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88
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Eugene Hasenfus.md
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---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
title: Eugene Hasenfus
aliases:
- Eugene Hasenfus
- Gene Hasenfus
- Eugene H. Hasenfus
created: 2024-04-25
updated: 2026-05-01
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- Person
- CIA
- IranContra
- Contras
- Nicaragua
- Enterprise
- AirAmerica
- Contra_War
- Dark_Alliance_Investigation
summary: "Former Air America cargo handler who survived the shootdown of a CIA-contracted C-123K over Nicaragua, exposing the Ilopango Contra supply operation and CIA involvement."
- DarkAllianceInvestigation
- CIA
- 1986
born: 1941-01-22
died: 2025-11-26
location: "Marinette, Wisconsin"
summary: "Cargo kicker and sole survivor of the October 5, 1986 shootdown of a Contra resupply C-123K over Nicaragua, whose captured statements named Max Gomez and Ramon Medina and exposed the Ilopango operation."
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Air America]]"
start: 1966
end: 1974-02
role: "packer and kicker; the CIA's 1986 briefing record lists him first with the proprietary Air Asia in 1966, then Air America, resigning in February 1974"
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Corporate Air Services]]"
start: 1986
end: 1986-10-05
role: "cargo handler ('kicker') on Enterprise resupply flights; Hasenfus said his paychecks came from Corporate Air Services, which shared Southern Air Transport's Miami address"
fn: 10
- type: participant_in
with: "[[The Enterprise (Iran-Contra)]]"
start: 1986
end: 1986-10-05
role: "crew of the C-123K shot down over southern Nicaragua"
fn: 6
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Nicaragua]]"
reverse: true
start: 1986-10-05
end: 1986-12
role: "tried in Nicaragua and sentenced to 30 years; pardoned and released in December 1986"
fn: 1
---
Eugene Hasenfus was a former [[Central Intelligence Agency]] [[Air America]] cargo handler who survived the shootdown of a Contra supply plane over [[Nicaragua]] on October 5, 1986, becoming living proof that the CIA and [[White House]] had been lying about U.S. involvement with the [[Contras]].[^1]
### The Shootdown
Eugene Hasenfus was born on January 22, 1941 in Marinette, [[Wisconsin]], and died on November 26, 2025 in [[Menominee, Michigan]], at age 84 after a nine-year battle with cancer, according to an [[Associated Press]] report citing his funeral home obituary.[^1] He was the only one of four men aboard a Fairchild C-123K cargo plane to survive its shootdown over southern [[Nicaragua]] on October 5, 1986.
Hasenfus was the only crew member carrying a parachute when [[Sandinistas]] shot down [[Southern Air Transport]]'s C-123K cargo plane - the same aircraft formerly used by [[Barry Seal]] in CIA-DEA operations. The Sandinistas found Hasenfus's crewmates carried "all sorts of pocket litter that identified and connected them back to [[Ilopango Airbase|Ilopango]]," including cards of [[NHAO]] employees and flight logs, said [[Alan Fiers|Alan Fiers Jr.]], the CIA officer then in charge of the Contra program.[^1]
### Air America and the CIA's record of him
### Exposing the Operation
His brother William Hasenfus of [[Oshkosh]], Wisconsin told reporters on October 7, 1986 that Eugene was a former Marine who during the [[Vietnam]] War flew on [[Air America]] aircraft in Vietnam, [[Laos]], [[Cambodia]] and [[Thailand]], responsible for weighing and balancing equipment, and that he had gone to work for a [[Florida]] air freight firm in the summer of 1985 after working in construction.[^2] A CIA memorandum for the record of a [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] briefing on October 10, 1986 states that Hasenfus worked in 1966 as a packer and kicker for the CIA proprietary [[Air Asia]], later worked for Air America, and resigned in February 1974; it states that the pilot William J. Cooper also worked for Air Asia, and that the co-pilot [[Wallace Sawyer]] later worked for [[Southern Air Transport]].[^3]
Hasenfus told the press he was working for the CIA - at a time when the agency was officially not involved with the Contras. He identified his CIA handlers as "Ramon Medina," the alias of [[Luis Posada Carriles]], and "Max Gomez," the alias of [[Felix Rodriguez]]. Hasenfus also exposed the secret Contra air base at Ilopango. The revelation created enormous political problems for the Reagan administration. "Aside from the legal problems Hasenfus presented for the administration, he was an even bigger political headache - living proof that the CIA and the White House had been lying about U.S. involvement with the Contras," threatening to derail the $100 million Contra aid bill then in its final stages of passage.[^1]
### The shootdown
### Cover-Up
On October 5, 1986 a [[Sandinista]] soldier fired a shoulder-launched missile at the C-123K, which was flying arms to the [[Contras]]. Cooper, the pilot, Sawyer, and a third crew member were killed; Hasenfus, the cargo handler or "kicker," survived and was captured.[^4][^5] The independent counsel's report states that the shootdown "settled irrevocably the question of CIA assumption of Enterprise assets," because with a $100 million contra aid bill awaiting final approval the agency could not associate itself with the operation.[^6] [[Felix Rodriguez]], in [[Miami]], reached the Office of the Vice President by telephone, and the notes of Colonel [[Samuel Watson]] of October 6 record "C-123 = Ollie's" and list the crew, with the kicker's name garbled.[^7]
[[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] administration officials scrambled to contain the damage, sending false press advisories, booking spokesmen on talk shows to spread the official line, and sending CIA officials to give false testimony to congressional committees. The disinformation campaign, combined with reluctance by congressional intelligence committees to investigate, worked long enough to get the $100 million aid bill through Congress.[^1]
The identity of the airframe is recorded differently by different sources. A DEA spokesman in Miami, Jack Hood, told *The New York Times* that "we believe that the C-123 that was shot down in Nicaragua was the same plane that was used in the Barry Seal operation," and the CIA Inspector General's Mena case file refers to Seal's C-123K as N4410F.[^8][^9] The CIA's October 10, 1986 briefing record says the plane "was sold as U.S. military surplus in 1983" and that its purchaser had not been determined.[^3] *The [[The Christian Science Monitor]]* reported that news reports said it was bought six months earlier by a California company, [[Four Aces Inc.]], and leased to Southern Air Transport, which said it did not own it and had serviced it; the independent counsel's report states that Southern Air Transport received $1,935,596 for contra-related services including the purchase of a C-123.[^10][^11] The Inspector General's December 24, 1996 review found no document indicating a CIA link with N4410F and none showing that Southern Air Transport owned or leased a C-123K.[^9] See [[Barry Seal]] for the Seal records.
### Press conference and the names Gomez and Medina
On October 9, 1986 Hasenfus said in [[Managua]] that he had made ten flights supplying the contras, four from [[Aguacate]] air base in [[Honduras]] and six from [[Ilopango Airbase]] in El Salvador, that 24 to 26 "company people" assisted in El Salvador including "two Cuban nationalized Americans that worked for the CIA," and that he was to be paid $3,000 a month plus housing. He named "Max Gomez" and "Ramon Medina" as overseers of housing, transportation, refueling and flight plans.[^10][^7] Gomez was Felix Rodriguez and Medina was [[Luis Posada Carriles]].[^6] The independent counsel's chapter on Clair George records that Hasenfus had publicly identified Gomez, and that [[Clair George]] was charged with falsely denying before Congress that he knew Gomez's true identity.[^12] [[Gary Webb]] wrote in *Dark Alliance* that [[Alan Fiers]], then in charge of the CIA's Contra program, said the [[Sandinistas]] found among the crew's effects "all sorts of pocket litter that identified and connected them back to Ilopango," including cards of [[NHAO]] employees and flight logs.[^13]
### The CIA and State statements
On October 10, 1986 the CIA and the [[State Department]] briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for three hours. Assistant Secretary of State [[Elliott Abrams]] stated that "there is no U.S. Government involvement" in the supply system; Clair George and Fiers gave a statement denying a CIA connection with the C-123 or its crew; and the briefing record states that "no one knows why Mr. Hasenfus has claimed that he worked for CIA," that "he might have been exposed to pressure by the Sandinistas," or that he "might have been hired under 'false-flag' circumstances."[^3] The same day Fiers briefed House intelligence committee staff and described Rodriguez as a twenty-year Agency veteran who retired in 1978.[^14] In *Dark Alliance* Webb wrote that administration officials sent false press advisories, booked spokesmen on talk shows and sent CIA officials to give false testimony to congressional committees, and that this delayed congressional investigation long enough to pass the $100 million aid bill.[^13]
### Trial and release
Hasenfus was tried in Nicaragua and sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges related to delivering arms to the contras; he was pardoned a month later by President [[Daniel Ortega]].[^1] The independent counsel found that [[Oliver North]]'s notebooks of October 8 to 15, 1986 record conversations with [[Richard Secord]] and others about getting a lawyer for Hasenfus and about death benefits and funerals for the dead pilots; the Enterprise's manager [[Edward de Garay]] and North's friend [[William Haskell]] went to [[Panama]] to find a lawyer, without success, and Secord and [[Albert Hakim]] had [[Willard Zucker]] hire a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] lawyer who could not reach Nicaraguan officials. After the shootdown Secord told [[Rafael Quintero]] to set aside a $75,000 check and a $50,000 check to establish a defense fund; Quintero endorsed the first with a forged signature and sent both to a [[Bahamas]] bank. In December 1986 the Enterprise's air-support manager John Piowaty carried $6,000 in cash from Southern Air Transport in Miami to Hasenfus's wife Sally, two months of his salary, and the Enterprise arranged $3,000 in cash for Sawyer's burial at a funeral home in [[Magnolia, Arkansas]].[^6]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 18: "We bust our ass and the government's involved"
[^1]: Associated Press, "Key figure in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair dies," December 2025 (citing the Hansen-Onion-Martell Funeral Home obituary), as printed by the *Tribune Chronicle*. https://www.tribtoday.com/obituaries/2025/12/key-figure-in-the-1980s-iran-contra-affair-dies/
[^2]: Alfonso Chardy, "Brother says captured kin once worked on CIA airline," *The Philadelphia Inquirer*, October 8, 1986 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP91-00587R000200880028-6). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp91-00587r000200880028-6
[^3]: CIA Office of Congressional Affairs, memorandum for the record, "Briefing on the C-123 Crash in Nicaragua: Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10 October," OCA 86-3575, October 10, 1986, paragraphs 7, 9, 14 and 16. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-00788192
[^4]: Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (Lawrence E. Walsh, August 4, 1993), chapter 29, "Donald P. Gregg" (shootdown of October 5, 1986; three crewmen killed). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_29.htm
[^5]: Walsh, chapter 29 (Watson notes of October 6, 1986, ALU 025478) and chapter 8.
[^6]: Walsh, chapter 8, "The Enterprise and Its Finances" (dismantling the operation; Hasenfus defense fund; Piowaty cash delivery; Magnolia, Arkansas funeral home). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htm
[^7]: Walsh, chapter 29 (State cable of October 9, 1986, ALW 0026774; Watson notes of October 6, 1986). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_29.htm
[^8]: Richard Halloran, "Plane Downed in Nicaragua Was in a U.S. Drug 'Sting,'" *The New York Times*, October 10, 1986 (CIA Reading Room, CIA-RDP90-00965R000402690007-7). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90-00965r000402690007-7
[^9]: CIA Inspector General, memorandum for the record, "C-123K - Review of Additional Records," December 24, 1996, case Mena 96-0036-IG (CIA Reading Room 0001289850). https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-0001289850
[^10]: Warren Richey and George D. Moffett III, "Credibility crisis over downed plane," *The Christian Science Monitor*, October 10, 1986, https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1010/ashot.html, and Marshall Ingwerson, "Contra aid shadow dance," December 15, 1986, https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1215/atrans.html (Corporate Air Services paychecks).
[^11]: Walsh, chapter 8 (Southern Air Transport; $1,935,596).
[^12]: Walsh, chapter 17, "United States v. Clair E. George." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_17.htm
[^13]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, chapter 18, "We bust our ass and the government's involved." Sole source for the Fiers quotation and the cover-up passage as carried here.
[^14]: CIA Office of Congressional Affairs, memorandum for the record, "HPSCI Staff Briefing on Crash of C-123 in Nicaragua," OCA 86-3489, October 16, 1986, paragraph 12. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp90b01390r000400550034-9

93
10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Robert McFarlane.md
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@ -3,31 +3,100 @@ title: Robert McFarlane
aliases:
- Robert McFarlane
- Bud McFarlane
- Robert C. McFarlane
- Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane
- Robert Carl McFarlane
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-10-05
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
- KeyFigure
- Person
- Politician
- 1980s
- ContraWar
- NationalSecurityAdviser
- IranContra
summary: "Ronald Reagan's national security adviser who in January 1985 advised FDN leader Adolfo Calero that it might be time to consider cutting losses on the Contra project."
- ContraWar
- NationalSecurityCouncil
- MarineCorps
- 1980s
summary: "Reagan's national security adviser from October 1983 to December 1985 who delegated Contra support and Iran arms contacts to Oliver North, pleaded guilty in 1988 to four misdemeanors and was pardoned in 1992."
born: 1937-07-12
died: 2022-05-12
location: "Washington, D.C., USA"
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[National Security Council]]"
start: 1983-10
end: 1985-12-04
role: "Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (national security adviser)"
fn: 1
- type: appointed
with: "[[Ronald Reagan]]"
reverse: true
start: 1983-10
role: "named national security adviser after serving as deputy to William Clark"
fn: 1
- type: reported_to
with: "[[Oliver North]]"
reverse: true
start: 1984
end: 1985-12
role: "North, McFarlane's deputy director of political-military affairs, ran the Contra support effort McFarlane delegated to him"
fn: 1
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Iran-Contra Affair]]"
start: 1984
end: 1986-11
role: "organized third-country Contra funding, an early advocate of the Iran arms sales, and led the May 1986 mission to Tehran"
fn: 6
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Lawrence Walsh]]"
reverse: true
start: 1988-03-11
end: 1992-12-24
role: "pleaded guilty March 11, 1988 to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress; sentenced March 3, 1989; pardoned December 24, 1992"
fn: 8
---
Robert "Bud" McFarlane served as President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s national security adviser during the period when the [[Contras]] reached their lowest ebb, both on the battlefield and in the battle for U.S. public opinion during the winter of 1984–85.[^1]
Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane was a [[United States Naval Academy|Naval Academy]] graduate and Marine Corps officer who served as President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s national security adviser from October 1983 to December 1985. Before that he had been deputy to his predecessor [[William Clark]], counselor to Secretary of State [[Alexander Haig]], a staff member of the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|Senate Armed Services Committee]], and military aide to [[Henry Kissinger]] when Kissinger was national security adviser to [[Richard Nixon]]. He commanded the first U.S. Marine battery to land in the Republic of [[Vietnam]], completed two tours, received a Bronze Star, and resigned from the [[United States Marine Corps]] as a lieutenant colonel.[^1] [[Lawrence Walsh]]'s Final Report records that under Reagan the [[National Security Council]] staff "at times became operational, taking on primary responsibility for the execution of the [[Iran]] and contra covert operations," and that McFarlane "did not shrink from the operational tasks that were of high personal interest to the President," delegating some of them to his deputy director of political-military affairs, [[Oliver North]].[^1]
### Advice to FDN Leadership
### Contra funding, 1984
In January 1985, as the [[FDN]] spent its last batch of [[Central Intelligence Agency]] money and Contra forces retreated from Nicaragua into Honduras, McFarlane told FDN leader [[Adolfo Calero]] that perhaps it was time to start thinking about "cutting both our losses and theirs." The administration's prestige was riding on the Contras; Reagan had compared them to the founding fathers of the American Revolution during a speech. The FDN's only ray of hope was to withdraw from battle and lie low until spring, when Congress agreed to let the administration make one more pitch for funding.[^1]
On January 6, 1984 the National Security Planning Group approved "immediate efforts to obtain additional funding of $10-15 million from foreign or domestic sources," the current $24 million appropriation to the [[Contras]] being enough only through June; McFarlane was responsible for carrying it out with North and the NSC staff member [[Constantine Menges]]. On February 21, 1984 he warned Reagan that the program would have to be curtailed by May or June unless new money was found.[^1][^2] In late March 1984 [[William J. Casey]] sent him a memorandum urging that Israel and other countries be asked for weapons and money, and in April McFarlane sent the NSC staff member [[Howard Teicher]] to ask the Israelis; the mission was unsuccessful, and when Secretary of State [[George Shultz]] learned of it from the embassy in [[Israel]] McFarlane told him Teicher had gone "on his own hook."[^1]
### Context
In May 1984 he met the Saudi ambassador, Prince [[Bandar bin Sultan]], and explained Reagan's concern about the gap in Contra financing; days later Bandar volunteered $1 million a month. McFarlane obtained from North a Contra bank account number and gave it to Bandar. He later testified that he told Reagan and Vice President [[George H.W. Bush]] within a day or two, and that when he put the first contribution to the President on a card in the daily briefing book with the words that no one else knew of it, Reagan answered, in writing or orally, "Good, let's just make sure it stays that way."[^1] At the June 25, 1984 National Security Planning Group meeting, where Shultz quoted Chief of Staff [[James Baker]] as calling third-country solicitations an "impeachable offense," McFarlane said: "I propose that there be no authority for anyone to seek third party support for the anti-Sandinistas [contras] until we have the information we need, and I certainly hope none of this discussion will be made public in any way." Walsh noted that none of the participants raised the fact that the Saudi solicitation had already occurred. Attorney General [[William French Smith]] ruled the next day that third-country funding was permissible so long as no U.S. funds were used and no repayment was expected.[^1] The [[Boland Amendment]] of October 1984 then barred funds of any agency "involved in intelligence activities" from supporting [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] military or paramilitary operations "directly or indirectly."[^3]
McFarlane's pessimistic counsel came after twelve months of consecutive public relations disasters for the Contra project, including the CIA's seeding of [[Nicaragua|Nicaraguan]] harbors with mines, a bombing at [[Eden Pastora|Eden Pastora's]] jungle headquarters, the public exposure of a CIA-printed terrorism manual, and the passage of a stringent [[Boland Amendment]] in October 1984 that cut off all U.S. government funding for the Contras.[^1]
McFarlane testified that in spring and summer of 1984 Reagan let it be known "very clearly" that the Contras were to be kept together "body and soul," and that he discussed the directive with his deputy [[Donald Fortier]] and with North; he said he told North that no one could "solicit, encourage, coerce, or broker the transmission of money" to the Contras. Walsh found that he assigned the work to North and that North kept him generally informed. A September 2, 1984 North request to approach a private donor for a "civilian" helicopter drew McFarlane's marginal note "I don't think this is legal."[^1] Walsh's conclusion on the arrangement was that Reagan "put McFarlane in a difficult position," and that McFarlane "put his subordinates in an equally difficult position by delegating to them the operational tasks."[^1]
The writer [[Gary Webb]] reported that in January 1985, as the [[FDN]] spent its last batch of [[Central Intelligence Agency]] money and Contra forces retreated from Nicaragua into [[Honduras]], McFarlane told the FDN leader [[Adolfo Calero]] it might be time to think about "cutting both our losses and theirs," after twelve months that had included the mining of Nicaraguan harbors, a bombing at [[Eden Pastora]]'s jungle headquarters and exposure of a CIA-printed terrorism manual.[^4] In February 1985 the Saudis agreed to give an additional $24 million, according to the New York Times editors' chronology of the Committees' report; Walsh puts the Saudi total at $32 million for the period, with [[Taiwan]] adding $2 million.[^1][^5]
### Contra memoranda and the 1985 letters to Congress
McFarlane received North's written reports throughout 1985. Walsh lists six "problem documents" that the NSC general counsel [[Paul Thompson]] pulled from the NSC's System IV file in August 1985 after Representatives [[Michael Barnes]] and [[Lee Hamilton]] asked about press reports of North's activity: a December 4, 1984 memorandum on Chinese SA-7 missiles shipped under false [[Guatemala|Guatemalan]] end-user certificates and on a British security expert for Calero; a February 6, 1985 memorandum proposing that the Nicaraguan merchant ship Monimbo be seized or sunk; a March 5, 1985 memorandum on compensating Guatemala; a March 16, 1985 "Fallback Plan" in which McFarlane marked an additional $25 to $30 million from the Saudis "doubtful"; an April 11, 1985 memorandum reporting that Contra strength had grown from 9,500 to more than 16,000; and a May 31, 1985 memorandum on the delivery of lethal supplies.[^1] On October 30, 1985 North's "Reconnaissance Overflights" memorandum, which told McFarlane that the intelligence would be air-dropped with two Honduran recoilless rifles to sink arms carriers, was marked by [[John Poindexter]] "President approved."[^1]
On September 5, 1985 McFarlane wrote Hamilton that "at no time did I or any member of the National Security Council staff violate the letter or spirit of the law" and that "we did not solicit funds or other support for military or paramilitary activities either from Americans or third parties"; his September 12 letter to Barnes and an October 7 reply to Hamilton's questions said North had not "used his influence to facilitate the movement of supplies." On October 17, 1985 he showed Barnes a stack of NSC documents that could not leave the White House; Barnes did not take up the offer, and McFarlane did not answer his request of October 29 for the documents.[^1] North's secretary [[Fawn Hall]] later altered five of the six documents in November 1986.[^1] Asked at North's 1989 trial whether he lied to Congress, McFarlane said: "At the time I didn't believe it but at the time I was wrong and I admit that," and explained that "you don't lie. You put your own interpretation on what the truth is."[^1]
### The Iran initiative, 1985 to 1986
McFarlane and Casey were, in Walsh's words, "the chief advocates of weapons sales to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages." In spring 1985 McFarlane sent the NSC consultant [[Michael Ledeen]] to Israel; Ledeen testified they had "an understanding that neither of us would keep anything in writing." Ledeen met Prime Minister [[Shimon Peres]] on May 3, 1985. On June 17, 1985 McFarlane circulated a draft National Security Decision Directive recommending the sale of military equipment to Iran; Shultz and Secretary of Defense [[Caspar Weinberger]] opposed it and Casey endorsed it. The Final Report's overall conclusions state that the Iran operations were carried out with the knowledge of Reagan, Bush, Shultz, Weinberger, Casey, McFarlane and Poindexter, of whom only Weinberger and Shultz dissented.[^6][^1][^5]
On July 3, 1985 [[David Kimche]], director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, met McFarlane in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]]. McFarlane's recollection was that there was no request for arms and no linkage to the hostages, though Kimche mentioned that arms might be raised later, and that Reagan then approved a political dialogue. On August 2, 1985 Kimche asked, "What if Israel were to deliver the TOWs, not the United States, would that be different?" McFarlane testified that Reagan "decided that he would approve Israel's delivery of ... TOW missiles, and that if Israel came to us to purchase replacements they could do that." Israel shipped 96 TOW missiles on August 20, 1985 and 408 on September 14, 1985, the day the Reverend Benjamin Weir was released.[^1][^5] Walsh found that McFarlane "stood alone" in insisting that Reagan had approved the earliest sales and the replenishment, and that "it was only after contemporary notes recording the events in question were discovered late in Independent Counsel's investigation" (notes of [[Charles Hill]], Weinberger and Chief of Staff [[Donald Regan]] obtained in 1990, 1991 and 1992) that much of what he said could be verified.[^1] Weinberger's notes of a December 7, 1985 White House meeting record his objection that the U.S. embargo made such a sale illegal even through Israel.[^1]
McFarlane resigned on December 4, 1985; Reagan told reporters he would be "calling on you from time to time" and wrote that he trusted McFarlane would "still permit me to call on you." On December 7 he attended the White House residence meeting on Iran, and on December 8 he flew to London with North to meet [[Manucher Ghorbanifar]], Kimche and [[Yaacov Nimrodi]].[^1][^5] He stayed in contact with North and Poindexter on the NSC's PROFs computer system from a terminal at his home. On May 25, 1986 he arrived in [[Tehran]] with North and others carrying HAWK spare parts, and, according to Walsh, a cake; the party left on May 28 without a hostage release. North's contemporaneous note records that they were "heavily escorted by Rev[olutionary] Guard types who are also physically and technically surveilling our rooms." After the trip McFarlane and North briefed Reagan, Bush and Regan; Walsh records that McFarlane "was concerned about North's revelation regarding the Iran/contra diversion, but said he shared the information with no one," and recommended to Poindexter that North be returned to the Marine Corps.[^1]
### Exposure, plea and pardon
After the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa published the story on November 3, 1986, McFarlane publicly called the reports "fanciful" on November 6. On November 8, 1986 he sent North a PROFs message with the subject "Audit trail": "I hope to daylights that someone has been purging the [intelligence] files on this episode."[^1] In February 1987 he was taken to a hospital after an overdose of Valium the day before he was due to testify to the [[Tower Commission]]; Walsh records that he attempted suicide in February 1987 and that the Independent Counsel weighed it when deciding on a plea.[^1][^7]
On March 11, 1988 McFarlane pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors of unlawfully withholding information from Congress: his September 5, 1985 reply to Hamilton, his September 12, 1985 reply to Barnes, his October 7, 1985 response to Hamilton's questions, and his December 8, 1986 testimony to the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs|House Foreign Affairs Committee]] that third-country financing was "beyond my ken." He agreed to cooperate, was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Count One of the March 1988 indictment of Poindexter, North, [[Richard Secord]] and [[Albert Hakim]], and on March 3, 1989 was sentenced to two years' probation, 200 hours of community service and a $20,000 fine. The Independent Counsel gave up felony charges of conspiracy, false statements and obstruction in the plea, and wrote that the prosecution of North and Poindexter "would be seriously hampered by the jury's realization that McFarlane, their superior, had been permitted to plead guilty to crimes less severe than those for which his subordinates were on trial."[^1][^8] After he testified in 1991 that his trial testimony had been "colored" by North's immunized testimony, the Independent Counsel consented to the dismissal of the remaining charges against North.[^9] President George H.W. Bush pardoned McFarlane on December 24, 1992, with Caspar Weinberger, [[Elliott Abrams]], [[Duane Clarridge]], [[Clair George]] and [[Alan Fiers]].[^8]
McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at a hospital in Lansing, Michigan, aged 84; his son Scott McFarlane said the cause was an exacerbation of a lung condition.[^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it"
[^1]: Walsh, Lawrence E. *Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters*, vol. I (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels, August 4, 1993), ch. 1, "United States v. Robert C. McFarlane" (citing McFarlane, North trial testimony, March 10 to 16, 1989; Select Committees testimony, May 11 to 13, 1987; SSCI testimony, December 7, 1986; NSPG minutes, June 25, 1984; Hill, Weinberger and Regan notes). https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_01.htm
[^2]: Brinkley, Joel, and Stephen Engelberg, eds. *Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, with the Minority Views*, abridged edition (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1988), "Iran-Contra Chronology," entry for February 21, 1984. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
[^3]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Part I, "The Funding Cut-Off," quoting the Boland Amendment of October 1984. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm
[^4]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998, ch. 10, "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it."
[^5]: Brinkley and Engelberg, eds., *Report of the Congressional Committees*, "Iran-Contra Chronology," entries for February 1985, May 3, June 17, July to September 1985, December 4 to 8, 1985. https://archive.org/details/reportofcongres00unit
[^6]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, Executive Summary, "Overall Conclusions." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/execsum.htm
[^7]: "Robert 'Bud' McFarlane, Reagan national security adviser, dies at 84." Associated Press, May 13, 2022. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/13/nation/robert-bud-mcfarlane-reagan-national-security-adviser-dies-84
[^8]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, "Summary of Prosecutions" and ch. 1, section "The Guilty Plea." https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm
[^9]: Walsh, *Final Report*, vol. I, ch. 2, "United States v. Oliver L. North," section on the dismissal of September 16, 1991. https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_02.htm