---
category: "Iran-Contra"
tags:
  - Person
  - IranContra
  - CIA
  - Military
summary: "After the Iran-Contra Affair scandal broke, Tower was appointed to head a presidential commission of inquiry into the affair."
born: 1925-09-29
died: 1991-04-05
location: "Houston, Texas"
---

[[John Tower]] was a [[United States|U.S.]] Senator and a prominent figure with connections to [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] circles. He served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.[^1]

[[John Tower|Tower]] was introduced to [[Rafi]], then counterterrorism adviser to [[Menachem Begin]], in 1978. Eitan sought to build a network within the [[United States|United States]] to obtain information about Palestinian terrorists. [[John Tower|Tower]] and his senior aide, [[Robert McFarlane]], developed a close relationship with Eitan, and much information reaching the Senate Armed Services Committee found its way to Eitan's desk.[^1]

[[John Tower|Tower]] was involved in the secret negotiations concerning the [[Iran-Contra Affair]]. He was present at a meeting in [[Santiago]], [[Chile]], in late 1986 with [[Carlos Cardoen]], [[Robert Gates]], and [[Pieter Van Der Westhuizen|Gen. Pieter Van Der Westhuizen]] (South African Military Intelligence), where the [[United States|U.S.]] reaffirmed its intention to maintain arms channels to [[Iraq]].[^1]

[[Robert Maxwell]] claimed that when [[George H.W. Bush]] was head of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] in 1976, [[John Tower|Tower]] approached Maxwell to connect him and Bush secretly with various [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] intelligence people. Maxwell delivered, and [[John Tower|Tower]] became his friend for life, later being appointed a director of Maxwell's [[Macmillan]] publishing company in the [[United States|U.S.]].[^1]

[[John Tower|Tower]] approached [[Robert Maxwell|Maxwell]] to market the [[PROMIS]] software on behalf of the [[Robert Gates|CIA]] group. He also personally gave [[Yitzhak Shamir]] permission to use [[United States|U.S.]] funds as a guarantee for Maxwell's publishing empire.[^1]

After the [[Iran-Contra Affair]] scandal broke, [[John Tower|Tower]] was appointed to head a presidential commission of inquiry into the affair. The [[Tower Commission]]'s conclusions were largely seen as a cover-up, focusing only on a minor part of the sales and making no mention of the ongoing original arms channel. [[George H.W. Bush]] later nominated [[John Tower|Tower]] for defense secretary, but he was not confirmed by [[United States|Congress]].[^1]

[[John Tower|Tower]] died in a plane crash in [[Georgia]] in early 1991.[^1]

### Footnotes
[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.