NORTH, OLIVER 1943-

Marine officer, national securitycouncil staffperson

Iran-Contra

Of all the individuals charged in the Iran-Contra scandal none gained more notoriety or prominence than Oliver North, a career marine officer who had been detailed as a staff assistant to the National Security Council (NSC), ironically against his wishes, at the beginning of the first Reagan administration. Fearing at first that this assignment would harm his career, North came to see his work in the NSC as an opportunity to become a central figure in the crusade against communism revived by Reagan. He envisaged a once-in-a-lifetime chance to help set his nation's course straight again in the wake of what he perceived as the erosion of the American creed after Vietnam and Watergate. A former Catholic altar boy, North epitomized the patriot of the "my country right or wrong" variety in opposition to the flabby liberalism he believed responsible for America's decay. As such he was lionized by conservatives, and the image he projected at the IranContra hearings catapulted him into folk-hero status. Yet he was subsequently charged with felonies and came also to symbolize the dangers of ideological zealotry wedded to the considerable power of the presidency. Because he was more than willing to put his—and the president's—personal crusade ahead of the U.S. Constitution, his name became synonymous to many with power's legendary propensity to corrupt. Owing to the legal finesse of his lawyer, however, coupled with his popular support, and the unwillingness of liberals and conservatives either to crucify or to martyr him, North was able to have all charges dropped and to become a wealthy and potent force in the new Christian right.

Background

North was a product of middle-class, small-town America, spending his formative years in the village of Philmont, New York, just south of Albany in the Hudson Valley. The son of a World War II veteran and a strict, religious mother, North has been described as an exceptionally dutiful son and straight-arrow youngster. After spending a year at a state teachers college in 1962, the young North enrolled in a special summer program run by the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, after which he applied to and was accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy. Six months into his first, or "plebe," year he was seriously injured in an automobile accident which very nearly derailed his career plans. Placed on probation during his recuperative period, North demonstrated the drive, discipline, and single-mindedness to repair his injuries that would later characterize his work in the NSC. Against great odds North was readmitted to Annapolis where, once back on track for his commission, he drove himself beyond the demanding and stressful pace expected of all midshipmen. "Ollie was all blood, sweat and tears," said one of his classmates, in no small measure because the Naval Academy class of 1968, and especially those opting to become marines, fully expected to go to war.

Vietnam

Graduates of the Naval Academy during the Vietnam War years had more occasion, perhaps, to view themselves as a separate breed than had earlier classes, quite apart from the military traditions and rituals designed for that purpose. As their contemporaries at civilian colleges were taking to the streets to condemn the war and oppose the draft, the professional military underwent a dramatic plunge in prestige unprecedented in American history, and the military found its values under siege. Like many who responded by forming tighter bonds with their comrades-in-arms, North tended to tar all war pro-test with the brush of disloyalty and anti-Americanism. Feeling unjustly scapegoated for the war, bridling that his patriotism was equated with jingoism, North viewed the antiwar movement as deeply disloyal and symptomatic of a profound political and social malaise. Blaming liberals for this wrong turn, North and many others in the professional military deepened their commitment to what they saw as traditional conservative values and determined that their tours in Vietnam would reflect their devotion to God, country, and duty. In the process they hoped to shame those they labeled "peaceniks" by example.

NSC

North served with distinction in Vietnam, being decorated for valor under fire with the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts. He returned to an America where the military's prestige had all but collapsed, and where the public mood all but negated any future overseas deployments. A warrior without a war, he settled in for barracks life. In the late 1970s he was chosen to attend the Naval War College, where he earned the notice that would cause him to be assigned to the NSC. North resisted this posting at first because he knew that the Marine Corps general staff looked down upon officers who spent too much time in the company of civilian politicians, and he feared the NSC assignment would dim his hopes for further promotion. At the same time, he had been heartened by the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, who promised to "turn America around." When shortly after his election Reagan declared Vietnam a "noble cause" betrayed by disloyal Americans who had all but made the world safe for communism, North came to believe that he could play some role in returning America to what he believed was her time-honored course. When Reagan indicated that he would do all in his power to overthrow the Marxist Sandinista government in Nicaragua and to stop the leftist insurgency in El Salvador, North threw himself into his new duties with all the enthusiasm of the past.

Secret Work

A workhorse, North initially did much of the scut work in the NSC avoided by others. By dint of long hours and devotion to detail, North made himself the de facto executive of the president's cabinet-level advisory council. The master of all details, North became chief expediter of a covert operation involving the NSC, CIA, Department of Defense, and a private enterprise for profit, the aim of which was to circumvent the will and laws of Congress forbidding the expenditure of public funds to overthrow Nicaragua's government. Two separate amendments to omnibus spending bills (named after their author, Rep. Edward Boland [D-Mass.]) to this effect had been passed and signed, though reluctantly, by President Reagan. Believing their desire to rid the Western Hemisphere of Marxists a better measure of their patriotism than rigid adherence to the law, North and his coconspirators created an "off-the-shelf" program to sell arms to Iran, which the United States had labeled a "terrorist state," and used the proceeds secretly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. This is what Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh called the "operational conspiracy" not only to violate the Boland Amendments but to defraud the government of the United States as well.

North's Responsibility

When the Iran-Contra scandal broke in the fall of 1986, North was prepared to shoulder the burden of responsibility, because, he said, he believed himself to have been carrying out orders legitimized by presidential authority. But after the infamous press conference of 25 November 1986 wherein Attorney General Edwin Meese declared the affair a "rogue" operation run illegally, North took the Fifth Amendment at every legal proceeding until Congress granted him immunity to testify before its joint special committee investigating the scandal. At the nationally televised hearings North, resplendent in his dress green uniform, combat ribbons prominent, proved himself to be a media super-star. Though his testimony indicated both widespread conspiracy and lawbreaking at the highest levels, North cast himself as a loyal foot soldier serving his commander in chief. Said the colonel, "I'm not in the habit of questioning my superiors…if the Commander-in-chief tells this lieutenant colonel to go stand in the corner and stand on his head, I will do so." While North's performance was given stellar ratings by the television critics, who immediately dubbed the widespread adulation of North as "Olliemania," this statement was particularly galling to many career military officers who believed they owed their allegiance first to the Constitution, as their oaths of office dictated. As Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate committee, said in his final remarks, "members of the military have an obligation to disobey unlawful orders." If North's testimony was true—that both Reagan and Casey had approved the operations, then they, and North, had knowingly violated at least the spirit of the law and the Constitution. North did not deny breaking the law but said he had done so in the name of promoting democracy abroad. Even so, Rep. Henry Hyde, a conservative Republican from Illinois, was moved to say that North's performance was the most stirring patriotic display "since the first time I saw Jimmy Cagney singing 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'" Syndicated columnist Patrick Buchanan said that North was "a patriotic son of the republic," who, faced with a choice of betraying his cause or lying to Congress, chose the "path of honor."

Bad? or Merely Bad?

Was North an overzealous patriot or a Machiavellian plotter? There was much in the public record to cast doubt about his character. While he admitted to lying before Congress and to shredding and falsifying documents to achieve a "higher purpose," his career seems to have been checkered with other untruths as well. Among other things, he failed in his NSC application to disclose a hospitalization for psychiatric reasons shortly after his return from Vietnam. NSC officials said that had they known this they would have denied clearance for North to serve. Many public statements that North made about his service in Vietnam, about his personal relationship with Reagan, about missions and exploits supposedly carried out in Central America, the Falklands, and the Middle East, have been flatly denied by Reagan administration officials and his military superiors. Either North's clandestine operations had a longer history than the Iran-Contra affair or he invented them to bolster his public persona. There is little doubt that North chafed at the debacle of Vietnam. As an anti-communist zealot, he wished to refight that war and recoup on new battlefields the honor lost in Indochina. Blaming liberal lawmakers for abandoning American troops and allies, North rationalized that Congress was the enemy, against whom any maneuver was justified.

On Trial

Shortly after the Iran-Contra hearings ended, North (as well as Adm. John Poindexter, Gen. Richard Secord, and Albert Hakim) was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., charged with sixteen felonies. North was ultimately found guilty on three and ordered to pay heavy fines, which were easily payable given the huge fees he was commanding on the lecture circuit. For a time his Marine Corps pension was jeopardized (he had resigned his commission after being indicted), but that was saved when a federal appeals judge overturned his, and the others', convictions on the grounds that their immunized testimony before Congress could not be used against them in court. No longer bearing the burden of felony convictions, North immediately entered the world of politics, where he set his sights on becoming a United States senator from Virginia.

Sources:

Ben Bradlee Jr., Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1988);

Peter Meyer, Defiant Patriot: The Life and Exploits of Lt. Colonel Oliver L. North (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987);

Oliver L. North, with William L. Novack, Under Fire: An American Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1991).

Oliver North Trial: 1989

Defendant: Oliver Laurence North
Crimes Charged: Obstruction of justice, corruption, and perjury
Chief Defense Lawyers: Barry Simon and Brendan V. Sullivan, Jr.
Chief Prosecutors: Michael Bromwich, John Keker, and David Zornow
Judge: Gerhard Gesell
Place: Washington, D.C.
Dates of Trial: January 31-May 4, 1989
Verdict: Guilty, 3 counts; Not guilty, 9 counts
Sentence: $150,000 fine, 2 years probation, 1,200 hours of community service

SIGNIFICANCE: "I was only following orders" has been an excuse of soldiers facing disciplinary action since time immemorial. But the trial of Colonel Oliver North added a new dimension, as a nation wondered, "just who did issue those orders?"

In 1985 the administration of President Ronald Reagan embarked on a plan to secure the release of American hostages by illegally selling arms to Iran. Funds from those sales were channeled to the Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua who were attempting to overthrow that country's leftist government. When news of this deal broke in 1986, a Congressional hearing followed. Under promise of immunity, Oliver North, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and member of President Reagan's National Security Council (NSC), provided an account of the U.S. government's role. North's emotional performance captured the public imagination but left doubts about his veracity. A grand jury later charged him with having lied to Congress, obstructed justice, and received kickbacks.

Jury selection and other legal gyrations delayed opening arguments until February 21, 1988. Chief Prosecutor John Keker laid out the government's case, alleging that North had shredded documents and altered computer records, knowing them to be vital to the Iran-Contra investigation, before visiting U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III. There, he "met with the attorney general and some of his top assistants, and when they asked him questions about something very important to know, he lied.…The evidence in this case is going to show that these were crimes, and the reason for these crimes was that Colonel North was covering up crimes he had already committed."

Defender Brendan Sullivan's response was simple and direct. His client "never broke the law. He acted within the law at all times. He followed the instructions of the highest ranking officials of the United States of America. He protected the secrets that he was ordered to protect, to save the lives of many people, many sources, many relationships. That's what he was ordered to do, and he followed his orders as any Marine Corps officer and any officer that worked at the National Security Council [would do]." Sullivan painted a stirring portrait of North as a Vietnam war hero, whose personal valor under fire had led to the heady promotions that came his way.

Unhelpful Witnesses

The biggest problem facing prosecutors was that most of their witnesses were unswerving admirers of North, with testimony couched in such a way as to impart the facts without leaving any doubts as to which side they were really on. Contra leader Adolfo Calero was typical. "He [North] became sort of a savior.… The Nicaraguan people have a tremendous appreciation of this man. So much so … that they're going to erect a monument for him once we free Nicaragua." Rarely has a prosecution witness been more accommodating to the defense.

Former NSC advisor Robert McFarlane—North's immediate superior—took the stand, already having pleaded guilty to four separate charges of withholding information from Congress. Reluctant and evasive, McFarlane had a knack for framing his answers in language and syntax so arcane as to render them incomprehensible. One of his few unambiguous responses came when Keker asked, "Do you ever recall hearing the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, instruct you or anyone else in your presence to lie to … Congress?"

"No," McFarlane replied.

"About anything?"

"No."

Probably the witness more eagerly anticipated than any other was Fawn Hall, North's former secretary. A media favorite, she told of deliberately shredding papers at North's request and also smuggling documents from his office. "I … placed them inside the back of my skirt so they were secured there." Those reporters present hoping for elaboration on this last tantalizing tidbit were disappointed; Hall, yet another witness clearly under North's spell, said nothing further to harm him.

When North testified, he did so with the same confidence that had served him so well at the congressional hearing. The first part of his testimony comprised a condensed version of the $25,000-a-night speech that he had been making lately to boost coffers for his defense fund. In a brief geopolitical slide show, North sketched a picture of the United States under assault at every border. He explained how only the efforts of himself and other like-minded Cold War knights kept the Western world safe from communism. Asked by Sullivan how he regarded his position, the defendant replied in the tremulous voice that had become his trademark, "I felt like a pawn in a chess game being played by giants."

Missing Funds

The prosecution, determined to keep the jury's attention on the charges and not allow them to be swayed by appeals to their emotions, began by probing North about $300,000 in travelers checks, which had passed through his hands. "Where would you keep careful track of it, in what kind of book?" asked Keker.

"In a ledger."

"Is that ledger still around?"

"No, … it was destroyed."

"Do you know who destroyed it?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"I did," North grudgingly admitted.

Equally suspicious was the source of $15,000 in cash which North kept at his home. He insisted that it came from his pocket change, dutifully deposited in a metal box every Friday evening over the course of 20 years.

Keker was incredulous. "The change in your pocket grew to $15,000?"

"Yes."

In building their case, prosecutors had compiled a large dossier on North, detailing his occasional economies with the truth. That groundwork paid off. Over four days of cross-examination, Keker repeatedly trapped the defendant in an endless succession of contradictions and deceit, especially on matters of money. When North left the stand, the aura of selfless patriot had been replaced by one of artful dissembler.

In the wake of this mauling, Sullivan did a masterful job of damage control. He returned to and expanded on the theme of North as victim: "I draw the conclusion that the president was using Ollie North as a scapegoat" Sullivan concluded on a biblical note, "'Greater love hath no man than he be willing to lay down his life for another.' That's Ollie North, that's the kind of man he is."

Now it was up to the jury. They retired on April 20. Twelve days of deliberation produced not guilty verdicts on every count save three. It was a long way from the clear message that the prosecutors wanted to send. Their disappointment only hardened when Judge Gerhard Gesell imposed sentence: $150,000 fine, two years probation, and 1,200 hours of community service. At the very least, the prosecution had been expecting some jail time. North supporters rushed to pay the fine but it was all academic. On July 20, 1990, the U.S. Court of Appeals, citing that evidence used against North had been obtained under immunity, overturned the convictions, wiping the stigma of "felon' from his name.

North has since made a career both as host to and frequent guest on political talk shows. In 1994, he ran as the Republican candidate for senator from Virginia but lost to incumbent Democratic senator, Charles Robb. Despite this loss, North has hinted that he may run for public office sometime in the future.

Hero or villain? Oliver North's astonishing charisma and a carelessly enacted immunity provision pulled him through. Whether that makes his actions excusable is still open to debate.

—Colin Evans

Suggestions for Further Reading

Bradlee, Ben, Jr. Cuts and Glory. New York: D.I. Fine, 1988.

Meyer, Peter. Defiant Patriot. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987.

North, Oliver L. and William Novak. Under Fire. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

Toobin, Jeffrey. Opening Arguments. New York: Viking Press, 1991.

Oliver Laurence North 1943-, American military officer, b. San Antonio, Tex. Raised in Philmont, N.Y., he entered the U.S. Marines, graduated from Annapolis (1968), served in the Vietnam War, and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1981 he was assigned to the National Security Council, and in 1983 he became the liaison to the Nicaraguan contras. In Nov., 1986, North emerged as the central figure in the Iran-contra affair . He was fired by President Reagan later that month. Under a grant of immunity he testified before Congress in July, 1987. He was convicted (1989) on criminal charges arising from the affair, but his conviction was later reversed on the grounds that immunized testimony had been used at his trial. In 1994, North was the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Virginia, but he lost the election. Since 1995 he has hosted radio and television programs. North has written Mission Compromised (2002), a semiautobiographical novel of Washington intrigue.

Bibliography: See his autobiography, Under Fire (1991).

North, Oliver Laurence (1943–) Marine lieutenant colonel, born in San Antonio, Texas. North received notoriety for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. North, a National Security Council aide (1981–86), directed a network of former military and intelligence officials and business people in the resupply operation, which had its own pilots, planes, secure communications, and secret Swiss bank accounts. His conviction (1989) on criminal charges for his role in the affair was reversed on the grounds that immunized testimony before Congress had been used at the trial. North has since had a career as a talk-show host and conservative columnist. In 1994 he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Virginia.

North, Oliver Laurence (1943– ) US marine lieutenant colonel. Recruited as an aide to the National Security Council, North managed several covert operations. The Congressional committee that investigated the notorious Iran-Contra affair in 1987 revealed him as the central figure in the diversion of funds to the Contra, and he was subsequently convicted of three criminal charges. He was pardoned in 1992.

North, Oliver, see Iran–Contra Affair