North, Oliver 1943-
US soldier

Born into a military family in San Antonio, Texas, he graduated from the US Naval College, Annapolis. During the Vietnam War he led a counter-insurgency marines platoon, winning a Silver Star and Purple Heart, before returning home wounded. After working as an instructor and security officer, he was appointed a deputy director of the National Security Council by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Here he played a key role in a series of controversial military and security actions. In 1986, when the Iran-Contra affair became public, he resigned. In 1989, despite appeals to patriotism, a Washington Court found him guilty on three of 12 charges arising from the affair. He was given a three-year suspended jail sentence and fined $150,000, but he successfully appealed against this conviction, and in 1991 all charges were dropped. He ran for the US Senate in Virginia in 1994 but was defeated. He published Under Fire: An American Story in 1991.