Key figure in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair dies
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Eugene Hasenfus, who played a key role in unraveling the Iran-Contra affair in 1986, has died.
Hasenfus died on Nov. 26 in Menominee, Michigan, after a nine-year battle with cancer, according to his obituary from the Hansen-Onion-Martell Funeral Home in Marinette, Wisconsin. He was 84.
Hasenfus was born Jan. 22, 1941, in Marinette. He served with the Marines in Vietnam and continued a private career in aviation before he became a key figure in the Cold War's Iran-Contra scandal in 1986.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the CIA to support the anti-communist right-wing guerrilla force known as the Contras who were working against the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan government. Congress cut off all military assistance to the Contras in 1984.
Months before the cutoff, top officials in Reagan's administration ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network to the Contras. The operation's day-to-day activities were handled by National Security Council aide Oliver North.
The secrecy of North's network unraveled after one of its planes with Hasenfus on board was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986. Hasenfus was captured by the leftist Nicaraguan government and charged with several crimes, including terrorism.
He was convicted in Nicaragua of charges related to his role in delivering arms to the Contras and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega pardoned Hasenfus a month later and he returned to his home in northern Wisconsin.