Tower Commission

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Commissioned on November 26, 1986 by American President Ronald Reagan, the Tower Commission was in response to the Iran Contra scandal. Taking effect on December 1, Reagan appointed Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.

Previous to the commission's findings Reagan had declined any knowledge of the scandal when it had occurred. However, the Tower Commission uncovered undeniable evidence of his involvement in the scandal. Nevertheless, Reagan survived the scandal.^{[citation needed]}

Oliver North, John Poindexter, Caspar Weinberger, and others were also implicated.

A major result of the Tower Commission was the consensus that Reagan should have listened to his National Security Advisor more, thereby placing more power in the hands of that chair. The National Security Advisor was to be seen as a "honest broker" and not someone who would use their position to further their political agenda.

[edit] For Additional Reading

See Chapter 5, "The Politics of Scandal: The Tower Commission and Iran-Contra," in Kenneth Kitts, *Presidential Commissions and National Security (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2006).