Historic Congressional Committee Hearings and Reports

Brown University's Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs website gathers supplemental documents, timelines, audio and video, as well as a discussion of issues such as lying to Congress and accountability of elected officials.

Excerpted from the article entitled "Iran-Contra Scandal",  in  America in the World, 1776 to the Present: A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History:

The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in the 1980s that grew out of two separate covert operations that implicated a number of White House officials, including President Ronald Reagan in potentially illegal acts. Unlike most political scandals, Iran-Contra was not primarily about financial corruption or self interested electoral gain, but was rooted in differing conceptions of the use of power in the foreign policy arena.

The Iran-Contra Scandal concerned the sale of armaments to moderate opponents of Ayatollah Khomeini by elements of the United States government.  The sales were devised to have two outcomes.  The first is to assist with the release of hostages held in Lebanon.  The second was to create a funding source for arms purchases by the Contras fighting the Communist government in Nicaragua.  At the time, the United States government was barred by an act of Congress from providing arms to the Contras.

When details of this arrangement became public, both the House of Representatives and the Senate began investigations into what had happened.  Below are links to the digital copies of their findings.  These are distinct from the work of the Tower Commission, a commission appointed by the President to investigate the same matter.

Appendix A contains source documents.  Appendix B contains depositions.  Appendix C is a chronology of events.  Appendix D contains the testimonial chronology.

• Report

• Appendix A, Volume 1

• Appendix A, Volume 2

• Appendix B, Volume 1 (Airline Proprietary Project Officer to Arcos)

• Appendix B, Volume 2 (Armitage to Brown)

• Appendix B, Volume 3 (Byrne to C/CATF)

• Appendix B, Volume 4 (Channell to CIA Identity "A")

• Appendix B, Volume 5 (CIA Officer to Cohen)

• Appendix B, Volume 6 (Collier to Conrad)

• Appendix B, Volume 7 (Cooper to Crawford, Iain)

• Appendix B, Volume 8 (Crawford, Susan to Deputy Chief "DC")

• Appendix B, Volume 9 (Duemiling to Earl)

• Appendix B, Volume 10 (Farber to Fuller)

• Appendix B, Volume 11 (Furmark to Glanz)

• Appendix B, Volume 12 (George to Guillen)

• Appendix B, Volume 13 (Albert Hakim)

• Appendix B, Volume 14 (Hall to Kiszynski)

• Appendix B, Volume 15 (Koch to Ledeen)

• Appendix B, Volume 16 (Leiwant to McLaughlin)

• Appendix B, Volume 17 (McMahon to Mason)

• Appendix B, Volume 18 (Meese to Miller, Johnathan)

• Appendix B, Volume 19 (Richard R. Miller)

• Appendix B, Volume 20 (Motley to Poindexter)

• Appendix B, Volume 21 (Posey to Ransom)

• Appendix B, Volume 22 (Raymond to Reynolds)

• Appendix B, Volume 23 (Richard to Rudd)

• Appendix B, Volume 24 (Rugg to Secord)

• Appendix B, Volume 25 (Shackley to Singlaub)

• Appendix B, Volume 26 (Slease to Tillman)

• Appendix B, Volume 27 (Thurman to Zink)

• Appendix C

• Appendix D, Volume 1

• Appendix D, Volume 2

• Appendix D, Volume 3

• Appendix D, Volume 4

• Appendix D, Volume 5

Excerpted from the article entitled "Iran-Contra Scandal",  in  America in the World, 1776 to the Present: A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History:

The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in the 1980s that grew out of two separate covert operations that implicated a number of White House officials, including President Ronald Reagan in potentially illegal acts. Unlike most political scandals, Iran-Contra was not primarily about financial corruption or self interested electoral gain, but was rooted in differing conceptions of the use of power in the foreign policy arena.