Senate Votes to Change Law and Restore North Pension

Capping an emotional debate, the Senate voted Thursday night to change federal law and allow retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North to receive his $23,000 annual pension despite a felony conviction for shredding government documents. The vote was 78 to 17.

“This one is for you, Ollie!” cried a triumphant Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N. C.), the chief sponsor of the bill, just before the roll call.

Earlier, however, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) charged that North was a “traitor to the Constitution” who had lied to Congress about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

The measure now goes to the House, where approval was expected.

Proponents carried the day with strong arguments that denying North his pension was an unfair interpretation of a federal law that never had been applied before to a retired military officer.

Opponents said that the former Marine deserved to lose his retirement pay for selling arms to Iran and diverting the profits to buy weapons for anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua despite a congressional ban on such military aid.

“He may have made some mistakes--we all do at times,” Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S. C.) said of North, “but he should not be deprived of the retirement pay he earned.”

In arguing against the measure, Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said that North was hardly a pauper, because he was on the lecture circuit for $25,000 a speech.

Helms argued that former members of Congress and even former federal employees convicted of drug dealing would not have their pensions taken away under the law.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former Navy flier who was a POW in Vietnam, said that North has been punished enough by losing his reputation.

“I think it would be appropriate for Oliver North to fade away with the knowledge that he has the nation’s gratitude for bearing arms,” McCain said.

The evening debate focused on a provision of federal criminal law seldom used.

Section 2071 (b) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code provides that anyone convicted of destroying government documents “shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the Constitution.”

After North was convicted by a federal jury on May 4 of shredding government documents, the Navy Department decided to withhold his pension, and the General Accounting Office said in a ruling last July 31 that there was “serious doubt” that he should get his retirement pay.

The Senate voted the next day to request its Judiciary Committee to investigate the dispute and recommend whether legislation was needed to restore North’s pension.

Despite the legal nature of the question before the Senate, the emotional debate focused on North’s behavior as a freewheeling member of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council staff.