TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/041789/04178900.047

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                                                                                NATION, Page 22

Pawn Among Giants


As Oliver North takes the witness stand, prosecutors disclose
an embarrassing link to Ronald Reagan and George Bush

By Ed Magnuson


    In the cavernous Senate Caucus Room two years ago, a
misty-eyed Marine Lieut. Colonel Oliver North dazzled millions
of TV viewers. Imposing in his sharply creased uniform and Viet
Nam combat ribbons, he confidently minimized his role in the
Iran-contra scandal, insisting, "I was authorized to do
everything that I did." Last week in a Washington federal
courtroom, a more subdued North, now a blue-suited civilian
with graying hair, took the witness stand and tried to convince
twelve jurors that he had been merely a gofer, dutifully
carrying out policy set higher in the White House.
Surprisingly, the Government conceded for the first time that
to some extent, at least, the former National Security Council
aide was right.

    Having failed in his effort two weeks ago to bring Ronald
Reagan to the courtroom to testify on his behalf, North took the
burden of his criminal defense upon himself. A risky move, it
exposes him to cross-examination by the federal prosecutors and
leaves him liable to a possible perjury charge if he contradicts
his earlier testimony before the Iran-contra committees.
Soft-spoken and earnest, he admitted lying to Congress as well
as altering documents. But always, he insisted, he was following
the orders of his White House superiors. In yet another
melodramatic but memorable statement, he declared, "I felt like
a pawn in a chess game being played by giants."

    Shortly before North took the stand, the defense read to the
jury an extraordinary 42-page "admission of facts," disclosing
that secret efforts to provide support for the Nicaraguan
contras involved not only North but also Ronald Reagan, former
Secretary of State George Shultz, CIA Director William Casey
and, most important, George Bush. The court paper was supplied
by the staff of independent counsel Lawrence Walsh with the
approval of Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. It had been drawn
up to satisfy North's attorney, Brendan Sullivan, who had fought
for months for the right to use classified documents to
demonstrate that North's contra activities were part of a secret
Administration policy.

    The document describes the then Vice President as assuring
the government of Honduras that it would be well rewarded if it
would continue to harbor contra camps on its territory and
funnel military supplies to the rebels. Bush visited
Tegucigalpa on March 16, 1985. According to the evidence, he
told Honduran President Roberto Suazo Cordova that the U.S.
would carry out a promise from Reagan to increase and expedite
military and economic aid in return for this help.

    According to the document, Reagan had urged the Hondurans to
continue helping the contras in a letter to Suazo one month
before Bush's visit. The U.S. "conditions" for giving some $110
million in aid were considered so sensitive that a secret
emissary was sent to brief the Honduran President orally on
them. The quid pro quo had been approved that same month at a
meeting of a special interagency crisis-planning group headed by
Bush, although it was not clear whether he led this key meeting.
At the time, the Boland amendment was in effect, banning lethal
help to the contras.

    Those and other disclosures were deeply embarrassing to
various high officials of the Reagan Administration. Bush's
covert role is at odds with his insistence at a 1984 meeting of
top Reagan aides that soliciting help from other countries for
the contras would be legal but that there would be a "problem"
if "the United States were to promise to give these third
parties something in return."

    And while some Reagan Administration officials privately
considered Panama's Manuel Antonio Noriega corrupt, the court
document showed that North and his then boss, National Security
Adviser John Poindexter, were encouraging Noriega to sabotage
various Sandinista government facilities in Nicaragua. North,
however, set some limits: he rejected as illegal a Noriega offer
to assassinate the entire Sandinista leadership.

    Bush last week simply shrugged off the disclosures and
insisted, as he did during his campaign last year, that he could
not discuss issues involved in court proceedings. If the
revelations had come during the campaign or earlier, his
candidacy might have been hurt. But now Administration
officials believe that the public is weary of the Iran-contra
question and he can easily weather the storm.

    For North the stakes are higher: he faces a possible prison
term for lying to Congress, obstructing an investigation by
Attorney General Edwin Meese and shredding classified documents.
Thus he took the witness stand to claim that these acts were
either implicitly condoned or explicitly directed by higher
officials.

    Under the interrogation of his lawyer, North testified that
he had been content with his peacetime Marine career and had not
wanted to be assigned to the White House. Nor had he been eager
to jump into his covert contra role. By 1984, however, the
impending congressional cutoff of military aid clearly ruled
out further running of contra military supplies by the CIA.
"Every bit of that CIA responsibility had been passed on to me,"
he told the jury. This "hand-off" came from Casey, "a man that
I respected and admired."

    North claimed that Casey, former National Security Adviser
Robert McFarlane and Poindexter repeatedly told him that his
activities "could not be revealed." When suspicious
congressional committee chairmen asked McFarlane precisely what
the NSC and North were doing about Nicaragua, North said he
argued in vain that McFarlane should claim Executive privilege
and refuse to answer. Instead, McFarlane wrote deceptive
letters to the committees. The prosecutors claim North helped
him; North insists that he had objected. The deception is part
of the charges against North.

    Again directly contradicting McFarlane's testimony several
weeks earlier, North claimed that he and his secretary, Fawn
Hall, had altered various documents about the contra
arrangements on direct orders from McFarlane. North conceded,
under Sullivan's questioning, that he had lied when called
before a congressional committee in August 1986. "I knew it
wasn't right not to tell the truth about those things," he said
in a voice husky with emotion. "But I didn't think it was
unlawful."

    But North is also accused of acts difficult to explain away
as matters of high policy: defrauding the Internal Revenue
Service by helping a tax-exempt foundation raise money for the
contras; accepting an illegal gift to a Government employee, a
$13,800 security installation for his home; and putting some
funds raised for the contras to his own personal use.

    The jurors may have been impressed by his performance -- as
well as by the clear evidence of wider Administration
complicity. But they no doubt remembered the testimony earlier
in the week by Vincent Cannistravo, a former NSC aide, who
admitted, "You could never be sure whether what (North) said
was true, fantasy, or was being told deliberately to mislead."
And North's ability to win over an audience will face its
roughest test this week, when prosecutor John Keker gets his
turn to ask the questions. "North makes an excellent witness,"
said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor. "The
question is the cross-examination, which will provide by far the
greatest dramatic element of the trial. The trial may well hinge
on the cross-examination of Ollie North."


-- Steven Holmes/Washington