Robert "Bud" McFarlane served as national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985. During that time the administration faced the deadly attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut; the abduction of the CIA's Beirut station chief, William Buckley; the bombing of the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut; the hijacking of TWA 847; and the commandeering of the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea.