"The administration in disarray--foreign policy in disarray--cover-up--Who knew what when?" George Bush noted in his personal diary on November 25, 1986, the day that Iran-Contra exploded in the United States and became a major part of our national psyche. Several years later, the controversy surrounding the cover-up, and what George Bush knew and when, sustains the Iran-Contra affair as a contemporary political issue. This reader provides the most important tools for understanding this complex episodethe actual top-secret documents generated by the foreign policy decisions and covert operations in Central America and Iran, the arms-for-hostage swaps, the Contra war, the quid pro quos, the orchestrated official deception, and the Bush pardons that make up one of the most important political scandals since Watergate.