paperview
Life is Good
I was flipping through some vintage Playboys a few weeks ago, (yeah, I like those, for the articles : 
)and I saw a piece on North, "Drugstore Marine" by David Hackworth. Just looked and found it online @ airborne-ranger.com.
A pretty good sum of the chump:
David Hackworth on Oliver North
Source: Playboy, June 1994 v41 n6 p90(5).
Title: Drugstore Marine. (Oliver North) Author: David Hackworth
Abstract: North's career shows an undeniable streak of deceit and misuse of the trust of colleagues and the American public. His most significant betrayal was engineering the trade of arms to Iran for US hostages. North would become a threat if he were to succeed in a bid for the Senate.
Subjects: Political corruption - Cases People: North, Oliver L. - Moral and ethical aspects Gov Agncy: United States. Marine Corps - Officials and employees
LET ME TRY to describe Oliver North in a few fast bursts. He's a jackass. He is so preposterous that there is a temptation to laugh at him. He's smarmy, a flatter, a brownnoser.
He's also a twisted impostor, a drugstore Marine with an apparent compulsion to bullshit just about all the time. But while he tries to fool people with his fantasies, he is also very easy to fool. He boasts that he was an can-do guy when he was in the White House, but the record spells no-can-do. North did terible damage to the U.S. until he was caught.
One thread runs through his performance--getting conned. The Iranians conned him, the contras conned him, the crooked arms dealers conned him and even Manuel Antonio Noriega conned him.
North is also one of the most dangerous men in America today.
... My own sources confirmed or amplified what Wildavsky reports: North "could not be believed--even under oath."
One of his former colleagues is quoted as saying North "had trouble distinguishing between what was true and what he wished to be true."
In almost 50 years of being around soldiers, I have bumped into my fair share of bullshitters, but Ollie would have to take the first-place ribbon. His record shows that he is totally untrustworthy.
During the radio show I asked him to clarify a few of the contradictory stories he was told about himself. North bobbed and weaved and said that if we could get together he would explain everything. I don't want to go near the guy, and he can't make facts disappear by trying to flatter me.
At the end of the show he said, "I'm under posttraumatic stress disorder from this interview." The fact is that North is the sort of guy who cringes at the truth.
His relationship with Ronald Reagan, for example, was close, according to Ollie.
Part of his line is that he persuaded Reagan to invade Grenada in 1983 and that he and Reagan watched the live broadcast of American students returning from Grenada and kissing the tarmac. According to Ollie, Reagan emotionally embraced him. Evidence says that North was never alone with Reagan and that he did not even see the president on the day the students came home. Reagan himself has accused North of making various "false statements."
North was convicted on three different counts: for helping deceive Congress about the Reagan administration's trading arms to Iran for release of hostages, for destroying documents and for illegally accepting a home security system that was paid for by a government contractor (Richard Secord), whom North had brought into his operations.
Now he claims he was "exonerated," which is another lie.
An appeals court threw out the convictions on a legal technicality."
More: David Hackworth on Oliver North
)and I saw a piece on North, "Drugstore Marine" by David Hackworth. Just looked and found it online @ airborne-ranger.com. A pretty good sum of the chump:
David Hackworth on Oliver North
Source: Playboy, June 1994 v41 n6 p90(5).
Title: Drugstore Marine. (Oliver North) Author: David Hackworth
Abstract: North's career shows an undeniable streak of deceit and misuse of the trust of colleagues and the American public. His most significant betrayal was engineering the trade of arms to Iran for US hostages. North would become a threat if he were to succeed in a bid for the Senate.
Subjects: Political corruption - Cases People: North, Oliver L. - Moral and ethical aspects Gov Agncy: United States. Marine Corps - Officials and employees
LET ME TRY to describe Oliver North in a few fast bursts. He's a jackass. He is so preposterous that there is a temptation to laugh at him. He's smarmy, a flatter, a brownnoser.
He's also a twisted impostor, a drugstore Marine with an apparent compulsion to bullshit just about all the time. But while he tries to fool people with his fantasies, he is also very easy to fool. He boasts that he was an can-do guy when he was in the White House, but the record spells no-can-do. North did terible damage to the U.S. until he was caught.
One thread runs through his performance--getting conned. The Iranians conned him, the contras conned him, the crooked arms dealers conned him and even Manuel Antonio Noriega conned him.
North is also one of the most dangerous men in America today.
... My own sources confirmed or amplified what Wildavsky reports: North "could not be believed--even under oath."
One of his former colleagues is quoted as saying North "had trouble distinguishing between what was true and what he wished to be true."
In almost 50 years of being around soldiers, I have bumped into my fair share of bullshitters, but Ollie would have to take the first-place ribbon. His record shows that he is totally untrustworthy.
During the radio show I asked him to clarify a few of the contradictory stories he was told about himself. North bobbed and weaved and said that if we could get together he would explain everything. I don't want to go near the guy, and he can't make facts disappear by trying to flatter me.
At the end of the show he said, "I'm under posttraumatic stress disorder from this interview." The fact is that North is the sort of guy who cringes at the truth.
His relationship with Ronald Reagan, for example, was close, according to Ollie.
Part of his line is that he persuaded Reagan to invade Grenada in 1983 and that he and Reagan watched the live broadcast of American students returning from Grenada and kissing the tarmac. According to Ollie, Reagan emotionally embraced him. Evidence says that North was never alone with Reagan and that he did not even see the president on the day the students came home. Reagan himself has accused North of making various "false statements."
North was convicted on three different counts: for helping deceive Congress about the Reagan administration's trading arms to Iran for release of hostages, for destroying documents and for illegally accepting a home security system that was paid for by a government contractor (Richard Secord), whom North had brought into his operations.
Now he claims he was "exonerated," which is another lie.
An appeals court threw out the convictions on a legal technicality."
More: David Hackworth on Oliver North
Last edited:
