LETTER TO THE EDITOR THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM W. E. COLBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01720R000700080002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2004
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: LETTER

Approveor Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP80R720R000700080002-1
Washington, D. C. Z'Uulu
The Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
Dear Sir:
di Binh-
The Times' lead editorial of August 6 entibtlle'"Bloo dbpath o
nh. .. " makes a misleading analogy between inn province and an allegation
communist public executions in. Bidexecuted" by the South Vietnamese.
that "9820 civilian Communists were
The source of the latter is given atestimony tal en by the HousesFore gn
mittee last year, which is presumably that
was thecoour e of most e Committee-
Operations and Government Information
on Government Operations. Since I ti
tics in those hearings and was a principal
that thisltestimony reportedr
editorial writer's totally inexact statement the ?execution" of civilian Communists.
The specific number of 9820 covered the year 1970 and the first ed in two months of 1971. These figures were updat
this te my o nytesti only to
cover the additional months through May. In stim, he Communist
stated that the Government of Vietnam's campaign against the
or killed.
infrastructure was measured by members captured, raled Of those killed, I indicated that almost in 90 fighting were killed in the course
of military actions and the remainder ghting off arrests by police or had
e d
cur
other forces. While I said that some unjustifiable
over the years abuses I plainly pol ted
in the fight against Viet Conn terrorism oout that the instances of abuse were small in
asserted that the total ditor list of ose
totally ignored this testimony when he reported as "killed" were "executed. "
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP80R01720R000700080002-1
 Approved Pis Release 2004/07/08: CIA-RDP80R01 bR000700080002-1
We who have worked with the Vietnamese to help them to defend
themselves against Communist terrorism and military assault are well
aware of the costs that all Vietnamese have paid. It does them a dis-
service, however, to change verbs in the manner of your editorialist
and to ignore evidence such as the Binhdinh refugee's statement quoted
in your August 10 issue that "Our presence here shows our choice" of
which Vietnamese government he preferred.
Sincerely,
W. E. Colby
Former Deputy for Pacification, Saigon
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP80RO172OR000700080002-1
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