A political scandal of the late 1980s, the Iran-Contra affair involved the sale of weapons via intermediaries to Iran, with some of the profits being channeled to Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries known as the Contras. Over 41 days in the summer of 1987, televised hearings of a joint Congressional committee investigated Iran-Contra and heard testimonies from 28 witnesses, including Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Reagan Chief of Staff Donald Regan, Secretary of State George Schultz, Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, and Admiral John Poindexter.
Source: Brown University. “Understanding the Iran-Contra Affairs.” Accessed June 28, 2011. http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/thehearings.php
From the guide to the Iran-Contra Hearings Videotapes 2000-66., 1987, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
