlying conduct.
• iran-contra-affair-pardons-vindication-viewpoint - Holds that the pardons issued by President George H W Bush in 1992 to several convicted officials, including former Secretary of Defense caspar-weinberger, validated concerns that the prosecutions were politically motivated.

• iran-contra-affair-pardons-controversy - The December 1992 pardons issued by President George H.W. Bush to six Iran-Contra defendants, including Weinberger shortly before his trial, drew accusations that the pardons obstructed independent counsel Lawrence Walsh's ongoing investigation.
• iran-contra-affair-north-conviction-overturned-controversy - Oliver North's 1989 convictions were vacated on appeal in 1990 on the grounds that his immunized congressional testimony may have influenced witnesses at trial, prompting dispute over whether justice was served.

• Iran-Contra Affair - History
• iran-contra-affair-reagan-knowledge-debate
• iran-contra-affair-knowledge-viewpoint-debate
• iran-contra-affair-factual-record-consensus
• iran-contra-affair-pardons-controversy
• Ronald Reagan
• United States of America - 20th Century History
• boland-amendment

1. The Tower Commission, *Report of the President's Special Review Board* (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987).
2. United States Congress, *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair* (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987).
3. Lawrence E. Walsh, *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters* (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1993).
4. Theodore Draper, *A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs* (New York: Hill and Wang, 1991).
5. Malcolm Byrne, *Iran-Contra: Reagan's Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power* (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014).