‘Doing Well’ in Testimony : Former Marines Give High Marks to North

Lt. Col. Oliver North’s testimony this week in Washington on his role in the Iran- contra affair has struck a chord with several former Marine Corps officers in San Diego County, who on Thursday gave the former White House aide rave reviews for his performance.

“I think he’s doing very well,” said Robert Prescott, a retired colonel and former Carlsbad city councilman.

Louis Metzger, a retired lieutenant general now serving as a trustee in the J. David Dominelli bankruptcy, said North “comes across as absolutely sincere” in his testimony to the congressional committees investigating the scandal.

“He certainly is a squared away Marine--handsome, physically fit and conducting himself brilliantly,” Metzger said. “He’s admitted he made some stupid mistakes, but stands up and says he shouldn’t have made them.”

A Winning Performance

Moreover, North’s testimony seems to be playing well with other segments of the community, Metzger said. While attending a luncheon of a hotel-motel group in San Diego on Thursday, a speaker mentioned North’s name, Metzger said. The room erupted in applause.

“I think his conduct has impressed everyone, as indicated by that round of applause,” Metzger said.

Paul Graham, a retired brigadier general who was Camp Pendleton’s base commander in 1974 and 1975, said North seems to be handling questions from congressional investigators in a forthright and honest fashion.

“He’s coming across as a very believable individual,” Graham said. “I don’t think he has done anything that he wasn’t directed to do. My personal feeling is it appears right now that there are other people to blame besides Ollie.”

Graham said he did not always feel that way, noting that press and television news accounts of North’s role in the affair had convinced him early on that the lieutenant colonel was “really just a loose cannon.”

But in the last few days, Graham says his opinion has turned 180 degrees as he has sat riveted in front of the television watching North deliver his account of the episode.

“Now that I’ve watched the hearings, my impression has completely changed,” Graham said. “It appears to me now that he was certainly following directions from higher authorities.”

Graham, who had his own dealings with government when he served four years as Oceanside mayor in the late 1970s, said North comes across as “a personable, honest, forthright individual” now snared in a situation where “following orders” has resulted in a criminal investigation of his activities.

Chain of Command

Prescott agreed that North was “operating in a very well-defined chain of command, was charged with a job and did it.”

Although some congressmen contend North broke the law by diverting funds to the contras from arms sales to Iran, Prescott said he felt the Marine officer’s testimony had crystallized the argument that “he did not go contrary to the law, he went around it.”

At the time North was authorizing the diversion of funds to the contras, Congress had approved a law that prohibited funding for the rebel forces in Nicaragua. But administration officials contend North’s activities were legal because the law did not explicitly spell out that the White House operation was included in the ban.

During testimony Wednesday, North admitted he was wrong for accepting installation of a security system at his home and then attempting to cover up that it had been paid for with funds from the arms sales to Iran.

North said the security system was needed because his family had been threatened by terrorists and federal officials would not provide protection. But he called the cover-up attempt “probably the grossest misjudgment I have made in my life.”

Cover Up Called Wrong

Graham said he could sympathize with North’s plight.

“I don’t see anything wrong in the decision he made, which he obviously felt was in the best interests of his family,” Graham said. “Where he was wrong was in trying to cover it up.”

“I think he comes across as an individual who was given orders and a project,” Graham said. “He was an action officer, and when an action officer is given an assignment, he is supposed to do it to the best of his ability within the parameters he is given. But North apparently wasn’t given any parameters.”

Metzger said that North had been swept up in a “fundamental disagreement” between the legislative and executive branches of government over the legality of the Iran- contra affair.

North and the others “were carrying out operations they thought were legal,” Metzger said. “It will probably have to be tested in court as to whether they were right. And whichever side loses will be dissatisfied with the result.”