The National Security Decision

With Iranian success on the battlefield, the United States increased its support of the Iraqi government, President Ronald Reagan decided that the United States "could not afford to allow Iraq to lose the war to Iran", and that the United States "would do whatever was necessary to prevent Iraq from losing". Reagan formalized this policy by issuing a National Security Decision Directive to this effect in June 1982, and removed Iraq from the list of countries "supporting terrorism" and sold weapons such as howitzers to Iraq via Jordan.