A legacy of uncertainty : the Constitution and the Iran-Contra Affair

The objective of this dissertation was to provide a constitutional explanation of the Iran-Contra Affair. Bibliographic research was conducted to examine the guidance provided by the constitutional system on questions involving the allocation of foreign policy and national security power, and the manner in which the system was interpreted and implemented by Congress and the Reagan Administration. The research revealed that the constitutional system provided no clear answers to the questions at the heart of the Iran-Contra Affair, instead practically forcing the executive and legislative branches into conflict and even stalemate. The research also revealed that in carrying out this conflict. Congress and the Reagan Administration consistently failed to take advantage of the power each had at its disposal, and instead resorted to a dubious, constitutionally suspect course of action. It was concluded that the Iran-Contra Affair was the product of an overly ambiguous, uncertain, even contradictory constitutional system, as misused by Congress and the Reagan Administration, in a political environment created by an ambivalent American public.