This photograph shows a meeting of Ronald Reagan and the Contra leaders (from left to right) Alfonso Rebelo, Arturo Cruz and Adolfo Calero; Oliver North (right in the background) was cropped out in the official photograph.

This is the story of scandal which has perhaps been unique in the history of democracy but at least in the history of the United States.

The iran-contra affair was an american political scandal of 1985 and 1986, in which high-ranking members in the administration of President Ronald Reagan arranged for the secret sales of arms to Iran in direct violation of existing United States laws. The profits from the $30 million in arms sales were channeled to the Nicaraguan right-wing "Contra" guerrillas to supply arms for use against the leftist Sandinista government. This, too, was in direct violation of U.S. policy. The chief negotiator of these deals was Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a military aide to the National Security Council. North reported his activities initially to National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane, the council's head, and subsequently to his successor, Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter. The sale of arms to Iran was initiated at the suggestion of the Israeli government with the dual goal of bettering relations with Iran and of obtaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorists. North was instrumental in setting up a covert network for providing support to the Contras, with its own ship, airplanes, airfield, and secret bank accounts.

  In November 1986 a Lebanese magazine disclosed that the United States government had negotiated an arms deal with Iran. Later that month Attorney General Edwin Meese verified that millions of dollars from these sales had been sent to the Contras in direct violation of the Boland Amendment, which Congress had passed in 1984 and which prohibited direct or indirect U.S. military aid to them.