The Tower Commission was commissioned on November 26, 1986 by American President Ronald Reagan in response to the Iran Contra scandal. Taking effect on December 1, Reagan appointed Republican and former Senator John Tower of Texas, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.
The commission's report "held Reagan accountable for a lax managerial style and aloofness from policy detail."
Oliver North, John Poindexter, Caspar Weinberger, and others were also implicated.
A major result of the Tower Commission was the consensus that Reagan should have listened to his National Security Advisor more, thereby placing more power in the hands of that chair. The National Security Advisor was to be seen as an "honest broker" and not someone who would use his position to further his political agenda.
Summarised, the main findings showed that "Using the Contras as a front, and against international law, and US law, weapons were sold, using Israel as intermediaries, to Iran, during the brutal Iran-Iraq war. The US was also supplying weapons to Iraq, including ingredients for nerve gas, mustard gas and other chemical weapons."
Read more about Tower Commission: Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words tower and/or commission:
“All over France, in every city there stand cathedrals like this one, triumphant monuments of the past. They tower over the homes of our people like mighty guardians, keeping alive the invincible faith of the Christian. Every arch, every column, every statue is a carved leaf out of our history, a book in stone, glorifying the spirit of France.”
—Sonya Levien (1895–1960)
“Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don’t want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (b. 1939)