Hasenfus: Iran-Contra and the Man Who Broke the Scandal

Abstract

While Ronald Reagan and Oliver North became the faces of the Iran-Contra affair, one man transitioned from a position on the front page of every newspaper in America to an afterthought of a government scandal. Eugene Hasenfus, the sole American survivor of the plane crash that broke the scandal to the world, possessed a very important, and to this day forgotten, role in the entire operation. Hasenfus, a veteran, hails from a small Wisconsin town. He needed work and used his military experience to gain a position flying supply missions with Southern Air Transport over Nicaragua. For his role in the covert mission, Hasenfus was arrested and given a thirty-year prison sentence in Nicaragua but was later pardoned. His testimony was used during the congressional investigation into the case.