The Tower Commission issues its report, February 26th, 1987
After three months, in which it interviewed eighty witnesses, including the president, the commission delivers its three-hundred-page report. It lays the blame for Iran-Contra on Ronald Reagan, demanding that he “take responsibility” for the illegality. The report also blames his staff for shielding him from a number of key issues involving the sale of arms to Iran. “Yes, the president made mistakes,” the commission’s chairman, John Tower, tells the press. “I think that’s very plain English.”