THE NORTH VERDICT : Spotlight Dims on North Glory Days

It was nearly two years ago that Lt. Col. Oliver L. North basked in the spotlight at the Iran-Contra hearings--rows of multicolored medals gleaming on the chest of his Marine uniform, a grin on his lips and a stack of adoring telegrams from well-wishers on the table in front of him.

North, the former presidential adviser with a Rambo-like reputation, was an instant media sensation after his congressional testimony in the summer of 1987. The whole nation seemed taken by his personality. Even President Ronald Reagan, who had fired North from the White House staff, described him as “a national hero.”

But there was no longer any hint of smugness, no outpouring of congratulations, no public hysteria Thursday when North, who has since retired from the Marines and now earns a living making speeches, was found guilty of violating the law while at the White House. Although he was cleared on most charges, Ollie North’s glory days appear to be over.

Favorite Cause

The story of North’s downfall is well-known. It is the tale of a zealous presidential aide who, while he was involved in the covert sales of arms to Iran, came up with a scheme to divert the profits to the President’s favorite cause--the rebels in Nicaragua. When the plan became public in late 1986, the blame largely fell on him.

And yet, despite all that has been disclosed about North’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, his true motives are in some ways still a mystery. Neither the testimony in his trial nor the evidence presented at congressional hearings have revealed fully why North, a trained military man who was used to following orders, allegedly exceeded his authority to mastermind one of the most unusual White House scandals in American history.

North contends that he was motivated primarily by ideology and a desire to rid Central America of the scourge of communism. But evidence has been presented about other possible factors, including a strong desire to portray himself as being at the center of power, a personal need for money and perhaps a tendency to test the limits of the system.

All of his life, North, 45, has been an achiever--a disciplined man with a remarkable capacity for work. After growing up in Philmont, N.Y., he attended a state university on a scholarship for one year, later was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served with distinction in Vietnam. In every situation, his teachers and superior officers were impressed by his devotion to duty.

Thus it was no surprise that in 1981, when North first was assigned to the National Security Council staff at the White House, he was instantly seen by his superiors as a model employee--someone who could cut through the bureaucracy to get things done.

At the White House, North sought and carried out some of the toughest assignments facing the NSC. He not only worked long hours but became known for his habit of rousting other government officials out of bed late at night to get them to do what he wanted.

He was involved initially in the Reagan Administration’s successful drive for congressional approval for selling the AWACS radar surveillance plane to Saudi Arabia and later took charge of counterterrorism and U.S. assistance to the Contras. Perhaps his biggest success was the U.S. capture of the Palestinians who had hijacked the Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro.

But it was his work on behalf of the Contras that North seemed to like best, perhaps because it appealed to his strong sense of patriotism. Since his youth, North had been a flag-waving patriot. Eventually, he even developed a 30-minute slide show designed to dramatize how democracy in the hemisphere hinged on U.S. support of the Contras.

But what made North special at the Reagan White House was something more than his devotion to democracy and his capacity for hard work. He is simply the kind of person that people like--a man whose sincerity and respect for authority make him loved by his superiors.

Two of North’s associates, former White House National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane and Albert A. Hakim, the financial middleman for the Iran-Contra affair, both testified that they loved North as if he were their own son. Hakim even tried, without success, to find a legal way to give $200,000 to North’s family from the Iran-Contra proceeds.

Indeed, North’s relationship with the late CIA Director William J. Casey appears to have been the same kind of father-son affair. North, who spent an unusual amount of time huddled with the CIA director in his private office at the Old Executive Office Building, contends that it was Casey who privately encouraged him to establish a covert supply network for the Contras.

North’s success at the White House was not entirely the result of charm and hustle, however. There was also a darker side to him, according to some colleagues--a cunning, manipulative side that got out of control in the heady atmosphere created by the power and prestige of the White House.

‘Flair for Melodrama’

Among other things, those colleagues have said, North often lied to make people think he was friends with such important people as former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. He also displayed what one friend described as “a flair for melodrama.”

North’s colleagues recognized this aspect of his personality long before the Iran-Contra affair was exposed. In fact, they say that it became most apparent about the same time that Congress cut off aid to the Contras in 1984.

“By late 1984,” said Constantine C. Menges, a former Reagan aide, “I had reluctantly concluded that North was regularly exaggerating and reshaping events and was increasingly seeking to impress people through ‘personal hype.’ ”

Among the self-aggrandizing falsehoods that North told in those days was that he had been involved in many private meetings with the President--meetings he has since admitted never took place.

Not until the Iran-Contra affair was exposed was it learned that North had been admitted to Bethesda Naval Medical Center in 1974 for emotional exhaustion. The record of his hospitalization apparently had been expunged from the record by one of his superiors to protect his career.

The Iran-Contra affair reflected both sides of North’s character--the hustle as well has his penchant for self-promotion. As he has testified, North did not embark on the diversion of funds without the approval of his boss, then-National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter. But he allegedly chose to carry out the task in a way that sometimes exceeded his authority and he clearly enjoyed the cloak-and-dagger aspect of it--even using code names such as “Mr. Good” when he traveled.