Robert McFarlane
E515229
Robert McFarlane was a U.S. Marine Corps officer and national security official best known for serving in the Reagan administration and playing a central role in the Iran-Contra affair.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Robert McFarlane canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5378857 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert McFarlane Context triple: [United States Deputy National Security Advisor, positionHeldBy, Robert McFarlane]
-
A.
Richard Lochhead
Richard Lochhead is a Scottish National Party politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament and held several ministerial roles in the Scottish Government.
-
B.
Alasdair Walker
Alasdair Walker is a cinematographer best known for his work on the romantic comedy film "The Decoy Bride."
-
C.
Bob MacKinnon
Bob MacKinnon was an American basketball coach known for his work in the ABA and NBA, including leading the Spirits of St. Louis.
-
D.
Alasdair Steedman
Alasdair Steedman was a senior Royal Air Force officer who rose to high command, including leadership of the RAF’s Fighter Command.
-
E.
Alasdair Roberts
Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician and singer-songwriter known for his intricate guitar work, traditional balladry, and releases on independent labels such as Drag City.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert McFarlane Target entity description: Robert McFarlane was a U.S. Marine Corps officer and national security official best known for serving in the Reagan administration and playing a central role in the Iran-Contra affair.
-
A.
Richard Lochhead
Richard Lochhead is a Scottish National Party politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament and held several ministerial roles in the Scottish Government.
-
B.
Alasdair Walker
Alasdair Walker is a cinematographer best known for his work on the romantic comedy film "The Decoy Bride."
-
C.
Bob MacKinnon
Bob MacKinnon was an American basketball coach known for his work in the ABA and NBA, including leading the Spirits of St. Louis.
-
D.
Alasdair Steedman
Alasdair Steedman was a senior Royal Air Force officer who rose to high command, including leadership of the RAF’s Fighter Command.
-
E.
Alasdair Roberts
Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician and singer-songwriter known for his intricate guitar work, traditional balladry, and releases on independent labels such as Drag City.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Marine Corps officer
ⓘ
human ⓘ national security official ⓘ political advisor ⓘ |
| advisorTo | Ronald Reagan NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| areaOfInfluence |
Cold War strategy
ⓘ
United States foreign policy ⓘ |
| charge | withholding information from Congress ⓘ |
| conflict | Vietnam War ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States Naval Academy ⓘ |
| employer |
Executive Office of the President of the United States
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States Marine Corps NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| familyName | McFarlane NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
foreign policy
ⓘ
national security ⓘ |
| givenName | Robert ⓘ |
| legalCase | Iran–Contra prosecutions NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| memberOfPoliticalParty |
Republican Party
ⓘ
surface form:
Republican Party (United States)
|
| militaryBranch | United States Marine Corps ⓘ |
| militaryRank | lieutenant colonel ⓘ |
| notableEvent | Iran–Contra affair NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
central role in Iran–Contra affair
ⓘ
service as National Security Advisor during Reagan administration ⓘ |
| notableRole |
architect of Reagan administration Middle East policy
ⓘ
key figure in Iran–Contra cover operations ⓘ |
| notableWork | role in Iran–Contra affair ⓘ |
| occupation |
consultant
ⓘ
government official ⓘ military officer ⓘ |
| officeContested | none ⓘ |
| participantIn |
Reagan administration national security policy
ⓘ
covert arms sales to Iran ⓘ support for Nicaraguan Contras ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Counselor to the Department of State
ⓘ
Deputy National Security Advisor ⓘ United States National Security Advisor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| workedUnder | Ronald Reagan NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| workLocation | Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Robert McFarlane Description of subject: Robert McFarlane was a U.S. Marine Corps officer and national security official best known for serving in the Reagan administration and playing a central role in the Iran-Contra affair.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.