Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane served in various foreign policy positions in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. As national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1993 to 1995, McFarlane became entwined in events that came to be known as the Iran-Contra scandal. In 1988 he pleaded guilty to four counts of withholding information from Congress.

McFarlane was born on July 12, 1937 in Texas. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps. McFarlane was drawn to the foreign policy arena, serving as a military assistant to national security advisor Henry Kissinger from 1973 to 1975. He remained in this position when Brent Scowcroft succeeded Kissinger in the Ford Administration. McFarlane retired from the Marine Corps in 1979 and joined the State Department as an undersecretary when Ronald Reagan became president in 1981. The following year he moved to the White House to become deputy...