The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era

This book uses the vacuum-cleaner approach: it sucks up every possible lead, every hint of connection, to construct a picture of the Iran-contra affair as part of a coordinated global system of covert action beyond the law. The authors are right in criticizing the Tower Commission for seeing the affair as primarily the outcome of Reagan's management style. They are right in noting that covert action often leads to abuses. But they weaken their own case through their failure to differentiate between strong evidence and weak.