THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409100254
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Oliver L. North may be playing it both ways when it comes to scrutiny of a public figure's mental history.
Reacting on Friday to an upcoming ``60 Minutes'' interview with former National Security Adviser Robert C. ``Bud'' McFarlane, North alluded to McFarlane's failed suicide attempt seven years ago.
``It is clear,'' North said in a news release, ``that Bud McFarlane never recovered from the terrible stress.''
Five months ago, however, North cried ``character assassination'' when GOP challenger James C. Miller III asked North to disclose medical records related to a mental breakdown that required North to be hospitalized for 22 days in 1974.
``Jim Miller ought to be ashamed,'' North said in April, ``that those of us who saw the horrors of Vietnam and then sought counseling to heal the wounds of war are somehow not up to his standards.''
North said Friday night that he was not trying to discredit McFarlane by raising questions about his former boss's bout with depression. ``I'm simply saying that a lot of people - myself included - had their lives changed by (Iran-Contra) events in 1986 and 1987 and were able to recover and get on without being bitter and visceral and looking back,'' he said.
In its return fire at McFarlane, the North campaign chose words like ``battle weary'' and ``devastated'' - which appeared to be thinly veiled references to the bout of clinical depression that McFarlane suffered after the Iran-Contra scandal became public in late 1986.
In his forthcoming autobiography ``Special Trust,'' McFarlane addresses his attempt to take his own life in February 1987 by swallowing at least 30 Valium pills. McFarlane said he recovered his health with the help of therapy, but acknowledged that some people would continue to view him as ``a weak person, mentally unstable and unable to deal with stress.''
That is the stigma that North apparently has tried to place on McFarlane. Yet North has rejected the notion that he has suffered any lingering effects from his mental breakdown nearly 20 years ago.
In his autobiography ``Under Fire,'' North said he suffered his breakdown after departing for a second tour of duty in Asia and receiving a letter from his wife saying she felt neglected and was filing for a divorce. He voluntarily entered Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he remained for 22 days suffering from what was diagnosed as ``emotional stress.''
North said that psychiatrists persuaded him to undergo marriage counseling with his wife and that his depression ended when the two reconciled. MEMO: Staff writer Warren Fiske contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB