Contra Support Dips After Gain, Poll Finds

The increase in support for the contras after Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s congressional testimony was temporary, an ABC News-Washington Post poll said Thursday, and 59% of the 1,205 adults surveyed now oppose aid to the Nicaraguan rebels.

The poll found also that 57% have an unfavorable view of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, and 58% oppose the idea that President Reagan pardon him for his role in the Iran-contra scandal.

Poindexter told the committees that “the buck stopped” with him in the sale of arms to Iran and the diversion of profits to the rebels.

But Reagan was neither helped nor hindered by the scandal’s congressional investigation, which ended Monday. Fifty-two percent characterize the mistakes Reagan made in the affair as “minor.”

In a survey conducted June 1, contra aid was opposed by a 67%-29% margin. On July 15, the day after North finished his testimony, those opposing aid dropped to 46%. In the survey finished Wednesday, the margin opposing aid to the contras rose to 59%. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.