Timeline of the Iran-Contra Affair

The events leading to the Reagan administrations illegal deals to sell weapons to Iran in order to fund the
Contras in Nicaragua unfolded over several years. The Contras were a paramilitary group fighting against the
fairly elected leftist Sandinista government. The U.S had imposed an embargo against Iran after Islamic
fundamentalists had taken American hostages in Tehran in 1979. The ensuing scandal engulfed the Reagan
administration.
July
1979

Sandinista guerillas overthrow a right-wing dictatorship in Nicaragua

November
1979

Islamic militants take 52 Americans hostage inside the U.S. embassy in Iran
U.S. passes an embargo against selling weapons to Iran

January
1981

President Ronald Reagan assumes office; Iranian hostages released the same day

December
1981

Reagan signs an executive order to authorize a covert C.I.A. operation to support the
Contras, a right-wing rebel group who seek to overthrow the leftist Sandinista
government of Nicaragua

August
1982

U.S. Marines land in Lebanon to stabilize the government following an Israeli invasion to
oust the Palestinian Liberation Organization headquartered in Lebanon

1982 1984

Evidence of U.S. efforts to overthrow the Sandinistas leaks out in the press, including
C.I.A. sabotage manuals
Congress passes Boland Amendments, barring the use of federal money to overthrow
the Nicaraguan government

1983

Hezbollah, a political paramilitary group backed by Iran, begins taking hostages in

Lebanon to protest the imprisonment by American-backed governments of their allies in
other parts of the Middle East

November
1984

Sandinista candidates win national elections in Nicaragua

February
1985

Reagan approves National Security Advisor Robert McFarlanes idea to negotiate with
Iran for the release of Hezbollahs hostages

September
1985

Reagan administration officials secretly negotiate to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for
help securing the release of American hostages in Lebanon

April
1986

Oliver North, now National Security Adviser, proposes diverting $12 million from the
sale of weapons to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua

May
1986

McFarlane, now a private consultant to the White House, and North secretly fly to Iran
with spare parts for missiles

November
1986

The Attorney General discloses the Iran-Contra connection

Reagan announces the firing of North and the resignation of other officials involved in the
scandal

1987 1992

Congress holds a series of investigations, brings down indictments and hears appeals
In December 1992, President George H. W. Bush pardons six people involved in the
scandal, including McFarlane

Source: American Social history Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2010.