When did the Irangate scandal start? The official answer is late 1985. The Tower Commission report, a slovenly document which does not even boast an index, starts its story in that year. Col Oliver North, the man who, according to the received version, thought up the idea of selling arms to secure the release of American hostages in Beirut, tells us: 'My own operational involvement began ... on the afternoon of 17 November 1985.' The BBC's Panorama journalist Gavin Hewitt, who is not an admirer of the Colonel, seems to back him up at least in this important detail. 'Oliver North,' he assures us, 'hadn't been party initially to the arms deals with the Iranians.' So there were 'arms deals with the Iranians' even before North was involved. Or were there? A closer reading of North's apologia gets us a little closer to the truth.

LRB 19 December 1991 | PDF Download