Conservatives Reaffirm Support of ‘Hero’ North : Contributions, Fees as Speaker Expected to Meet $150,000 Fine

When Donald Anderson, community relations manager of the Manchester Union Leader, a conservative newspaper in New Hampshire, heard about Oliver L. North’s sentence Wednesday, he remarked: “I’ll bet he won’t be able to open all the mail from people who’d be willing to send him $150,000” to pay his fine.

But just in case, Carlos Perez, national chairman of the Miami-based Concerned Citizens for Democracy, said: “We are organizing already to pay for his fine. We won’t rest until the moment he is fully vindicated.”

North--former Marine lieutenant colonel, former White House staff member, sought-after public speaker and now a convicted felon--may not have much trouble paying his fine on his own. That is if, after he has exhausted his appeals, the fine sticks.

Commands $25,000

North reportedly commands about $25,000 for each of his appearances on the lecture circuit. At that rate, it would take him only six speeches (not counting the taxes he would have to pay) to earn the $150,000 fine imposed by federal Judge Gerhard A. Gesell for three convictions for his Iran-Contra activities.

“Your notoriety has caused many difficulties, but it has also made you a rich man,” said Gesell. “And where you go from here is up to you, as I see it. You can continue to flame the myth by which you have supported yourself during these recent difficult years, or you can turn around now and do something useful.”

While North was not ordered to serve time in prison, another feature of his sentence--1,200 hours of community service in a Washington anti-drug program--may prove disruptive, although it will not be imposed until North has exhausted his appeals. That is 30 weeks of 40-hour weeks, and it could interfere with what acquaintances say is North’s plan to write a book.

Some of North’s associates speculate that his popularity is such that he could win election to public office. To hold federal office, however, North first would have to win the appeal of his three felony convictions or receive a presidential pardon.

Whatever North chooses, he must face the possibility that his celebrity will have a short shelf life.

“None of us have a place in the sun forever,” said Gary L. Bauer, once an official in the Ronald Reagan Administration and now president of the Family Research Council. “One can envision a time when he will be less in demand.”

For now, however, said Bauer, reflecting the views of many other conservatives, “he remains a hero to many of us in the conservative movement.”

He is a high-priced hero. Nackey Loeb, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, personally paid North $25,000 to attract him to a Memorial Day celebration, according to Anderson.

Stephen King, a Republican businessman in Wisconsin who campaigned unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate last year, said that he was quoted $50,000 as North’s fee when he negotiated to have him appear at a fund-raiser this month to help pay campaign debts.

“It was a hell of a deal for them,” King said, “not a hell of a deal for us.” North’s appearance was called off, said King, because of both North’s fee and a potential conflict between the fund-raiser and the court sentencing.

Officials of the Washington Speakers Bureau, which handles North’s engagements, would not comment on North’s fees or appearances.

North’s ventures onto the lecture circuit have endeared him to hard-core conservatives who love to hear his stern advocacy of aid to Nicaragua’s Contras, his indignant criticism of the “imperial Congress” and his warnings against trusting Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

At the same time, opponents typically carry signs and shout slogans criticizing North’s role in the Iran-Contra scheme to sell arms to Iran and divert profits to the Contras. North’s sentence came after his conviction May 4.

While his case was winding its way through the courts, North spoke at political rallies for conservative candidates during last year’s political campaign and he is expected to continue to do so.

North was an asset to conservative political candidates, according to Edward Ceol, president of the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, a conservative political action committee that acted as a clearinghouse for such North appearances.

Ceol said that North will “have some time to do speeches” but added that his community service “will handcuff him in some respects.”

In sentencing North to work in a new program helping youngsters avoid drugs, Gesell called North “a caring person” and told him that he wanted the community “to get the benefit of your organizational and administrative skills, which are very high.”

Gesell said that the program will serve youngsters who live in public housing “surrounded by the drug culture. The work will involve no fund raising, no public speaking but a very complex administrative task of coordinating” a program that combines public and private resources.

The work, said Gesell, will give North “an opportunity, I think, a sense of fulfillment and a chance to start something good and wholesome for the future.”

Many of North’s supporters said that his nearly 20 years as a Marine constituted public service enough and vowed to redouble their efforts to secure a presidential pardon for him.

Emile Beaulieu, mayor of Manchester, N.H., wishes North had been sentenced to community service in Manchester instead of Washington.

“If he could serve in my community,” Beaulieu said, “I’d welcome him. Ethics and values are so important today.”

THE SENTENCE

U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell sentenced Oliver L. North to:

A three-year suspended prison term

Fines totalling $150,000

Two years of probation

1,200 hours of community service administering a new program to help inner-city youth avoid involvement in drugs.

A ban on North holding federal office

Maximum possible sentence was 10 years in prison and fines totaling $750,000