Public Is Gung-Ho for Ollie North Defense Fund

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North was not only the man of the hour this week, but he also appeared well on his way to becoming the country’s newest favorite charity and national icon.

By Friday, evidence from a variety of sources indicated that the Marine officer has become the subject of conversation--and spontaneous grass-roots action--across the United States.

“People all over the country have been calling--every office on (Capitol) Hill, the White House--and it’s not an exaggeration to say every radio station and TV station has called to find out where to send contributions,” said Mark Treanor, the Aberdeen, Md., attorney who started the Oliver North Defense Fund late last year. “. . . It seems to cut across all sorts of political and ideological lines. It appears to be just mainstream American folks saying we want to help out a guy who appears to have spent an awful of his life trying to do the right thing for his country.” (The address: Oliver North Legal Assistance Fund, P.O. Box 50096, Washington, D.C. 20004.)

So much money has been rolling in, said Treanor, that it will be next week before he knows the amount. Before North began his testimony this week, the fund by early June had collected about $100,000.

Light-hearted evidence that North has won the sympathy and support of the public came from an impromptu poll conducted for 20 minutes early Friday morning by Los Angeles radio station KABC. Listeners were asked to call in their response to whether or not they would vote for North for President. The verdict of 254 callers: 72% would vote for North, 25% wouldn’t and 3% had no opinion, a station representative said.

Also in Los Angeles, Nancy Sessions, receptionist at Los Angeles County Republican Party headquarters, said she has fielded perhaps 100 calls this week about North, a quantum leap over normal phone volume.

“Everyone wanted to send money (to North’s defense fund).” Sessions said. “I’m surprised they didn’t put him up for sainthood.”

Callers, she added, also wanted to know the addresses for congressmen and senators on the investigating committees.

“I feel sorry for those senators; they’re going to get some of the worst hate mail,” Sessions said.

In Washington, telegrams in support of North had reached avalanche proportions, said Joe Keenan, deputy superintendent of the Senate press gallery, noting that a fresh, two-foot stack of telegrams arrived Friday morning. Other well-wishers have sent flowers.

In New York, North’s face is dominating the city’s tabloids and the television displays at electronics stores. By one count, 83 of 84 sets on the sales floor of a Manhattan retailer were all tuned to North this week and people stopped shopping to watch.

North has begun making his appearance on the East Coast on that other symbol of success--the bumper sticker. One reads “God Bless America and Oliver North.”

In addition, according to a report in USA Today, male customers in the East are asking for haircuts that resemble North’s.

Times staff writers Betty Cuniberti and Elizabeth Mehren contributed to this story.