The significance of the actions of Casey, Poindexter, McFarlane, and North was staggering. Unable to win congressional support for funding and arming the Contras, they had carried it out anyway, violating the Constitution and the law. In the process, they repeatedly lied to Congress, the courts, and the American public. A decade after Nixon’s aides broke the law to try to win a presidential election, Reagan’s aides had broken the law to carry out a shadow foreign policy.
