Robert Mcfarlane Essay

In 1979, an Iranian government supported terrorist group overtook the US embassy. They captured 52 people. In an order to obtain the release of the American hostages being held in Lebanon, The Reagan Administration secretly began to sell weapons to Iran. This went against an American ban on arms sales to Iran, which had been in affect since the embassy had been seized. (Corrigan 40-41) These deals were arranged through Robert McFarlane, who was the head of the National Security Council. One of McFarlane’s main staff members was Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. McFarlane gave North the responsibility of handling the details of the deal and told him not to send anything to Iran until the hostages had been released. North wanted to keep the deal going so he allowed Israel to ship the weapons before any hostages had been released. McFarlane criticized North, but North kept his job. McFarlane was replaced with Rear Admiral John M. Poindexter. North tried to convince Poindexter to continue the arms-for-hostage deal with Iran. North realized that there was a massive amount of money being made in this
Oliver North and Poindexter, while accused and under intense investigation were ultimately convicted. (http://icah.infobaselearning.com/pdocument.aspx?ID=110538&search=iran+contra+north) Lt. Colonel Oliver North was criminally charged, prosecuted and convicted but later the convictions were overturned upon appeal due to the fact that he was granted immunity. North should have been convicted of his crimes and faced his time in jail for what he did. North burned legal documents containing crucial evidence for his trail, he lied to Congress about using the money from the Iran weapons sales to help the Contras, and by helping the Contra, he violated the Boland