ANALYST TELLS 'DECEIT' ON TROOPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150096-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 96
• Publication Date: January 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150096-8
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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12 January, 1985
alyst tells `deceit' on troops
1 By Michael Coakley
Chicago Tribune
NEW YORK-A former CIA intel-
ligence analyst testified at the CBS
libel trial Thursday that he had
decided by late 1967 that the
estimates of communist troop
strength published by Gen. William
Westmoreland's Vietnam command
were a "monument of deceit."
A Samuel Adams, who served as a
consultant to the network in prepar-
ing its controversial 1982 documen-
tary on the war, explained that his
investigation of the enemy's forces
had convinces him that it was about
twice the size of the 280,000 stated
in Westmoreland's estimates during
the months leading -to the com-
munists' Tet offensive of January,
1968.
In its broadcast, CBS asserted
that purposeful undercounting of
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
units by the general and his senior
staff had left President Lyndon-
Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of
Staff unprepared for the all-out Tet
campaign.
CONTENDING THAT he was de-
famed by that accusation, West-
moreland responded to the docu-
mentary, "The Uncounted Enemy:
A Vietnam Deception," by filing a
$120 million libel suit against the
network.
Adams, one of the defendants in
the case, was a primary source of
information for the program and
helped CBS obtain interviews with
other former CIA officials and mili-
tary intelligence officers who could
support the central allegation of
deception.
Dressed in the same rumpled
tweed jacket that has become his mony preceded his own Thursday
trademark during the marathon/4 morning. Thomas Becker, who had
trial, the 51-year-old descendant of served as a CIA analyst in Vietnam
President John Adams insisted that in 1967, characterized the threat
meticulous field research and his posed by the home guards as "very
reading of a "mountain" of cap- significant."
tured communist documents had
led him to his conclusion about
Westmoreland's command. Adams
accused the command of placing an
artificial ceiling of 300,000 on the
number of enemy soldiers that
would be included in the official
estimates during the fall of 1967.
In its documentary, CBS charged
that Westmoreland managed to pro-
tect that ceiling by arbitrarily drop-
ping entirely from the count one
category of Viet Cong troops, the
village-based self-defense forces.
IN HIS lengthy testimony earlier,
Westmoreland, 70, said he had de-
cided to excise the self-defense
units because they were composed
primarily of poorly armed old men,
boys and women who posed "no
significant military threat."
To have continued including them
in the estimates, the retired four-
star general argued, would have
misled policymakers in Washington.
Sharply challenging West-
moreland's assessment, Adams re-
sponded at length to numerous
questions on the home guards posed
by CBS attorney David Boies.
Recalling a 1966 tour he made of
a U.S. military hospital in central
South Vietnam, Adams said he was
told that most of the soldiers at that
facility had been wounded by mines
and other booby traps planted by
the self-defense units.
After that visit and other re-
search, he said he determined that
the self-defense units were responsi-
ble for about one-third of American
casualties in South Vietnam.
ADAMS' OPINION of the self-
defense troops was supported
While praising Adams as "one of
the best analysts at CIA headquar-
ters," Becker, whose testimony was-
given in a deposition and read aloud
in court by an attorney, criticized
Westmoreland's command for
having "woefully understated"
every category of communist
forces.
With Adams' direct testimony set.
to continue when the trial recon-
venes on Monday, the outcome of.
the trial could well hinge on the
jury's reaction to this central figure
in a complex legal drama.
Westmoreland's lawyers have
sought to portray the energetic Har-
vard graduate as a man "obsessed"
with proving an invalid theory on
why Westmoreland's troop figures
were not higher.
A CBS OFFICIAL, in turn, has
described Adams as a genuine pa-
triot who, despite the damage it
could cause his career, refused to
compromise his integrity.
The witness was the picture of
calm self-confidence on the stand
Thursday as he turned to face the
jury directly, gesturing freely and
jocularly referring to the Viet Cong
as "the bad guys." Questioned by
Boies on his background, Adams
explained that he had served in the
Navy in the early 1960s.
On his judgment of Westmoreland
and how it evolved before the Tet
offensive, he said he had decided by
late 1967 that the general's under-
counting of the enemy was willful
and likely to jeopardize many
American soldiers.
When the Tet offense erupted on
Jan. 30, 1968, Adams said, he imme-
diately resigned from the director's
staff at CIA headquarters. The
phrase "mountain of deceit" refer-
ring to Westmoreland's command
was included in his resignation let-
ter, he said.
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150096-8