North to Remain a Conservative Voice : Politics: Associates say the ex-Marine wants to stay involved in public policy, but he declines to discuss any plans to seek elective office.

His legal battle is finally over, but Oliver L. North struggles on to arm the good against evil. For the past year, the 47-year-old retired Marine officer has been running a northern Virginia firm that sells bulletproof vests--but only to cops.

“I don’t want this to turn up on the backs of the wrong people,” North said in an interview Monday, just hours after a federal judge dismissed the government’s case against him. But while speaking enthusiastically about hawking “ballistic protective equipment,” North was unwilling to address any other topic.

“I’m going to look for a better, more appropriate forum to talk about other things,” such as the government’s prosecution of him in the Iran-Contra affair--or any political ambitions he might harbor, North said.

For now, he added, he is only interested in “running hard for the toughest office in the land--husband and father.”

Still, the former national security aide in the Ronald Reagan White House will have plenty else to keep him busy.

In addition to heading Guardian Technologies International, North also is president of the Freedom Alliance, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to conservative causes that serves as a springboard for his weekly syndicated newspaper column and daily radio commentary--in which, for instance, he has backed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

North associates said they expect him to remain active in both roles--for economic reasons in the former case and political reasons in the latter.

“The colonel really wants to be involved in public policy,” said Mark Merritt, North’s special assistant at the alliance.

North also is still registered with the Washington Speakers Bureau, and his past fees reportedly have ranged as high as $25,000 during the height of “Ollie-mania” four years ago. The bureau’s spokesman was not available to comment Monday.

Both Guardian Technologies International and the Freedom Alliance are located under the same roof in Sterling, Va., a Washington suburb. The alliance claims a membership of 100,000 and a paid staff of nearly a dozen persons.

The for-profit venture, now with more than two dozen employees, opened for business on July 4, 1990. Since November Guardian Technologies has sold “for an honest profit” lighter-weight, more durable and washable bulletproof vests to several scores of local police jurisdictions and federal law enforcement agencies, North said.

The firm also has found customers in 15 foreign countries. But it does not sell commercially or by mail order, lest the vests get into the hands of criminals, he said.

“We’ve been very well received,” North added.