SONGMY INFORMANT BACK IN VIETNAM AS A REPORTER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP11M01338R000400340076-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 76
• Publication Date: September 28, 1970
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

? /1/YY"a
c-4 Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/17 : CIA-RDP11M01338R000400340076-0
UL Ltjifty I E LCK :tary region not surprising.
!in me e.mc.lical DIViS1011.5 Mill1
"If something is not reported,
t :
?
in Vietnam as a It.ei
:1,.accer then the Army takes the. view.
n - ?
. . ?-' it did not happen," Mr. Eiden-
..-::
? ..'e hour said. "To them Mylar
? ? !- - .- never oceured?until it was ?
.. Ily GLOIIIA. EMERSON, '' ? ...
..
freported.". . . - ?
?? Epectal to Th I New itec Times ' - if A typical attitude of some
?
tHULAI, South Vietnam, Dispatch News Service. It wasl,career officers in the America!
.
Mr. Ridenhour:Division was shown, in Chulai.?
Sept. 19?"There are a !lot of the letters that
by
, the I?eputy Prevost Marshal..
people in the Army who would sent last year to the Army. and .. ? like to get you, Ron," Maj. to people in Congress and in '?'1.e3* 11?5e:rt. 117?1111)1aY In a
V .
liam Gabella, information offi- :conversation with. 2.::!ither car-,
the executive branch that led to ?
cer- for the America! Division, investigation of the massacre respondent who lvd accein-:
. an
?? said.
in 19SS of Vietnamese civilia.nsi
13anieci Mr. Ridenhour,?the major:
7 ? -His warning was for:24-year- said that disclosures -of the
. a site called Songmy and some-
'old Ronald Ridenhour, a Viet Songmy killings 11;:.(1 been
oam veteran- who returned in times MYlai? ' for the army:" He inquired,
The men in the infantry unit
August as correspondent for about Mr. PidcnIfour's politicali
a
accused of the killings were affiliations -end questioned what I
from Company A in the Ameri-lhis motives were in writing the
cal Division. Its headquarters -letters.
are at Chulai. ? 11 Mr. Ride.ribour, who was
Mr. Ridenhour protested tha.?
!soldier in ' Vietnam from De-
Major Gabella, in an at.tcmpt .to!ce:nber, 1967, to December, ?
have him watched, assigned alvICSS, was not present at the
officer to escort him last 1-riday?:r-,s;acre. He knew some men
when he joined a line company:M- the unit that was at Songmy
near Ducpho. His escort w.as.b.c,ca ._?
us they had trained to-
1 Lieut. John Peterson, w,lo 7, ether in Hawaii. Mr. Riden- .
works in the information certer, hour heard of the massacre in
1 at Ducpho, site of the AmcricaApril, is, He wrote a letter
fire support base narne.dBr.onco., and mailed 30 copies of it in.
On the night before, their de-:March, 1969, from his home in
parture Mr. Thodennour was'Phoenix,.. Ariz.
Ronald Itidenhour, who tokl
of deaths at Sonv. ? ? ,
v?isit Declassified and Approved For Release 2913/09/17: CIA-RDP11M01338R000400340076-0
warned by Lieutenant Peterson
that he would have to listen;
during any conversation ? be.-1
twee him and G.I.'s in the' line!
company. .t
Shook Off Escort
When they -joined the line
company, however, about six
miles away frem Ducpho, Mr.
Ridenhour shook off the lieu-
tenant. Since the line company
did not move out on operations,
the two men returned to Due-
pho.
The. presence of an officer is
considered by many corres-
pondents in Vietnam to be a
form of censorship. Enlisted.
men, who often have different
version of how the war is go-
ing from the one given in offi-
cial briefings, do not often talk
freely when an officer is
listening.
There .are no fixed rules on
the question of escorts. The
decision depends on the individ-
ual information officer in each
division. Correspondents are
not normally accompanied in
the field when they request
otherwise.
Mr. Ridenhour went to Chu-
lai and Ducpho for a series of
articles he is writing on front-
line infantrymen for Dispatch
News Service.
He was again assigned an
officer to escort him when on .
Saturday he visited a base camp
called Bayonet, near Chulai,
again on the orders of Major
Gabella. Mr. Ridenhour had
asked that he not be escorted.
"They certainly paid more
attention to me as a journalist
that I merited," Mr. Ridenhour
said, with sarcasm.
He found the nervousness