]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]   RONALD REAGAN AND OLIVER NORTH   [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ 

     There's the old saying about the height of gall: to kill your 
parents and then ask for the court for mercy on the grounds that you 
are an orphan.
     But that has now been surpassed: Citizens for Reagan have mailed 
out a fund raising circular under the headline "EMERGENCY!!!", begin-
ning with "You know the reason for this alert. Ollie North has been 
indicted!"
     Citizens for Reagan used to be decent. That was 8 years ago, when 
they still worked out of California; before Ronald Reagan went out of 
his way to save the PLO from destruction in 1982, before he turned the 
White House into a collection of media-pleasing compromisers, before 
he signed phony disarmament treaties with the Soviets, and before he 
refused to grant Oliver North a pardon to save his dedicated supporter 
from the Washington lynch mob.
     While many of Reagan's failures might be put down to ineptness or 
his yearning to please the media networks, the matter of a pardon for 
North is a matter of personal cowardice.
     Make no mistake: Reagan CAN pardon North, just as he can pardon 
Singlaub (see Operations Tower, floor 5). As Ford's pardon of Nixon 
shows, no indictment, let alone conviction, is necessary.
     What excuses can Reagan have to rescue the man who saved his 
presidency by turning the tables on the congressuonal witch hunters 
from an unconstitutional prosecutor and a "liberal" lynch mob?
     We are offered a few by Reagan's personal friend William Buckley 
in NATIONAL REVIEW (4/29/88). He dismisses the whole suit as "a fasci-
nating (but historically trivial) legal carnival." Though Reagan said 
that he knew of no crime North or Poindexter had committed, Buckley is 
quick to point out that "Mr Reagan cannot be expected to be fully 
familiar with what North-Poindexter said under Oath to Prosecutor 
Walsh," in other words, that with his staff of almost 200 and an unli-
mited budget, Walsh is sure to find SOMETHING to pin on them -- which 
I would have thought an argument for, not against, a pardon. He states 
(though he is flatly contradicted by Ford's pardon of Nixon) "At some 
point, if his subordinates are convicted, Mr Reagan will need to con-
centrate on the question of whether they were acting in defiance of 
the law." If the defense motions to dismiss this farce of a trial 
fail, and "it goes to trial, and Reagan concludes that a pardon is in 
order, would he then give it pre-emptively? No. That would be psycho-
logically impossible." (We are not told explicitly why; the weakly 
implied reason appears to be Reagan's pride -- and we are not told why 
that is a reason.)
     These inept apologies for Reagan's cowardice are baseless in 
themselves, yet their publication in the NR is significant. Quite 
plausibly this could be Reagan himself talking via his friend Buckley 
as his mouthpiece. Rightly or wrongly, many readers of Buckley's syn-
dicated column will assume so anyway, and let's face it: most people 
make up their minds by loyalties rather than cold reasoning.
     But even if these lame excuses are not inspired by Reagan, there 
is one NR reader who will be impressed by it: Reagan himself, a 
regular NR reader, who will find encouragement for his lack of 
integrity. 
     All of which, quite incidentally, fits in well with Buckley's 
character: As in many other cases, of which that of YAF's fraudulence 
in the Polovchak case is one, Buckley is guided by loyalty, not prin-
ciple. 
     Meanwhile, Oliver North needs help. Sure, he made mistakes (like 
trying to negotiate the release of hostages). But that is far out-
weighed by his ingenious and highly commendable way of getting aid to 
the Nicaraguan freedom fighters at Iran's expense, and by his magni-
ficent performance in turning the tables on the congressional witch 
hunters.
    He has been forced to resign from the Marines. (When will they get 
another officer like North?) More than 200 investigators under an 
unconstitutional prosecutor are working full time to pin something on 
him. Scavengers (like the "Citizens for Reagan" above) are using his 
name to raise funds for themselves. Security for North, his family and 
his home has been withdrawn, while the man whose presidency was saved 
by North twiddles his thumbs and yawns. 
     The one and only authorized address to which to send contribu-
tions for North's legal defense is

                    NORTH DEFENSE TRUST
                    Box 96577
                    Washington, DC 20090
    

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