Secret Deals.

In the fall of 1986 two seemingly disparate and secret arms deals were revealed to the nation, and during the next six years the American public would become transfixed by even more revelations that would become known as the Iran-Contra scandal. In a series of highly publicized hearings, special investigations, and prosecutions of high Reagan and Bush administration officials, a clandestine government operating within the official one was revealed to have taken charge of U.S. foreign policy. The Iran-Contra scandal threatened to result in impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States and to cause the utter collapse of public confidence in the integrity of government. Caught flatfooted in late 1986, the Reagan administration sought to investigate itself through the Department of Justice and succeeded in making matters worse by making it seem as though it was engaging in a cover-up...