American military man with 30 years in the Air Force, a 1955 West Point graduate, and one of the pivotal figures in the Iran-contra scandal in the late 80s. Secord joined the Air Force following his graduation from West Point and rose quickly in the ranks, making brigadier general by age 43.
The son of a truck driver, with two siblings, he served in several active fronts for the CIA. In 1961 he volunteered for Vietnam where he earned four medals in 1962. He was sent to Africa in November 1964 and then back to the U.S. to teach in 1965. In August 1966, he was sent back to Vietnam and Thailand for the CIA. He came back to the U.S. in 1972 and earned his Masters degree and became a Colonel, at which time he became involved in military arms sales. In September 1975, he went to Iran where he conducted arms sales until July 1978.
In 1981, while supervising defense policy at the Pentagon, he was implicated in illegal arms deals with the Middle East. In August 1981, he was promoted but was implicated in some dealings and suspended for three months in early 1982. Though cleared of those charges, he retired from the military in 1983. The following year, Oliver North enlisted him in “Iran-contra.”
He retired in May 1983 but ended up going back to arms sales. Finally, charges were brought against him due to the Iranian arms sales with hearings that began 5/05/1987 in Washington D.C. He was accused, after his testimony, of running a business that supplied illegal arms to Iran and funneled the profits back to the Nicaraguan contras. He endured a 3-1/2-day televised grilling by a select congressional committee in 1987. In 1989, he pleaded guilty to making a false statement to Congress, and in return, 11 other felony charges against him were dropped and he received two years’ probation. In the fall of 1992, he decided to settle the score and wrote a book, “Honored and Betrayed: Irangate, Covert Affairs, and the Secret War in Laos.”
The ordeal took a toll on his family, especially his wife Jo Ann, a former Air Force secretary, whom he had married in 1961. They have twins, John and Laura, and a daughter, Julia. In February and in June of 1989, Secord was arrested for drunk driving, though acquitted the second time.
Secord filed a claim in Switzerland in a bid to regain $10 million deposited in several Swiss accounts during his dealings with Iran, though the Justice Department regards these assets as stolen property, and froze them.
Link to Wikipedia biography