LETTERS ALLEGING 'FALSEHOODS' SHOWN TO CBS TRIAL JURORS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150119-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 13, 2010
• Sequence Number: 119
• Publication Date: January 4, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150119-2
r APPEARED WASHINGTON POST
4 January 1985
'fit \ 1 ry.-?
Letters Alleging `Falsehoods'
Shown to CBS -Trial Jurors
IT
By Eleanor Randolph
Washington Post Staff Writer
However, in another letter, Meacham
described a visit to Saigon by a number of
officials from the Defense Intelligence
Crile said a congressional committee on
intelligence evaluated dams' charges and
"had come to believe that Sam Adams was
not only a man of great integrity, but-that
he had been right and that what we needed
was more m 70-amses in the
Adams is not expected to testify until
after Boies begins arguing the CBS side of
the case, possibly by mid January.
NEW YORK, Jan. 3-After a two-week Agency.
recess, jurors in retired general William C. He wrote that "more and more, the
Westmoreland's $120 million libel action Washington bunch is beginning to dig into
against CBS, Inc. today saw for the first this strength business, and they are begin-
time letters a young intelligence officer ning to smell a rat, I think.
sent to his wife in 1968 claiming that "truly "Someday it may come out how we have
gargantuan falsehoods" were being told by lied about these figures," he said.
Westmoreland's command in Vietnam.
The letters, written by Navy Cmdr. The letters became a part of the official
James Meacham, now military correspon- court record today as Crile, in his eighth.
dent for The Economist in London,, were day on the stand, was questioned by CBS
ting together the CBS documentary at issue Crile, who is also expected to answer
in this case. The program charges West- questions Friday from Westmoreland law-
moreland with being part of a conspiracy to yer Dan M. Burt, also used the period of
fake intelligence in this crucial period of the' friendly questioning by Boies to praise an-
r4 other co-defendant in the case, Samuel A.
who is not expected Adams.
`However
Meacham
,
,
to testify, later disputed the substance of ; Adams, a former CIA analyst whose in-
the letters. Meacham said in a 1983 affida- formation was the nucleus of CBS' docu-
vit for the case that "I never intended that mentary, was a paid consultant for the CBS
the harsh language in those letters-be taken Reports program, "The Uncounted Enemy:
literally ..... " A Vietnam Deception." The show charged
"The rhetoric in those letters is exagger- that Westmoreland and other top govern-
ated and does not reflect my calm judgment ment officials conspired to hold down en-
on events of that time," he said in the affi- emy troop numbers in 1967 to maintain
davit. "I think it is wrong for anyone to use support for the war.
those letters to try to show that MACV was
'faking intelligence' because that is some- In contrast to several former military and
g I :.,ren;ne.,, o mon whn tPCtifed fnr West-
thing MACV and not do." MAC Y , or Mili-
tary Assistance Command, Vietnam, was
Westmoreland's command.
Crile, who resumed his testimony today
after a holiday recess, has contended that
Meacham's letters written at the time
should outweigh his affidavit 15 years later.
d
1 d h d
Th
moreland that they believed Adams -was
"obsessed" about the 1967 debate over en-
emy forces in Vietnam, Crile said that he
believed at the time Adams was working
with CBS on the broadcast that he was
"both a man of great competence andi in
certain respects, brilliance .. -
sse
e etters, rea tote court an pa "I also found that Mr. Adams was a .man
out to the jury, told his wife that "in one of extraordinary integrity," Crile said. '
press briefing he helped prepare, "I have Giving essay-length answers, Crile went
never in my life assembled such a pack of
truly gargantuan falsehoods. The reporters on to say that as a journalist he was familiar
with governmental whistle blowers who tell
will think we are putting on a horse-and-dog
their stories
show when we try to sell them this crap." out of "hatred or anger."
The Meachams have since divorced. But he argued that Adams had first tried
A key issue in this case, as outlined by to work within the CIA and finally had gone
Westmoreland's attorneys, is whether the outside, writing a story for Harper's that
general tried to keep key intelligence data Crile, who worked for the magazine at the
from the president, not whether he lied to time, edited.
the press.
Approved For Release 2010/08/13: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707150119-2