The Tower Commission was a United States presidential commission established on December 1, 1986 by president Ronald Reagan in response to the Iran–Contra affair (in which senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo). The commission, composed of former Senator John Tower of Texas, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, was tasked with reviewing the proper role of the National Security Council staff in national security operations generally, and in the arms transfers to Iran specifically.