First Secret Arms Shipment to Iran Initiates Iran-Contra Scandal

Israel sends 96 American-made BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles to Iran through arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, marking the first covert arms shipment in what becomes the Iran-Contra scandal. Hours after receiving the weapons, the Islamic fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad releases one American hostage held in Lebanon, Reverend Benjamin Weir, establishing the arms-for-hostages pattern.

The operation follows months of secret planning by National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, who discussed the initiative with President Reagan in July 1985 after Israeli officials suggested that arms sales could facilitate both political dialogue with Iran and the release of American hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon. On September 14, 1985, an additional 408 missiles are sent to Iran, resulting in the release of another hostage.

The covert arms sales directly violate the U.S. arms embargo against Iran, established after the 1979 hostage crisis. On December 5, 1985, President Reagan signs a finding retroactively authorizing the operation, attempting to provide legal cover for actions already taken. By the scandal’s exposure in November 1986, the U.S. will have sold 1,500 missiles to Iran for $30 million, with proceeds illegally diverted to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

The Iran-Contra affair represents a systematic violation of congressional prohibitions and constitutional principles, with senior Reagan administration officials conducting an illegal shadow foreign policy. The scandal exposes the dangers of unchecked executive power, demonstrating how national security secrecy can be weaponized to circumvent democratic oversight and legal constraints.