Iran Contra Affair

Iran came to America asking for weapons from the US to use to fight Iraq, however the US had an embargo on selling arms to Iran, as they were seen as terrorists. At the same time, Reagan was trying to get back American hostages being held by Iran terrorists. Reagan broke the policy to not trade arms in order to free the captives. However, when news of this broke, Reagan originally denied all of it and then later only denied that it was an arms-for-hostage deal. Additionally, it was later discovered that not all of the money the Iranians were paying for the weapons was reaching the government and that the funds had been being used to give arms to those fighting against communism (contras). Many of the people involved were fired, however Reagan's popularity bounced back pretty quickly.