DATE: Monday, July 7, 1997                  TAG: 9707070073

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:  122 lines

NORTH PONDERS PAST, FUTURE - AND CELEBRATES A DECADE AFTER IRAN-CONTRA, SOME SAY THERE'S NOTHING TO CHEER. HE DISAGREES.

Oliver North knew the cameras were focused on him that morning. As he rose to face the select congressional committee for the first time, he recalls being amazed by the loud clicking and whirring that sounded like ``stirring up a nest of insects.''

The pictures are ingrained in America's conscience. North stands at attention, the green jacket of his Marine uniform bedecked in combat medals. His right arm is lifted in oath; his unblinking eyes are cast slightly upward at the panel of senators and congressmen sitting high on the dais.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of North's testimony before the Senate and House Select Committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair. North played a key role in the clandestine scheme of selling arms to Iran to finance anti-communist forces in Nicaragua.

Over a week of sharp exchanges that would change his life, North evoked dramatic public debates on personal honesty and the United States' policies toward containing communism and freeing hostages.

North, 53, plans to commemorate that week in a big way. Tuesday, he will host a posh dinner in Washington to ``celebrate the ultimate victory in the Cold War.''

A Who's Who of arch-Republican senators, congressmen and commentators are slated to attend, as well as a galaxy of conservative special interest groups such as the National Rifle Association, the Family Research Council and the American Conservative Union.

North's goals for the event are anything but modest. In addition to raising $150,000 for the Freedom Alliance, a conservative public interest group he founded, North hopes to put his own spin on the way history records the Iran-Contra affair.

A Freedom Alliance press release describes the gala as ``a tribute to the triumph of freedom in Nicaragua, which was the deciding battle in the defeat of Communist expansion around the world. . . . Lt. Col. Oliver North's critical role in that battle.''

Not all conservatives will be attending, however. Noticeably absent will be any member of Ronald Reagan's Cabinet. Former first lady Nancy Reagan, who three years ago questioned North's honesty and loyalty to her husband, is staying home. So is Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, who has raised similar questions about North and was not invited.

Even some who are planning to attend the dinner are reluctant to explain why. U.S. Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Roanoke did not return repeated phone calls. Attorney General Richard Cullen would say only, ``I was invited and I accepted.''

Lawrence E. Walsh, the former Iran-Contra prosecutor who spent years on North's trail only to see three felony convictions overturned on technicalities, wonders just what everyone is celebrating.

``There seems to be an effort to blur activities of misconduct with goals that no one ever quarreled with,'' he said.

North, during a recent interview, said there is plenty to toast. ``The Reagan doctrine was the decisive event that ended the Cold War,'' he said. ``Nicaragua is free. The Berlin Wall has fallen. The Soviet Union is dismantled. We won. Conservatives have never taken the time to sit back and reflect on it and celebrate the victory.''

Reflecting on the impact the Iran-Contra affair had on world events as well as his personal life, North said: ``I think things turned out well all the way around, a lot different than most people expected.''

During the course of his week testifying before the congressional committee, North was transformed from a back-room White House operative to an international celebrity and conservative icon.

North, who resigned his Marine commission shortly after his congressional appearance, found that he had a Midas touch in raising and earning money. Supporters gave him $13 million to pay off potentially ruinous legal debts from Iran-Contra and support his other public causes. They sent a record $20 million to back his unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 1994.

In the meantime, North grew personally wealthy writing two bestsellers, hosting a radio talk show syndicated on 120 stations across the country and collecting $25,000 a pop on the speakers' tour.

These days, North is at work on his third book. ``Since it's a book about the future of our culture in the next millennium, I hope to get it to publishers before then,'' he quipped. He still co-owns a business that manufactures body armor and is planning to syndicate a newspaper column this fall.

``If someone had told me that I'd be writing best-selling books and hosting a syndicated radio show, I'd have questioned their sanity,'' he said. ``I certainly planned my life differently. But I've never been one to sit around and mope about events. I've always tried to squeeze lemons into lemonade.

``I get up every morning and I'm surprised,'' North said of his life. ``And there's also a little disappointment.''

The biggest, North said, was ending his career as a Marine in 1987 to prepare for his four-year legal battle against Walsh.

``If I had my way, I'd still be a Marine,'' he said. ``My contemporaries are starting to run the U.S. military. I had a solid record in the Marines and if I was still wearing the uniform, I would probably have a couple of stars on the collar.''

Another disappointment was his loss to Democrat Charles S. Robb in Virginia's 1994 U.S. Senate race. ``I can tell you, it hurt,'' he said.

North said he isn't sure whether he will run for office again. He has pledged to his wife that he won't seek office before 2000, when his youngest daughter graduates high school. Of course, that's also the year when Robb's Senate seat is up for grabs again.

Many political observers believe North's political prospects are dim after his defeat to Robb, who was wounded by allegations of marital infidelity, in an otherwise landslide Republican year. A recent poll showed that more than six out of seven GOP voters would choose Gov. George F. Allen over North for the party's Senate nomination in 2000.

``He may want to run again,'' said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, ``but if he can't figure out what happened in 1994, he's not as bright as I thought. His future may be more as a party fund-raiser than a candidate.''

North disputes that assessment, saying the third-party candidacy of J. Marshall Coleman caused his narrow defeat by siphoning conservative votes. North earned 42.5 percent of the vote to Robb's 45 percent. ``If it had been a straight race against Chuck Robb, I'd be sitting in that Senate office right now and Chuck Robb knows that.''

Right now, North is focused on the immediate. He spent the holiday weekend sailing with Brendan Sullivan, his attorney throughout the Iran-Contra ordeal.

But at Tuesday's grand event, North said, he will be thinking about the future.

``I certainly hope that the long-term historical perspective of Ronald Reagan's presidency will recognize the extraordinary contributions that were made in ending the Evil Empire.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

File photo

Oliver North... KEYWORDS: ANNIVERSARY IRAN-CONTRA OLIVER NORTH

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu