Robert C. McFarlane, Top Reagan Aide in Iran-Contra Affair, Dies at 84

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

46% : Mr. McFarlane, in interviews and in his memoirs, depicted the president as sometimes confused or vague about the details of what was happening with Iran and the contras.
44% : Mr. McFarlane had been a fervent advocate of repairing relations with Iran -- so much so that after he left the White House he made a secret visit there in 1987, traveling incognito, at President Reagan's request.
41% : The system was never put in place, but it was said to have forced Moscow to vastly accelerate military spending to the detriment of the Soviet Union, hastening its collapse.
36% : Both parts of the scheme were illegal; Congress had imposed an arms embargo against Iran and prohibited American aid to the contras.
26% : Mr. McFarlane pleaded guilty in 1988 to charges of withholding information from Congress in its investigation of the affair, in which the Reagan administration sold arms covertly to Iran beginning in 1985 in exchange for the freedom of Western hostages in Lebanon.

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