Word: nam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Viet Nam shaped North in lasting ways, and the account of his nighttime assault on North Viet Nam reveals some of the same traits and patterns that have put this much decorated war hero at the heart of the Iran-contra affair. For North, the U.S. defeat abroad and the revulsion with the war at home were searing, bitter experiences. Never again would something like that happen -- if he could help it. He was a man of action, frustrated by red tape, timid bureaucrats and waffling politicians. If you needed to get something done, do it yourself...
From his childhood days, North's sensibility was molded by patriotism and devoutness. From Viet Nam on, he saw himself as a soldier in the holy war against Communism. Yet somewhere along the line, this man whose earnest, blue- eyed features were the stuff of Marine recruiting posters went off track. He came to see every bureaucratic squabble as a battle between good and evil, and his passionate intensity began to melt his judgment. He was a man whose zealotry served his country better in war than in peace. As in Greek tragedy, the same characteristics that catapulted North...
...working at Hecht's department store in suburban Maryland. At first, she refused to return his calls requesting a date, but his persistence -- and a snapshot -- won her over. Only days after their honeymoon in Puerto Rico, Larry, as his wife has always called him, left for Viet Nam...
North loved combat. He was in Viet Nam for eleven months, and won a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with a V for valor, the nation's third and fourth highest combat medals. He also earned two Purple Hearts. "He was all guns, guts and glory," says Machine Gunner Randy Herrod, now an Oklahoma private detective. Herrod, like others, was awed by him; though 6 ft. 4 in., Herrod did not realize until much later that he was taller than the 5-ft. 9-in. North...
...Congress cut off funds for the contras, North became obsessed with the men he referred to as freedom fighters. He kept a shoe box filled with pictures of contra leaders and talked about how he did not want to lose Nicaragua the way he saw the U.S. lose Viet Nam. North had been in the NSC longer than many of his superiors, and he began to believe in his own indispensability. "Being in the White House is heady," says a colleague. "You start carrying the cross by yourself, and if you don't do it, democracy falls...