Oliver North

I think as a rifle platoon and company commander your view is about 1,000 meters in front of you and you hope you can cover that ground and not have to back up and give it up again.

Without any intended hubris, I’ve lead a pretty exciting life. What I’ve tried to do in Mission Compromised is draw on those experiences to create a sense of excitement and realism within the story.

I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version.

I’m still in touch with a lot people who continue to serve our country well.

In World War II, the book you have in front of you, it was said and it is probably true, that there was not a single American who did not know the name of somebody serving in uniform.

I came here to tell you the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I am here to accept responsibility for that which I did. I will not accept responsibility for that which I did not do.

I’m trusting in the Lord and a good lawyer.

In my first book, Under Fire, I wrote that I revered Ronald Reagan. That was a dozen years ago. I still feel that way. I think he changed the world for the better for my children and my children’s children.

I haven’t, in the 23 years that I have been in the uniformed services of the United States of America, ever violated an order – not one.

I was authorized to do everything that I did.

I don’t think there is another person in America that wants to tell this story as much as I do.

And of course there is so much of World War II that is documented that we never have seen.

The terrorists that we are up against today do not rely upon cell phones and SAT phones and emails. They rely on couriers. You cannot intercept what a courier is telling somebody.

I would not trade you a billion dollars for the kids I led to combat in Vietnam or in fact any of the Marines that I served with for a quarter of a century.

Bill Clinton is not my commander-in-chief.

I never considered myself a fall guy. I know what I did. I know why I did it. I’m not ashamed of it.

I thought using the Ayatollah’s money to support the Nicaraguan resistance was a neat idea.

I want to make it clear that I honestly answered every question put to me during the so-called Iran-Contra hearings. But if they didn’t ask me about something, I wasn’t about to reveal things that would put other people in jeopardy.

And so, the youngsters you have today, even though there are far fewer of them – in World War II 16.5 million men and women in uniform, today roughly a million in uniform in spite of the fact that the country is almost twice as large a population as we had in World War II.

Today, only 2 percent of the people know the name of someone serving in uniform. That means 2 percent of your listeners can actually conjure up the image of someone wearing the uniform of the military of the United States.

God knows, we don’t want prayer.