Calm in The Eye of the Storm

Last November he resigned under pressure as National Security Adviser. In early March he had to step down from the three-star rank of vice admiral to the two-star status of rear admiral when he became the Navy's director of long-term planning (a new three-star job would have required congressional confirmation, an impossibility now). Sometime in mid-June, he will face what, for a man of his reclusive temperament, might seem the worst ordeal of all: testifying before television cameras for the congressional select committees investigating Iranscam. And though he will be granted limited immunity, there is still a possibility that Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh may ask a grand jury to indict him on the basis of evidence gathered before the congressional questioning begins. Rumors swirl around Washington that John Poindexter, 50, is an angry and bitter man.

Not true, according to friends, advisers and Navy colleagues interviewed by TIME. Poindexter, says one, "is completely at peace with himself." The basis for his calm: he simply feels he did nothing wrong -- and certainly broke no laws -- in helping arrange secret arms sales to Iran and permitting Oliver North's gunrunning operations to the contras. "He had authority, direct or indirect, for everything he did," says a onetime adviser. Even on the diversion of Iranian funds to the contras, friends say, Poindexter believes that he was following Ronald Reagan's policies and that he kept the President adequately informed. Indeed, he is likely to testify that on at least two occasions in 1986, he told Reagan in general terms that the contras were being helped as an ancillary or side benefit of the arms deals with Iran.

The admiral feels confident enough to ignore for the most part the continuing stream of Iranscam revelations. "He counts on his lawyers to keep track of what is important," says one friend. Poindexter did not even bother to watch President Reagan's televised news conference two weeks ago. He told one friend he preferred to work on developing a program for the computer in his home study. Poindexter has been busying himself with the routine activities of any suburban homeowner: accompanying his sons Tom, 18, and Joe, 16, to the movies; attending services at the Episcopal church where his wife Linda is assistant pastor; shopping at a local hardware store and Radio Shack outlet to buy equipment for various fix-up projects around his Rockville, Md., house.

If Poindexter testifies that he informed Reagan, however generally, of how the contras were benefiting from the Iran deals, it will be a severe political embarrassment for the President. Reagan has repeatedly denied that he knew anything whatever about the diversion, most recently at the March 19 news conference that Poindexter did not watch. Asked if he might have been told about the diversion but had forgotten, Reagan replied with a vehement no. After the formal session had ended -- but while he was still on television -- Reagan added that Poindexter and North "just didn't tell me what was going on." That flat statement dismayed some advisers, who had suggested that Reagan might want to use a hedge. Said one nervous adviser: "He was warned at least twice, but he said it the way he said it."

Poindexter has little incentive to protect the White House. He is miffed about the way his former staffers were cleaned out of the NSC after his departure, and irritated that the White House has refused to allow his defense lawyers access to his papers and computer records (which have been turned over to Independent Counsel Walsh). In the view of the Poindexter camp, the White House again used him as a political sacrifice in mid-March. Rather than claim Executive privilege, Reagan's aides permitted a House committee to subpoena Poindexter to a hearing on computer-security policy. On the advice of his counsel, the admiral once again pleaded the Fifth Amendment, even though the issue was not directly related to Iranscam. Poindexter has acknowledged to colleagues the strain in his relations with Reagan. But he has told one friend, "It's not going to change my story even a little. I'm going to tell the truth. Period."