TALE OF TWO WHITE HOUSE AIDES: CONFIDENCE AND MOTIVATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: November 30, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
r;;',Ly WASHINGTON POST
Tale of Two White Mouse Aides: Confidence and Motivation
ivorth Viewed n.4 a Can-Do Marine mantic," said Michael Ledeen, wno Rochester and then transferred to
Who lrrint Too Far in Zealousness was until recently National Security the Naval Academy, where he was
Co
unc
.
e was t e
By David Ignatius worked closely with North in the academy boxing champion and com-
Wa.hmgtnn Host stmt Writer early stages of the secret negoti- piny commander in his senior year.
Lt. Col. Oliver L. North told an acquaintance in early 1985 ations with [ran. The academy's 1968
Y Ledeen added, "I don't believe "Lucky Bag," yearbook,
that he knew his secret efforts to maintain funding for the said of him, "No mat-
Nicaraguan contras might efforts his career in the Marine Corps. that North did anything in this that ter where his career may lead, he ruin But he was prepared to accept the consequences, North said, didn't reflect the convictions of his knows his thoughts will always be:
because he believed it would be morally wrong to abandon the superiors." the Corps, the Corps, the Corps."
contras in their time of need. "Ollie is not it cowboy," said Noel After graduation, North distin-
Then, as now, North was operating close to the edge of C. Koch, a former deputy assistant guished himself in Vietnam, win-
illegality. North told an acquaintance last year that he had secretary of defense who super- ning a Silver Star and a Bronze Star
confided to only one person-his boss at the time, national vised the Pentagon's special forces for valor under fire. He also re-
security adviser Robert C. McFarlane-details of his fund- and antiterrorism programs until ceived two Purple Hearts, and he
raising effort for the counterrevolutionaries, or contras, which several months ago. "He's not the still walks with a slight limp be-
at that point mainly involved introducing rebel leaders to pri- freebooter he's been made out to cause of his combat wounds. Details
vate contributors in this country and abroad, be. of his war record are hard to come
North's remarks last year help explain the ale's a prudent and deliberate
the man who is at the center of the Reagan administ ation's officer .... His first loyalty is to by, but he apparently was part of
greatest political crisis. They show a man who is intensely principle, then to his family and his the CIA-run covert war in acquaintance
often tends to dramatize his role in events, a man with a pas- North's critics argue that this that he had survived one of his war
skmate sense of mission who, in his zealousness, long ago devotion to principle sometimes got wounds only because he was carried
crossed the border into questionable conduct. out of control and may even have to safety on a makeshift stretcher
"Ollie knew he had sacrificed his career a long time ago," led him to take the law into his own by some of the fighters he had
said one of his close friends, a former Pentagon official. hands. trained and led into battle.
A bizarre new chapter in Oliver North's secret war One administration official who "Ollie thinks in terms of life and
emerged last Tuesday. According to Attorney General Edwin ha,;worked closely with North said, death, and there are people to
Meese I[[, North was involved in a scheme to divert profits for example, that he was not sur- whom he owes his life," Ledeen
from a secret Iranian arms deal he had helped arrange, laun- prised by allegations last week that said. Some of his friends claim, for
that North's life was
der this money through a Swiss bank account and use it to aid thg Marine officer may have examplesaved once i Asia retired
the contras in Central America. North's friends generally shdded documents about the Iran Force majorn generaly Richard AV.
refuse to comment on the Iran connection, but none seems
surprised by it. operation.
--- -
--- ---'--- "? ??,?"-?-... .~ct+aauuCUL LTLminal QM --- - ?~ ???~ ???.~. v, Kuy UIFtL It tie alleged that Secord was involved in
vestigation and several con res had' papers that identified sources, two of North's secret NSC opera-
g he would have thought of protecting tions: the [ran arms deal and covert
swnal investigations focusing on those people first, regardless of the
potential violations of U.S. export cut$aquences for himself," this of- North aid for the contras.
Taws and congressional prohibitions joined the NSC staff in Au-
laws said. "It's the same as if he gust 1981. His subsequent career
against military aid to the Ni- were in it firefight in Vietnam and a proved to be an extreme version of
caraguan rebels. This 43-year-old grCtaade came into his bunker. He something that has become com-
military officer, whether acting on would be the first to jump on it." mon on the NSC staff in recent
orders or unilaterally, has been To his NSC colleagues, North
blarued for the most serious crisis years: the rise of the can-do mili-
seemed like a real-life Rambo. fie tary man. He originally went to the
of the Reagan presidency. His is a was tough, courageous, contemp. NSC on temporary assignment
stoy~ of a can-do Marine who went tuous of the Washington institu- (with a strong recommendation
too intr. tions-Congress, the news media, from Navy Secretary 4orth's friends stress two things thew bureaucracy-that blocked the man Jr.) to help lobby for Senate
abnuLhim: that he is idealistic and excise of American power. He approval intensely patriotic, and that lie is a of the sale of Airborne
se*ned to embody the strong, self- Warning and Control System
loyal military officer who executed cot+'ident image that the Reagan (AWACS) radar-surveillance planes
the policies decided by his superi- administration wanted to present to to Saudi Arabia. But he soon made
ors. rather than operating as a the-world. himself indispensable.
rogue elephant. North's gung-ho manner was not
"Of the two kinds of ambitious a pose. Born in San Antonio, Tex.,
people-those motivated by causes he initially was a pre-med student at
and those motivated by personal
ambition-Ollie is motivated by
causes. He is an idealist and a ro-
a consultant on terrorism and graduated in 1968
If
h
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
"He was an incredible worker,
very reliable, always," rorism official. The lesson for This system for funding the con-
con-
eryd Giabl Kemp, a formere- r North, Koch said, was. "If you're tras was somewhat shaky and un-
v
call
NSC senior reyctKe for the Middle going to do anything hold or inno- reliable. But an alternative source
East who is with the Carnegie En- vative, you're going to have to do of funds apparently emerged late
dowment for Peace. "in the first things through irregular channels." last year, when North became in.
few years, he would rarely open his The contras had become a con- volved in the sale of weapons to
mouth during a meeting. But he got suming passion for North by early [ran. According to statements made
things done. The briefing books 1984. He traveled often to Hondu- last week by Meese, North was
were always there. The phone calls ras to visit their training camps and aware of a skimming operation that
were made. The Situation Room talked regularly-sometimes sev- diverted $10 million to $30 million
was briefed." eral times a (lay-with one of their in profits on the Iran arms deal to a
One former national security ad- leaders, Adolfo Calero. North would Swiss bank account, from which
viler who supervised North says his animatedly tell people about some money was drawn to support the
rise reminds him of advice he once like "Tigrillo," who had broken from Nicaraguan rebels.
received about the ways that ins- the Sandinistas, oined the cells- The Iran operation grew out of
itary officers can become essential tance and been wounded in combat. North's other preoccupation: the
to civilians. "Get yourself a military As the secret war in Nicaragua against terrorism. It was in this
aide," the advice went. "It will area that North had some of his
change our life. When you come became more controversial, North
your became more determined to stay greatest successes and ultimately
into the office in the morning, your the course, He was intensely (oval his costliest failure.
desk will be clear. Your mail already North's finest hour, according to
will be opened and answered." to those whose careers had been several colleagues, was his role in
"What Ollie did after 1981 was to harmed by the war. Following the the capture of the Palestinians who
make himself Johnny on the spot," 1984-flap-over a CIA-sponsored
Y
manual advo. hijacked the Italian cruise ship,
said another administration official. for the contras that Gated North-he-Wed Achdle Lauro. After the ship
NorthJi d
From North's base on the NSC's docked in Egypt
s
military staff, he became involved in arrange a job on the NSC staff r and the hostages
h i t Cannistraro, the CIA ofd- were released, North dropped his
Middle East policy, then in the cer who had run the agency's task plans for a military rescue mission
Falklands War, then in planning the at sea. But he kePt watchi th
n
invasion of Grenada, then in devel-
oping the administration's antiter-
rorism policy and finally in coordi-
nating U.S. aid to the contras. He
was promoted to deputy director
for political-military affairs, a job
that gave this officer enormous
power in the bureaucracy. By this
year, he had served on the NSC
staff longer than nearly anyone
else, and he understood how to
use-and abuse-the policy pro-
cess.
When a fellow Marine, U. Col.
Robert C. (Bud) McFarlane. be-
came national security adviser,
North', position was enhanced.
North was also aided by a bureau-
cratic stroke of luck. His secretary
was the daughter of McFarlane's
secretary. "If Ollie wanted to get in
to see Bud, it was just a question of
the daughter calling up her mother
to set up an appointment," said one
adrnini,tration official who worked
closely with North.
North's usefulness as a secret
operative increased for McFarlane
hecause of the gridlock that devel-
oped on major policy issues be-
tween Secretary of State George P.
Shultz and Secretary of Defense
Caspar W. Weinberger.
The foreign-policy situation
"made it impossible to function at
all," except in secret, according to
Koch, the former Pentagon antiter-
g
orce on t o contras. na ne neiped
in a Jo or he f o r a of- When the NSC received
icer who had -i5t y si- - intelligence reports that the terror-
written t e assass ists planned to fly from Egypt to
nationma nual or the UN-an-d- was
then fired by the agency. Tunisia on a chartered Egyptair
by
Congress voted to cut off plane, North realized that he had an
funds for the contras in 1984, opening.
North took it as a personal blow. We can do an Admiral Yama-
Friends say that he regarded the moto," North exclaimed to one of
Boland Amendment-which made his NSC colleagues. He was refer-
it illegal for the United States to ring to Japanese Adm. Isoroku Ya-
finance the anti-Sandinista rebels, mamoto, who was ambushed in
directly or indirectly-as a betrayal flight by American planes in 1942.
of people whom the United States North planned the interception of
had recruited and trained. The the Egyptair plane and its forced
money ran out in mid-1984, and the landing in Italy from beginning to
contras were broke. One of the end. Hoping that the United States
contra leaders was so starved for would be able to capture the terror-
cash that he had mortgaged his ists and bring them to trial in Amer-
wife's house in Miami. North com- ica, he obtained arrest warrants
plained to one acquaintance last from the Justice Department, a col-
year. league recalled.
North's initial answer to the con- It was a bravura performance,
tras' money crunch was to help but North also made a character-
raise private contributions. He trav- istic mistake. He did not think
eled the globe in late 1984 and ear- through clearly the political impli-
ly 1985 seeking donations. The cations of the operation for Egypt
cash flow last year totaled about $1 and Italy-the Italian government
million a month, according to one fell shortly thereafter and bad blood
source. One man who knows the between Washington and Cairo per-
details of North's 1985 fund-raising sisted for months. North did not
effort described it this way: seek the advice of regional special-
"Adolfo Calero has been intro- ists who might have offered useful
duced to people in various countries political insights. When the special.
who are sympathetic to the cause of ists finally arrived late that night,
democracy. They have decided af- North is said to have greeted them
ter being introduced to him to make with relief.
donations. They are provided with
information about how to contrib-
ute."
cakd
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6
For North, the United States was
at war with terrorism. He helped
draft a 1984 National Security De-
cision Directive that committed the
administration to a tougher antiter-
rorism strategy, and he supervised
the increased antiterrorism efforts
that followed last year's TWA
Flight 847 hijacking. North also
took charge of efforts to free Amer-
ican hostages in Lebanon. That re-
sponsibility eventually led him into
the past year's secret round of ne-
gotiations with the enemy-Iran.
North's tendency to overdrama-
tize himself was evident in some of
his antiterrorism activities. One
source described North's agitated
reaction several months ago when
the new government of France's
conservative prime minister,
Jacques Chirac, was shaken by ter-
rorist bomb attacks in Paris.
"Chirac will fall," North is said to
have warned colleagues melodra-
matically. "We have to send in our
forensics people to help him. We
have to save him." North apparently
did not understand that dispatching
a team of FBI agents at that deli-
cate moment might have hurt
Chirac more than it helped him, the
source said.
Former national security adviser
Richard V. Allen, who hired North
for the NSC staff, had a bizarre en-
counter with North at Dulles Air-
port not long ago. Allen will not dis-
cuss the incident, but one of his
friends summarized the highlights.
Allen, according to this account,
was sitting in the lounge awaiting
his flight to Frankfurt. He was ap-
proached by Secord, who was also
waiting in the lounge with North.
"Don't recognize him," Secord
implored, referring to North. He
explained later, after the plane was
airborne, that North was traveling
under an assumed name and was
afraid that Allen might blow his cov-
er.
Yet for all his secrecy about his
foreign travels, North was some-
times surprisingly open about his
work. Last December, for example,
he testified in the trial of former
NSC aide Thomas C. Reed, who
was later acquitted on charges of
securities violations. At one point in
his 10-page testimony, North re-
marked: "... I just returned from
overseas, where we are trying to
effect the recovery of the five
Americans who are missing in Bei-
rut."
It is North's tendency to overdra-
matize himself-the sense he con-
veys that he is starring in his own
movie-that may have gotten him
in such trouble. One of his close
friends recalled a gathering not long
ago at the headquarters of the Re-
publican National Committee. The
subject was aid for the contras and
the guests included some prominent
diplomats, politicians and defense
intellectuals. The discussion was.
somewhat academic. North finally
exploded in anger and impatience.
"Ollie went ballistic," the friend
said. "He told the group: 'You're
sitting here having a nice quiet
lunch while people in Nicaragua are
dying.' He was trying to make peo-
ple understand what the world is-
like."
North operated with the same
ferocious sense of mission, and the
same contempt for the people who
sit in armchairs watching the ac
tion, in nearly everything he did,
That zealousness finally landed him
in the midst of a criminal investi-
gation exploring whether, in his
secret operations with Iran and the
contras, he broke the law.
North's friends argued last week
that the NSC aide conducted his
secret missions with a conviction
that he was right and that he was
serving President Reagan. Ob-
served North's friend Koch: "What-
ever he was, he was the president's
man."
Staff writer Tom Vesey and special
corrsrpondentJokn Kennedy in New
York contributed to this report
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403040008-6