Ask Oliver North, and he’d probably tell you today’s problems between America and Iran are trivial compared to what he had to deal with. Back then Iranian terrorists were raiding U.S. embassies and taking hostages, including the CIA station chief. Iran was under a strict arms embargo since 1979, but Reagan and his staff needed to do something to reach out to moderates in Iran, and to try securing the release of hostages held by Iranian militant groups in Lebanon. So when Iran approached U.S. officials through the backchannel of Israel to propose a deal, Reagan and company jumped on it.

On this day, January 17, in 1986, President Reagan signed a secret intelligence finding authorizing the provision of arms to “moderate elements within and outside the Government of Iran,” with the goals of strengthening those elements, gaining intelligence and “furthering the release of the American hostages held in Beirut.” The finding was retroactive – the U.S. had already sent more than 500 missiles through Israel to Iran and secured the release of one hostage.

The weapons were sold to Iran, not given away, which pleased both sides just fine: Iran was getting high-grade weapons otherwise unobtainable, while the U.S. was making huge profits from every sale, even if more than five hundred missiles bought only two hostages (which Iran subsequently made up by kidnapping several more.) Since the sales were secret and the money unaccounted for, a member of Reagan’s National Security  Council decided to transfer the bulk of it to Nicaraguan anti-communist Contras. Eventually, an intercepted shipment in Nicaragua and an exposé by a Lebanese magazine brought the sales to light, causing a major political scandal.