Toughing It Out

Oliver North does not seem superstitious, and thus did not take his beloved Navy's 27-7 shellacking by Army as an omen for what the week ahead had in store for him. He attended the grand old game in Philadelphia as the guest of Navy Secretary John Lehman. North, like the good soldier he insists he is, spent his week without complaining -- and without explaining.

His appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee was a contest of sorts, but it ended without a score. North arrived in his formfitting Marine uniform, his chest bedecked with medals ("fruit salad," in military parlance). In a voice quavering with suppressed (or feigned) emotion, he took the Fifth Amendment, making his refusal to cooperate somehow seem heroic. "Despite my very strong desire to provide Congress with my recollection of the facts pertaining to this matter, counsel has advised me that I should avail myself of the protections provided by that same Constitution that I have fought to support and defend." Democrat Thomas Lantos pledged to contribute to an Ollie North defense fund being set up by Annapolis classmates, and Republican Robert Dornan, in praise of North's patriotism, paraphrased a rollicking Rudyard Kipling ditty: "He's Ollie this and he's Ollie that. Get 'im out of here, the brute./ But he's the savior of his country when the guns begin to shoot."

Other than not testifying, North went about trying to maintain a normal life and huddling with his lawyer Brendan Sullivan. North maintained his good- humored equanimity, and when a photographer corralled him with his wife Betsy and one of his daughters while they looked at Christmas trees, North was obliging. "Is there no escape from you guys?" he asked with a weary smile as he posed. He left without buying a tree.

As he was preparing his defense, others were speculating on what his story would be worth to another group of folks interested in improbable tales: Hollywood producers. Superagent Swifty Lazar said he could sell North's story for as much as $5 million. But North had more weighty matters on his mind. Ollie North is a "Marine's Marine," says one of his Annapolis classmates. "It's not surprising that he's taking it on his shoulders." But, in his case, being a Marine and being the goat are not mutually exclusive. Said former Senator Howard Baker: "North is the archetypal Marine lieutenant colonel, and he may also be the man who destroys Ronald Reagan."